Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 340), "The First Commandment is my favorite text."Then she adds, "It demonstrates Christian Science." In the succeeding lines she shows how all-embracing that statement is, covering as it does all phases of human belief, elucidating how obedience to the command (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," brings to light Love's ideal and reduces to nothingness the pretensions of a mind apart from God.
A careful study of the references to the First Commandment throughout the writings of our Leader shows the importance she attached to a proper evaluation of this fundamental law of God. She often associates it with the Golden Rule, which epitomizes the First Commandment in practice. Studied together, these passages reveal that obedience to this first command of God unfolds the law of divine Principle, banishes the false belief of materiality, and asserts the all-inclusiveness of infinite Love, the reflection of which is the true identity of all men.
To Christ Jesus, obedience to the First Commandment was the all-in-all of his being and naturally resulted in the practice or demonstration of this commandment. He saw man as the very expression of divine Love, incapable of separation from his Principle, unable to disobey the fundamental law of his being, and therefore not needing to be bound by a thou-shalt-not.
