How I Used Truth - Lesson 2 - Annotation 9
How are we one with God and with each other?
9. We are one with God because He created us out of Himself; we are one with each other because we share the same Creator, the same Father.
Our Scripture puts it this way,
"One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all" (Eph. 4:6).
Oneness means, according to Webster's dictionary, "quality or state of being one; sameness; unity; singleness in mind, purpose, or feeling," We are one with God because we are of the same nature as God, namely Spirit, created in His image and after His likeness. We are one with each other because the same Spirit of God, His image, is inherent in each of us as our own divine nature. Jesus proclaimed this oneness of God and man, and man with his fellowman, by praying, "Our Father." With this salutation Jesus claimed for all of us the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
While it is true we are always one with God through our divine origin, we are consciously one with God only when we recognize and accept our innate divinity and the divinity of all men. This recognition enables us to behold, continually or habitually, the good that is present everywhere in spite of appearances that may seem to our human senses not good.
We are always one with our fellowman through our spiritual origin, but we are consciously one with others only when we have so cultivated the spirit of love in our heart that we see beyond their limitations; only when we see the glory of the Christ shining through others we can say convincingly, "We are all one in Spirit."
The Annotations for the twelfth lesson of Lessons in Truth deal with the subject of oneness, for that particular lesson seeks to bring us to realization of the '"unity of the Spirit." When we really know oneness and have not just accepted it intellectually, the judging of our fellowman will be from the Absolute. We will be using "righteous judgment" (John 7:24). We will then be able to judge another as being the beloved of God, yet functioning as a human being who is making overcomings in his own way. We will know for him that the ultimate is realization of his true destiny.
To understand our oneness with others means that we no longer expect them to do things according to our standard, for it is primarily an inner oneness that we recognize. We show our own awareness of oneness with God when we leave others free to grow according to the divine pattern within. This does away with any tendency to dominate another in our desire that he unfold his life in the way we think is right.
"One with life, you lose your sense of separateness, your sense of self. . . . In the infinite flux of life, there is no separateness, there is only wholeness, only the many faces of the One. Give yourself to living, and you will find meaning, for you will be one with the One life" (Be!: page 107).
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Preceding Entry: In the light of Jesus' teachings, how can we handle the attitude of mind that condemns another?
Following Entry: Show how Jesus' statement "What is that to thee? follow thou me" (John 21:22) is related to the overcoming of the habit of condemnation.
