Withhold not the rebuke

[MaryBeth]

“When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or explanation which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in attempt to purify it.” (S&H) These words of Mrs. Eddy are carved in stone at The Mother Church extension, right above where the First and Second Readers stand, and were chosen by Mrs. Eddy to be placed there – showing to the entire congregation (what is now left of it!) their extreme importance. The word “rebuke” in the 1828 Webster Dictionary is defined as “to chide; to reprove; to heal; to calm.” This lesson makes it very clear error must be rebuked. There is nothing personal about this – it is always an error that needs to be exposed and rebuked and so destroyed. I once looked up some of what Christ Jesus rebuked. He rebuked “all error; animal courage; sin; pride; mortal belief; sensuality; rabbinical error; sense (material thought); sin, disease, and death; the wind; the fever; the unclean devils;” to name probably only a few! When error begins to whisper its lies into our thought it is essential to rebuke these subtle and also aggressive suggestions with the Truth. When we “see” error taking place somewhere in our experience, we must follow our Leader’s admonition to “withhold not the rebuke or explanation which destroys error.” In doing so we are helping to spiritualize thought and to establish God’s kingdom – “as in heaven, so on earth.”

[Florence]

It was an awakening to understand that to be able to rebuke with Love is in obedience to that command to Love one another.

Invincible Truth is working in us if we are seeking Truth diligently. One of the most beneficial effects of this is the courage gained to Love Truth coupled with the ability to act when God directs. Prior to this greater conviction of the need to Love divinely, I only loved selfishly; I was too conscious of what someone might think or say about me because of my actions. But to love in the way we are commanded to love one another includes the ability to rebuke error and correct wrong behavior with unselfed intent. To awaken one to their folly in allowing “the deceiver” to lead them into temptation or deceive them into believing they are what God did not create; e.g. that they are a fearful sick person, selfish, depressed, greedy, egotistical, impatient, angry, irritable, proud etc., all qualities non- existent in the real man, the man God created in God’s own image and likeness.

This Truth inspired way of loving our brother, as Jesus demonstrated, in how He rebuked and corrected, in order to bring people back to what is their true being, is much needed everywhere. Christian Science gives the courage to live that way because it makes God, all that matters.

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