When an apple hanging from a tree snaps its stem, it doesn't momentarily pause to decide whether or not to obey the law of gravitation. It instantly falls to the ground. Furthermore, through its total pattern of obedience to all laws of physics—gravitational, electromagnetic, and so forth—the identity of the apple, according to natural science, becomes delineated.
Similarly, obedience to the spiritual laws of God is not, in reality, a matter of voluntary submission—it's demonstrable fact. The ideas of God—His universe, His man—are undeviatingly obedient to Mind, their true source. God's government is both irresistible and totally good. Moreover, through God-enforced obedience to divine law, our identity becomes defined and known. Laws of purity, health, holiness, love, and order, emanating from God, are the forces that shape individual spiritual being and preserve its distinctness. Man's obedience to these laws is perpetual and inevitable, for in reality man has no mind separate from God with which to defy Him, and no other law exists. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 82
The Bible records the laws of God as they have progressively unfolded to human thought. Moses gave the first organized presentation of God's law in the Ten Commandments. Though the Mosaic law is phrased as a series of imperative restraints on human behavior, it is much more than an attempt to coerce good behavior. Positively phrased, the Ten Commandments serve to define elements of man's true selfhood—spiritual, ever obedient: man has one God, one Mind; man's nature is spiritual with no earthly desire; man continually praises God's name and nature; man exists in unceasing communion with God; man glorifies the qualities that express the Father-Mother God; man reflects God's love for all His offspring; therefore, mortal concepts of murder, adultery, theft, lying, or coveting are inconceivable, unreal to him—unreal to Truth.
