Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me .What Does This Mean?
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy writes: The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good and that all men shall have one Mind . ( p. 340:15-20) .Since man is made in the image and likeness of God, it follows that man must be like God in nature. How could man have what God did not give him and how could he know what God did not know. ?How could he have a mind and life apart from God?
In pondering these questions it is clear to the writer that God did not give us a private and mortal mind. Therefore, we could not have a mind that could be afraid or sinful for He is our Mind. Similarly, God could not give us a mortal , temporal life for He is our life. Therefore, we could not have a life that could be sick or discordant, a life that could begin and end . If we believe ,then, that we have a mind or life of our own ,this is a form of idolatry, ascribing power to ourself. Hence, Paul’s admonition, let this Mind be in you which, was also in Christ Jesus.( Phil 2:5)
The writer is grateful for Christian Science because it has formed the basis of demonstrating man’s unity with God. He has been able to deny, refute ,and reject all that claims to be a part of him which God could not give him; and because God is All, it could not be true about anyone else although mortal mind claims to be our mind. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ we overcome this false sense by the blood of the Lamb, by acknowledging our pristine purity, our innocence as His idea or image.