Healing and Christian discipleship

If one were to make a list of the hundred most compassionate people on earth, some of the names undoubtedly would be those of physicians. Though modern medicine depends increasingly on machines for diagnosis and cure of disease, still there are medical practitioners who feel that trust and even love are essential ingredients in healing the sick.

Sometime mankind will realize that divine Love is the one essential factor in healing, and that medical methods, while providing some evidence of human love, do not lead to real healing in the fullest sense of the word. This is because disease, rather than being an objective material fact, is an image in the human mind. It can be finally cured only through complete yielding to the divine Mind , divine Love -- God.

Physical means of healing may ease the patient's fear, and so ease his body. But to get rid of fear completely -- and to get rid of disease -- the power of divine Love must override the human mind's belief in the power of disease and replace this with Christ -- God's own idea. Then healing is complete and permanent. As Mary Baker Eddy n1 writes in the Christian Science textbook, "The victory will be on the patient's side only as immortal Mind through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in disease." n2

n1 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 145;

But how does one heal through something so apparently abstract as divine Love? Love, in fact, isn't abstract. If it seems so to the human mind, this is because the human mind does not grasp what God and man truly are. Man is not a finite mortal with a finite and ultimately weak mind. He is the expression of Love. He expresses health and all forms of harmony -- not materially and temporarily but spiritually, without limit. This confirms that we can be healed humanly through God's power -- that when we understand and live our true and immortal nature we can prove we are now and always have been whole, that we need not fear disease. And this fact also assures that we can heal others. Through our expression of divine Love, we can see other minds and hence other bodies touched by Christ. As we are touched they are touched. And healing results, without physical intervention.

Many people continue to put their faith in material medicine. Though all people, including Christian Scientists, are certainly free to seek healing in any way they wish, the fact remains that true healing -- healing that not only cures disease but reforms the mind, lifting the patient to new heights of mental and moral living, of wholeness in every sense of the word -- can only be gained through immortal Truth, through submission to God's will of perfect being for man. Paul put it this way: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." n3

n3 romans 12:2.

The power to heal through immortal Truth does not come with superficial effort. Besides diligent study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, one who desires to practice Christ Jesus' rules of healing needs to live strictly according to his rules for living. One of these rules is stated in this account from Matthew: "And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." n4

n4 Matthew 26:27.

Mrs. Eddy states, "The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice." n5

n5 Science and Health,m p. 25.

Following Jesus, as Christians are commanded to do, is demanding. True Christian discipleship involves nothing less than deep sacrifice of materiality and immense labor in the endeavor to imitate the Master's profound love for humanity.

Christ-healing is an essential factor in mankind's salvation. The world needs more and more people everywhere who have been touched with this sign of God's love.

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