"...and nothing shall offend them."

Are you afraid that something you did or that happened to you in the past is producing problems for you now? Are you worried about how this will affect your future? While the offense may seem out of reach in time and space, the divine Spirit that is God doesn’t leave you helpless. Spirit, through His healing Christ, can reach beyond the offending fear that pins you as a victim of circumstance and wake you up to your present spiritual being, free from trouble.  

In a paragraph entitled "Scientific Obstetrics" in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.” (463)

What does it mean to be spiritual? A good definition can be found in Paul’s letter to the Galations. “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (5:22,23)

The Living Bible explains it this way: “…the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"

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To identify ourselves and others as the spiritual idea of divine Spirit is to discover in us these fruits - what we are really made of. Spirit’s creation has never fallen or been tossed from perfection in Spirit to imperfection in matter. Imperfection isn’t a factor for a spiritual idea of God – it is no part of the divine equation.  It is the role of the Christ to make us continually aware of this truth. With this awareness comes the proper removal of whatever is offending us – whether it is a fear or appears to be a condition with a history. We call this Christ-healing.

My daughter was a baby when she fell ill with aggressive and dangerous physical symptoms. The graveness of her condition and the immediate need for healing forced me to examine my thoughts and fears more deeply than I ever had before. As I prayed for her, I realized that I had suffered for a long time (too long) from a fear that my happiness was being controlled and limited by someone who hated me. I had accepted this hatred as a perpetual plague on my house and in many ways nurtured it through my own negative reaction. My fixation on an evil cause wasn’t helping me. At a moment when I was extremely angry and reactive, my daughter suddenly fell ill.

The wake-up for me came when I realized in prayer that neither I nor my daughter could be forced from spirituality with all the health and happiness that it included. To a spiritual idea all is spiritual and there is no evil – that which in Christian Science is often called “error” – to contend with. I recognized that it wasn’t enough for me to know this as some personal truth. To be classified as true it must extend out and embrace all parts of my experience, including the enemy I had accepted as my problem.

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Interestingly, it wasn’t that I thought I shouldn’t hate her anymore, as if I had fallen into a pit and had to force myself out; I realized I couldn’t hate her anymore. The moment that I identified myself as Spirit’s own, I could only feel and express the fruits of the Spirit. I could suddenly only know this person as God knew her and me – as spiritual, never tossed through material circumstances that could produce hatred and reaction.  I saw her as continually, uninterruptedly blessed. I saw me as blessed. I saw my daughter as blessed. The baby was healed instantly on the spot; and the evil influence of hatred on our family stopped cold.

That is how the Christ heals.  God's message of light and love and holy power reveals each one of us as presently and permanently blessed. These kinds of experiences are revelatory. They become landmarks of spiritual growth.

The fact is, we have never fallen or been pushed from spirituality to materiality. Not a single one of us goes from being spiritual to material only to then have to struggle to become spiritual again. We are spiritually formed and brought forth and the Holy Spirit maintains us right at this point. God’s law is that a spiritual idea has not a single element of error. And as the Psalmist declares, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (119:165)

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An audio podcast of this post is also available:

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