Unity Among Believers

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I speak to those who are acting as stewards in the cause of God. In your work for the advancement of the cause, act in such a way that the truth will be properly represented in all its lines. The ministry is not to be given an inferior position. Those who disparage the gospel ministry give sure evidence that they have lost their spiritual discernment. They need a better understanding of the claims of God. The Lord’s servants are to be given ample room to do their appointed work. As teachers of men, women, and children, they are to see and understand the work for this time.

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We are all workers for the Master. The instruction given in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew shows how his work is to be done. Self is to be kept under the control of the great Teacher. Study your Bibles. I have been charged to tell you all to study your Bibles with an intense interest. Practice its teachings. When this is done, less human wisdom will be seen, and more of the wisdom of God. A large amount of time and strength will be saved.

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The world by wisdom knew not God. The men and women of the world do not realize that they are daily deciding their own destiny, and that it becomes them to walk very softly before God. Immortality — a life that measures with the life of God — is not obtained through human beings, but through Christ, «who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in welldoing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.»

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Christians will discern Christ in their fellow men. They will not pull apart. Strife for the supremacy is after the working of Satan. Satan was the most beautiful angel in the heavenly courts, the most highly gifted, the most richly endowed. But he fell through jealousy and selfish ambition. Why, I ask, are men not afraid of themselves? Why are they so anxious to do something wonderful, something that will lead people to say, «This is the work of a great man» This is all vanity. Of ourselves we are weak and helpless. If the Lord has intrusted us with capabilities, let us remember that our gifts come from God. They are lent to us by him, that thus he may test and try us. Let those who desire to win God’s approval walk humbly before him. Remember that you are only one among the Lord’s agents. There are others whom he recognizes, and whose work he indorses.

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Our institutions will be safely conducted only when those who are carrying the responsibilities in them fear their own weakness. Let them not feel highly exalted because they receive praise from men who do not see the truth in the living oracles of God. Those who know the truth should show these commandment-breakers that they regard the law of God as a savor of life unto life. All who know the truth are to honor the truth. God says, Them that honor me I will honor.

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We are to respect God’s faithful servants, who preach his Word, and who seek to win souls to the truth. Let us not link up with unbelievers, giving them honor because we suppose that they have great wisdom. Let us not cherish their words of praise in our hearts, while at the same time we show disrespect for the Lord’s chosen instruments, regarding their counsel as unworthy of our notice. Association with those who believe not the truth will prove in time of temptation a savor of death unto death.

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Those who claim to believe the truth should obey the Word of God just as it reads, practicing its instruction. Remember that those who love not their brethren, deny the faith. Many, because their brethren do not follow their leading, manifest toward them a spirit of hatred. God has never bidden us follow the leading of any man, and he has said, «He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.» Can we not see from this what it means to be at variance?

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Christ declares, «I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.» This light is all contained in the great commandment of love. «A new commandment I give unto you,» Christ said, «That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.»

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The union between Christ and his people is to be living, true, and unfailing, resembling the union that exists between the Father and the Son. This union is the fruit of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All true children of God will reveal to the world their union with Christ and with their brethren. Those in whose hearts Christ abides will bear the fruit of brotherly love. They will realize that as members of God’s family they are pledged to cultivate, cherish, and perpetuate Christian love and fellowship, in spirit, words, and action.

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To be children of God, members of the royal family, means more than many suppose. Those who are accounted by God as his children will reveal Christlike love for one another. They will live and work for one object, — the proper representation of Christ to the world. By their love and unity they will show to the world that they bear the divine credentials. By the nobility of love and self-denial, they will show those around them that they are true followers of the Saviour. «By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.»

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In the Old Testament are recorded the laws which God gave for the guidance of his people. He would have his people to-day study these laws. «The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. . . . When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. . . . Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.»

