Christ Jesus’ teachings were intended to reveal spiritual reality to his followers, which leads to living in the kingdom of heaven on earth – the kingdom of spiritual harmony. How can we progress to gain a present perspective of this reality? We each have a spiritual sense that reveals what is real and good and brings healing and progress, so our first step should be to look for ways to educate that spiritual sense – to develop a true, spiritual view of God and the universe.
Christ Jesus gave us a critical starting point for advancing spiritually when he said, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:15).
Qualities often seen in children – such as humility, receptivity, and purity – open us to the spiritual sense of what is real. And those qualities are inherent in our true nature as children of our Father-Mother God, forever expressed by each one of us.
A childlike thought helps us to be receptive to putting off the falsehoods about God and man we’ve learned through education that’s not based on understanding and demonstrating Spirit, God.
Education gained through a mortal mentality trains us to believe in a limited, and ultimately false model of what is real. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, illustrates the unreliability of this model, a material sense of things, when she writes about Kaspar Hauser, a German boy who lived in the 19th century, “Incarcerated in a dungeon, where neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 194).
Mrs. Eddy goes on to say, “His case proves material sense to be but a belief formed by education alone. The light which affords us joy gave him a belief of intense pain. … After the babbling boy had been taught to speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dungeon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere. … All that gives pleasure to our educated senses gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an opposite direction.”
Material sense feels and perceives only what it is educated to believe. This false sense includes both good and evil, joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, in which happiness and health seem fragile, sooner or later turning into suffering.
Spiritual education, on the other hand, develops our spiritual sense. Using this innate capacity of our real, God-created being, we can refuse to be impressed and misled by the material sense of things. When we turn to God to discover what is really happening, spiritual sense frees us from suffering by revealing the harmonious reality of God and man. Turning to God in prayer and study, we can feel the influence of Christ – God’s divine idea that voices good alone, that restores the spiritual sense each one of us has as God’s reflection. This brings healing to human situations.
Mrs. Eddy established a system of spiritual education based on the teachings of Christ Jesus. This educational approach helps us to follow Jesus’ life example in practical ways, to experience the kingdom of God now, and to be Christian healers. By bringing out our spiritual sense, this inspired system of learning strengthens our ability to heal through prayer.
This education includes study of the weekly Bible Lessons published in the Christian Science Quarterly, which uncover the healing, transforming sense of the Bible’s message; Sunday church services and Sunday School, which are based on those Bible Lessons; Wednesday testimony meetings, which give proof of the truths of Christian Science; Reading Rooms, where anyone can gain a spiritual perspective of reality; Primary class instruction with an authorized teacher of Christian Science, which gives students deeper insights into healing themselves and others; and weekly and monthly magazines.
In this learning adventure, step by step we can discover new views about the beauty and infinity of God, the universe, and ourselves. These new views bring renewal to our experience.
When we learn to give up material ways of thinking and become willing to use spiritual sense to understand God; when we see in others only what is good and pure; when we forgive with humility; when we give up personal opinions; and when we love others so deeply that we devote our lives to healing and supporting our communities, then we show that we have accepted Jesus’ instruction to become as a little child.
When we take advantage of the many avenues Mrs. Eddy provided to educate ourselves spiritually, we discover how God loves and preserves us with laws of harmony and perfection. We discover more about our unlimited spiritual identity, which includes health, purity, and constantly unfolding good. We live an expansive life, in which we are blessed by blessing others.
Adapted from an editorial published in the February 2025 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
