"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I am serving as First Reader at our church, and my concentration very nearly wavered one Sunday during the service when a spiritual penny dropped!
Recently I have been understanding much better how the coming of light dispels darkness, and how on the other hand if darkness appears to come, it can’t dispel light, because darkness really is nothing -- it’s just a belief of the absence of light. Mary Baker Eddy says this, and I have read it so many times without really getting it.
There was a rather obscure verse from II Corinthians in the lesson that week which said, “We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
This had been niggling at me all week, and suddenly, in the middle of the service, I saw it in the same way as the light. It's not that we need to have anything taken away, because the concept of man being mortal, like the darkness, is nothingness; while spiritual, immortal man is like the light, at the perception of which the mortal view of man simply disappears.
So we are being “clothed upon” by the realisation of our spirituality, and in reality there is never even anything to take off! I found it very reassuring to think that the early Christians understood this, and were trying so hard to express it in words.