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Discernment of Duty, August 7
Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked.
Revelation 3:17
.
What is it that constitutes the wretchedness, the nakedness of those who
feel rich and increased with goods?—It is the want of the righteousness of
Christ. In their own righteousness they are represented as clothed with filthy
rags, and yet in this condition they flatter themselves that they are clothed upon
with Christ’s righteousness. Could deception be greater? As is represented
by the prophet, they may be crying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord are we” (see
Jeremiah 7:4
), while their hearts are filled with unholy
traffic and unrighteous barter.
The courts of the soul-temple may be the haunt of envy, pride, passion,
evil surmising, bitterness, and hollow formalism. Christ looks mournfully
upon His professed people who feel rich and increased in the knowledge
of the truth, and who are yet destitute of the truth in life and character, and
unconscious of their destitute condition. In sin and unbelief, they lightly
regard the warnings and counsels of His servants, and treat His ambassadors
with scorn and contempt, while their words of reproof are regarded as idle
tales. Discernment seems to have departed, and they have no power to
discriminate between the light which God sends them and the darkness that
comes from the enemy of their souls....
When Jesus went away, He intrusted to men His work in all its varied
branches, and every true follower of Christ has some work to do for Him,
for which he is responsible to his own Master, and that work he is expected
to do with fidelity, waiting for command and direction from his Leader. We
are the responsible agents of God, and have been invested with the goods
of heaven, and we should have an eye single to the glory of Him who has
called us. On our part there should be a faithful execution of duty, doing our
appointed task to the full measure of our intrusted capability. No living being
can do our work for us. We must do our work through a diligent use of the
intellect which God has given, gaining in knowledge and efficiency as we
make progress in our work.—
The Review and Herald, August 7, 1894
.
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