Skip to footer

Pure affection

A Christian Science perspective: Divine Love is the source of all pure affection. 

  • By Linda Kohler

At the airport today I watched a woman reach out to support a perfect stranger. She saw that he needed a little steadying, and she stood by him for support. But it was so much more than that. She extended to him such warmth and affection that he could accept her support with his dignity intact. I think he hardly knew he was being supported. He just saw and felt the friendly affection she was expressing.

Affection touches us. When someone reaches out in pure affection, with genuine unselfishness, our hearts soften; we immediately become more patient, more generous, more affectionate ourselves. Affection redeems the moment; it builds bridges; it eases tensions. Pure affection not only comforts, it inspires.

Where does it come from, this pure affection? It is a quality of divine Love, or God. Pure affection is expressed in tender sentiment, complete goodwill, and selfless acceptance of others. The Bible tells us that “We love because he [God] first loved us” (I John 4:19 English Standard Version), and Christ Jesus taught and illustrated this love in his kind affection for others, as well as in his healing work.

Understanding that God loves each of us as His own child, the object of His affection, is an important starting point for our affection. But while man is the object of God’s love, he is also the image and likeness of God, and so he is the very image of Love. Man exists to express the nature and presence of infinite, divine Love, and that includes genuine, heartfelt affection. Expressing this pure affection toward others is a natural outcome of knowing that we are one with God and come from God.

The Monitor's founder and Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, once wrote, “More love is the great need of mankind. A pure affection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 107). I like that idea of affection being concentric. There is great strength in that fact. Concentric circles share the same center. What makes affection concentric is understanding that God is the center. God is the source from which we emanate, and this single source anchors our hearts and minds to that which is loving and kind – that which is affectionate. If I am aware that God is the source and center of my being, and that God is also the source and center of my brother’s being, then he can’t move outside my love and I can’t move beyond his love, because we are both embraced in, and express, the Love that is God.

Pure affection pours sweet goodness into our human experience. It is constructive and helpful. It is patient and kind. It brings out the best in everyone – the giver and the receiver. And we can’t help but express it, because divine Love is our spiritual origin. Expressing affection is innate to our very being. It’s natural and joyful to express this pure affection. And when we do, no matter how simple the gesture, as the woman in the airport showed, it makes a difference.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Pure affection
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2015/0213/Pure-affection
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe