November 21, 2018
Hymns:20, 66, 64
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The Bible & Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
DEUTERONOMY (Amplified Bible)
18:13 You shall be blameless (complete, perfect) before the Lord your God.
GENESIS
1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2:6,7 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
SH 518:27-29
The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle is perfect.
SH 587:17
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot become finite and imperfect.
SH 306:30-2
God’s man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal. The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.
SH 475:31-4
A mortal sinner is not God’s man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo.
SH 250:6-7
Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no real entity, but saith “It is I.”
ROMANS
13:11…now it is high time to awake out of sleep:
ECCLESIASTES
2:11…I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity
SH 239:23-25, 30
Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human motives. It forms material concepts and produces every discordant action of the body. Imperfect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of which the wise man said, “All is vanity.”
ECCLESIASTES (Amplified Bible)
7:16,20 Do not be excessively righteous [like those given to self-conceit], and do not be overly wise (pretentious)…Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who always does good…
3:14 …whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
SH 239:29-30
The perfect Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind.
SH 258:11
Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God…
SH 301:5-6
Few persons comprehend what Christian Science means by the word reflection.
SH 259:15)
If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image of God. The lost image is no image. The true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. Understanding this, Jesus said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
MATTHEW
5:7-9, 48 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
LUKE
6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven
MATTHEW (Amplified Bible)
5:48…be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
SH 17:7
And Love is reflected in love;
SH 70:7-9, 1-2 (np)
Man is never God, but spiritual man, made in God’s likeness, reflects God. In this scientific reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea.
SH 14:25
Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak “as one having authority.”
SH 409:20-23
The real man is spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect so-called “children of men” are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality.
SH 260:7-8
The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal.
SH 4:32
Whatever materializes worship hinders man’s spiritual growth and keeps him from demonstrating his power over error.
PSALMS
18:30-32 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
ROMANS
11:33-34 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
SH 470:21-23
God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect.
SH 583:20
Creator. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.
SH 300:13-17
The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the immutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent.
LUKE
17:21…behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
MARK
10:17-18 when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
JOHN
10:30 I and my Father are one.
SH 259:6-11
In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying.
SH 259:32
Deducing one’s conclusions as to man from imperfection instead of perfection, one can no more arrive at the true conception or understanding of man, and make himself like it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from an imperfect model, or the painter can depict the form and face of Jesus, while holding in thought the character of Judas.
SH 476:28-4
When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.
SH 476:13-15
Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained.
SH 353:16-19
All the real is eternal. Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly real. All things will continue to disappear, until perfection appears and reality is reached.
SH 222:31-2
We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and perfect.
SH 259:11
The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.
SH 67:28
Man delivered from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.
SH 591:16
Mind. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined.
I CORINTHIANS
13:10 when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
ISAIAH
60:1-2 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
PHILIPPEANS (J.B.Phillips)
3: 12-14…I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me… I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ.
15-16 All of us who are spiritually adult should set ourselves this sort of ambition, and if at present you cannot see this, yet you will find that this is the attitude which God is leading you to adopt. It is important that we go forward in the light of such truth as we have ourselves attained
JAMES (Amplified)
3:2 we all stumble and sin in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says [never saying the wrong thing], he is a perfect man [fully developed in character, without serious flaws]
SH 10:14-15
It is striving that enables us to enter.
SH 253:32-2, 6-12 (np)
The divine demand, “Be ye therefore perfect,” is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable. God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path.
SH 233:8-9
In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly work up to perfection.
SH 467:13
Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.
SH 25:16-17
Jesus presented the ideal of God better than could any man whose origin was less spiritual.
SH 337:10-11
According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him.
PSALMS
8:5,6 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness
EPHESIANS
5:13,14 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light…Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
SH 230:6-8
This awakening is the forever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth, which casts out error and heals the sick.
SH 6:17-18
“God is Love.” More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.
SH 266:25-26
Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned is heaven.
SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
“Perfectionism isn’t Enough”
By Russ Gerber
Christian Science Sentinel, October 1993
…The genuine desire for perfection isn’t rooted in personal will, nor is it based on some innate ability to spot people’s faults…isn’t some impossible ideal, nor is it a divine mandate aimed at a bunch of mortals, commanding them to master their weaknesses and faults and make themselves into flawless beings. God’s message to us to be perfect is His message that we are perfect—spiritual, intelligent, complete—just as He made us. We’re His likeness….