How I Used Truth - Lesson 1 - Annotation 7
What could be considered the distinction between a Christian life (as popularly accepted) and a Christ life?
7. The distinction between a Christian life and a Christ life lies in the difference between "theory" alone and "practice." The text points out on page 24 that,
"To live a Christian life is to follow the teachings of Jesus, with the thought that God and Christ are wholly outside of man, to be called on but not always to answer. To live a Christ life is to follow Jesus' teachings in the knowledge that God°s indwelling presence, which is always life, love, and power within us, is now ready and waiting to flow . . . into our consciousness" (How I Used Truth 24).
When Jesus said "Follow me" we realize that He could not have meant that we are to follow Him just in every outer act. Our world today is not the same as the world of Jesus' day. We believe that He must have been referring to the laws back of His teachings that we are to follow. Jesus emphasized "the Father within." If we would truly live the Christ life we must, as Jesus did, turn often in prayer to "the Father within" for His guidance.
To attempt to follow Jesus' teachings yet not believe in the God Presence within us (or, as Paul puts it in Col. 1:27, "Christ in you") is to make the teachings difficult to follow. Many sincere seekers have thought of Jesus as a more richly endowed "Son of God" than others. This is correct to a point, for Jesus was so supremely conscious of His relationship to God that He lived as the Son of God He knew Himself to be. In His salutation in what we term "the Lord's Prayer" (or "our Lord's Prayer") Jesus unified us with Himself in relation to the Fatherhood of God when He said "Our Father." Many a struggling soul has grasped at the person of Jesus, has tried valiantly to follow the letter of His teachings, yet has felt himself bereft because he has not "found" the Christ (I AM) in himself.
In the matter of living the Christ life, man as a free-will being must, as the text says on page 27, "choose to have Him" (How I Used Truth 27). This means far more than Just learning about Jesus Christ. In order to "choose" the Christ we have to feel whatever we are thinking. As we feel the Christ presence within we begin to know our divinity. It is then that we are Son of man, conscious of the Son of God (Christ) within us and seeking to live the Christ life in all phases of our experience.
When we seek to live the Christ life — the life of mastery as brought out in the first lesson of Lessons in Truth — we are living the true Christian life. We are no longer trying to follow the letter of Jesus' teachings but we are living the spirit of them. It is theory understood and practiced in mind, body, and affairs. Definite results will show forth in our life with our mind stabilized in Truth, our thinking will be efficient, positive, keen, alert. The feeling or emotional nature balanced in understanding will be compassionate, yet clear and uninhibited. Our body will show forth the radiant health, strength, vitality, wholeness to which it is entitled as "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Cor. 6:19). Our affairs will manifest harmony, efficiency, happy relationships, abundance to fit every need. True success in these endeavors will bring lasting satisfaction.
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Preceding Entry: Explain how your body can be called a temple of God. What takes place in a temple?
Following Entry: What is the difference between a "reflection of God" and an "expression of God"?
