True Religion by GEO. KOON.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 21, 1871

True Religion.

By GEO. KOON.

Our blessed Saviour has doubtless given us the best definition of true religion that can be given. He said to a certain lawyer, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:37–40. This is true religion, and may be summed up in one word: Love, supreme love, to God, and equal love to our fellow-men as to ourselves.

Love constitutes Heaven. Without it, there can be no happiness in any part of God’s universe. With it, in all its fullness and perfection, there can be no misery. No wonder, then, that the Master has said that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This is the sum and substance of the religion of the Bible. Securely established upon this eternal and immovable rock, let the infuriated waves of infidelity roll and dash until their violence be spent, we cannot be harmed; but let us be careful never to belie our religion, or forget what it is. Let us remember that our religion is founded in love, and John says, “He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16. “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” 1 John 4:8. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.” 1 Cor. 16:22. If men would remember these solemn statements, they would surely no longer be content with the outward form, while their hearts know nothing of love to God and each other. They would no longer grasp the shadow, and miss the substance.

Should any one inquire how we may know that we love God, or what are the evidences of true piety, we answer, The Bible has not left us in the dark on this subject. “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” saith the blessed Saviour. John 14:15. The apostle also tells us, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. Every true Christian, therefore, will strive to keep God’s commandments, not from dread or slavish fear, neither as a burdensome duty, but from love to him. Again, he that truly loves God, will also love his brethren; for “if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20. “By this,” saith Jesus, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35.

Such are some of the evidences of love to God and of vital piety. Unless we possess these evidences it is useless to talk about being religious; for we are yet in our sins, without God and without hope in the world; and if Christ comes and finds any of us in this sad condition, we are undone forever. “Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Eph. 5:14.

It is very clear that, in his natural, unconverted state, no man can truly love God, or possess vital piety; because “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. The minds of all men are by nature carnal; but such minds cannot love God supremely while this enmity remains, hence they cannot be truly pious.

The picture which the Scripture gives us of the condition of the natural heart, is most appalling and humiliating. It is said in Jer. 17:9, that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” The Saviour himself, speaking on this point, says, “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man.” Matt. 15:18–20. Can such hearts love God, or be fit temples for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, without being regenerated? It cannot be; and yet thousands hope to be saved without a change of heart, vainly imagining that their professions of religion, and their attendance upon the worship of God’s house will take them to Heaven. Even many ministers of the gospel seem content with converting persons to the form of godliness, without the tangible evidence that they experience its power in their hearts. Oh! that men would awake to the importance of the fact, so clearly stated in the word of God, that without a change of heart no man can be saved.

GEO. KOON.

Winterset, Iowa.