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Christ is deeply grieved when his professed followers, his disciples, neglect to cultivate Christian love, when they act in a way that causes pain to the hearts of their brethren in the faith. They injure their religious experience, laying stumbling-blocks in their own way and in the way of others. They dishonor the truth they claim to believe. By their passionate words and overbearing actions in dealing with their brethren, they show that they are controlled by the spirit of the enemy of all righteousness. They use common fire in the place of the sacred.

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The most powerful evidence a man can give that he has been born again and is a new man in Christ Jesus, is the manifestation of love for his brethren, the doing of Christlike deeds. This is the most wonderful witness that can be borne in favor of Christianity, and will win souls to the truth.

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In his prayer for his disciples, Christ said, «Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.»

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Christ brings all true believers into complete oneness with himself, even the oneness which exists between him and his Father. The true children of God are bound up with one another and with their Saviour. They are one with Christ in God.

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«And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.»

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These are indeed wonderful words. They need to be thought of, studied, and brought into the practical life. They are to be lived out in the daily experience. Only thus can the result for which Christ prayed be produced.

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The Spirit of Christ never leads those of the same faith to separate into distinct, independent parties. When such a separation takes place, an impression exactly opposite from that which Christ prayed, is given to the world.

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Why do those who profess to believe in Christ, who profess to keep the commandments, make such feeble efforts to answer the Saviour’s prayer? Why do they seek to have their own way, instead of choosing the way and will of the Spirit of God? Those who do this will one day see the harm done to the cause of God by pulling apart. Instead of co-operating with Christ, instead of laboring together with God, many who occupy positions of trust are working in opposition to Christ. The Lord has presented this to me in a most decided manner to present to his people.

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If God’s followers would seek to answer Christ’s prayer, revealing by the transformation in their lives the power of the truth, what a wonderful testimony would be borne to the world. How powerfully the character and work of Christ would be made known, and the glory of God made known!

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It is our God-given duty to love one another as Christ has loved us. The performance of this duty brings with it the blessedness of peace and quietude in the Lord and the ennobling and uplifting of the whole being. Those who neglect this duty can never reach perfection. Those who love as Christ loved are born of God, and are «kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.»

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«Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. . . .Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.»

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I am instructed to say to our people, «Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.» There are many who are unprepared to meet Christ. «For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.»

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A sacred relationship exists between Christ our Saviour and the believer. He says, «I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.» » Thou shalt know .» Is not this the desire of the soul? There are many who ridicule the idea of there being any certainty in religious experience. Some can not bear to hear sanctification and the higher attainments spoken about. But the Word says, «Thou shalt know the Lord,» and this means holiness and sanctification.

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How may we know God?-By doing his word. We have the assurance of this. Read the first chapter of second Peter. The entire chapter is an assurance to the true believer. «Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.»

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We must work upon the plan of addition, adding to our character the graces here mentioned.

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«If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.» This is our life insurance policy.

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«That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.» The lust here mentioned does not only mean a perverse, base passion. It includes an unholy desire for riches, for praise, for the possession of power. To fear God and obey his word is the only way to gain true exaltation. But forgetting this, man presumptuously craves more and still more worldly power and honor. He devises and plans in every way to accomplish certain results, losing sight of justice and equity and love for God and his brethren. With a perversity that is blind to results, he sacrifices his peace of mind, his assurance of knowing God and Christ.

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«When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsman: . . . therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me: for there is no Saviour beside me.»

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«O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.» «Return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon… Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.»

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The Lord is infinitely merciful and gracious. He is waiting for us to repent and turn to him with humble confession, saying, We will take thy way, O Lord; we will no longer walk in the way of our own counsels. Have mercy on us and save us and those who have erred in following a path not cast up for the ransomed of the Lord.

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The time has come for the renunciation of all self-confidence. The time has come to follow the Lord’s way. He has given instruction for all who will be guided by him, who have faith in his word, and courage to go forward. God calls upon those who have walked in paths of their own choosing to return to him. «Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.» Mrs. E. G. White.