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Imitate Jesus and His Ethics, June 4
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests
of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:4,
5
, NKJV.
The ethics inculcated by the gospel acknowledge no standard but the perfection
of God’s mind, God’s will. God requires from His creatures conformity to His
will. Imperfection of character is sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. All
righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole. All
those who receive Christ as their personal Savior are privileged to possess these
attributes. This is the science of holiness.
How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son,
God has revealed the excellency to which human beings are capable of attaining.
Through the merits of Christ, they are lifted from their depraved state, purified, and
made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for them to
become companions of the angels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ,
shining even in the bright splendor of the eternal throne. It is their privilege to have
faith that through the power of Christ they shall be made immortal. Yet how seldom
they realize to what heights they could attain if they would allow God to direct their
every step!
God permits every human being to exercise individuality. He desires no one
to submerge his or her mind in the mind of a fellow mortal. Those who desire to
be transformed in mind and character are not to look to others, but to the divine
Example. .. .
As our Example we have One who is all and in all, the chiefest among ten
thousand, One whose excellency is beyond comparison. He graciously adapted His
life for universal imitation. United in Christ were wealth and poverty; majesty and
abasement; unlimited power, and meekness and lowliness which in every soul who
receives Him will be reflected. In Him, through the qualities and powers of the
human mind, the wisdom of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known was
revealed.—
The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902
.
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