Q: In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy talks about those who may be “deficient in human affection.” She then prompts the question from I John 4:20: “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (p. 366). As someone who’s interested in going into the full-time healing practice, I feel the need to understand this statement better. Don’t we need to love God first, before we can love our brother? —A reader in Maine
A: My first thought is one of appreciation for the humility and spiritual intuition that underlie your question—that there is an essential mental preparation required in the practice of Christian Science, and that preparation begins with love. Mary Baker Eddy tells us that the practice of Christian Science requires “a proper preparation of heart” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 115) and “cultivated spiritual understanding” (Science and Health, p. 271). And nothing is more foundational to Jesus’ and thus Mrs. Eddy’s teachings, than love. According to Jesus, love for God and our neighbors is the essence of the two most important commandments. In fact Love is one of the words that Mrs. Eddy uses for God Himself, drawn no doubt from the proclamation of the Apostle John, “God is love” (I John 4:8).
The Bible returns to this theme of loving each other over and over again. Why the repetition? Because from a human point of view, it can seem so hard to do. However, Christian Science shows us that loving our neighbor is only difficult when we entertain a false view of man as somehow ungodly—fallen, fallible, fickle, etc. The divine fact is that we love the real man, the image and likeness of God, as easily and readily as we love God Herself. This is our God-given nature—our spiritual default position.
