MANY YEARS AGO when I began my business career, I worked in the oil industry.  I soon learned that when someone in that industry referred to his or her employer, it was customary to shorten the company name to one word.  One might say, “I work for the Gulf” or “for the Shell” instead of the Gulf Oil Company or the Shell Oil Company.  At that time there were several prominent oil companies with names usually identified with moral qualities—companies such as Humble Oil, Pure Oil, Placid Oil.  Their employees would identify their employer as “the Placid” or “the Pure.”

When oil was first discovered in east Texas, oil wells were being drilled extensively.  Landowners were excited over the prospect that oil might be discovered under their property.  One Sunday at a local church, a minister was extolling the virtues of moral qualities, and said in his prayer, “O Lord, remember the pure and the humble.”  At that point a man in the congregation interrupted by shouting, “And don’t forget the Shell.  They have a lease on my property!”

Clearly, to the minister the words pure and humble meant something decidedly different from the interpretation the landowner placed on them.  Often that’s the case with words employed in everyday usage.  I once told a newspaper reporter that Christian Science teaches that we are not actually material, as we appear to be.  She was confused, because to her the word material meant the substance used to make clothing.

The use of some other words in explaining the theology of Christian Science often leads to 
misunderstanding, and even to ridicule, by those who don’t recognize the intended meaning of those words in a particular context.  For instance, the word real in this Science most often refers to what is indestructible and eternal; to God and what is derived from Him.  The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, explains: “All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal.  That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.”1  On this basis, Christian Scientists insist that sickness is not real, meaning that God did not create or cause it.  They don’t blindly deny that people get sick at times; but Christian Scientists are convinced that God did not produce the sickness, and certain that it is no part of His spiritual creation.  In this sense it is not real.  And because it has no God-given reality, we can be freed from it.

Our great Master, Christ Jesus, said at one point, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.”2  He used many parables and illustrations to clarify the spiritual meaning of his teaching.  Yet those who lacked the spiritual inspiration required to understand his meaning often taunted him.  Without question, we still need to grasp the spiritual significance of Jesus’ words in order to understand and demonstrate his teaching.

In my own endeavor to follow the teachings of our Master, I have learned that it is imperative to ponder deeply the spiritual meaning of the words he used.  For example, one of his statements that I 
go back to frequently is this: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.  For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.”3

Pondering this earnestly, I have found that in these relatively few words Jesus has summarized the divine Science of our relation to God.  The more I understand spiritually what he said, the better equipped I am to demonstrate the authority of his teaching in solving human problems.

To my sense, Jesus was explaining in this statement the spiritual basis of his healing work.  But he was also teaching his followers that they must work from the same basis.  All individuals, in their true, spiritual nature, are offspring of God.  In recognition of this, John wrote, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”  And Paul wrote, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” 4

In stating “The Son can do nothing of himself,” Jesus was declaring a spiritual fact.  That is, even he could do nothing on his own, by himself, independent of God.  If that was true of him, surely it has to be true of all of God’s children.  In reality, no one can do anything, or be anything, separate from God, because each one exists eternally as God’s spiritual idea, an idea in divine Mind, always at one with the Father.  No child of God can develop a condition underived from the Father.  He cannot be made to act in a manner that fails to conform to God’s flawless control of His creation.  He does not even exist as an identity apart from the divine Mind.  Everything true of us must harmonize exactly with what the Father is expressing of His own infinitely perfect being.

It’s on this basis that the Master demonstrated health and harmony in human affairs.  And he instructed us to do as he did.  Through prayer we need to lift thought above what appears to be the state of humanity, and look to see what the Father is doing, because “what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”  The son must be understood as expressing only that which is true of the Father.

Here in a few words Jesus was telling us, in essence, that man—and the term man is used generically to refer to the true, God-created identity of both men and women—reflects the Life that is God.  Man’s substance is spiritual, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.  Man’s individuality, consciousness, intelligence, action, and entire identity reflect perfectly God’s own self-completeness.  In scientific fact, then, nothing can be attributed to the son except that which expresses the Father’s perfection.

So, wasn't Jesus instructing us that to be effective in healing through prayer, we must know that all that can be true of man is what is true of God?  Science and Health explains, “God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses nothing which he has not derived from God.”5  If this is the scientific fact, the evidence of disease and discord has to be a misrepresentation of the facts.  Understanding our spiritual relation to God eliminates the misrepresentation and produces healing.
Then, what are you to do when the physical evidence is of disease and discord?  Are you convinced that the son can do only that which expresses what the Father is doing?  If so, then you realize that all forms of discord are lies about you and your possibilities.  They’re presenting a false view of identity.  So-called mortal mind, insistently claiming that identity is separate from God, and capable of experiencing the effects of a cause apart from the Father, would have us see ourselves and others as material beings, governed by a mind in matter.  But the mortal concept of our identity and possibilities is a farce.  Man is spiritual, immortal, never separated from God.  Each of us must bear witness to what the Father is doing, and to nothing else.

Does it seem hard to grasp the significance of this great, scientific fact?  Are you left alone to operate all by yourself in your endeavor to understand spiritual reality?  Absolutely not!  We have this assurance of the Master, which can surely be seen to apply to us all: “The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.”  And in Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy says, “It is the purpose of divine Love to resurrect the understanding, and the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony already within us.” 6

God loves you.  He never leaves you uncared for.  He enables you to understand the divine Science by which He governs all.  Keep turning to Him faithfully, stick with His revelation, and you will find that He is working with you.  He will communicate the pure thoughts, the angel messages, you need in order to understand what is true and to experience healing.  If you cling steadfastly to what you understand the Father is doing, you will find that Love has fulfilled its purpose to resurrect the understanding and harmony already within you. 

1 Science and Health,p. 472.
2 John 8:43.
3 John 5:19, 20.
4 I John 3:1; Rom. 8:14.
5 Science and Health, p. 539.
6 Mis., p. 154.