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TESTS OF LOYALTY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 11.

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TESTS OF LOYALTY.

By X

MAN was created for God’s glory. Isa. 43:7. It is therefore man’s duty to serve Him. Matt. 4:10. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7.
When man sinned, he sold himself to a slavery from which he could neither redeem himself nor his brother. Rom. 7:14; Ps. 49:7. He has reaped, and is reaping, the wages of sin,—death, vanity, nothingness. But tho he has sold himself for naught, God in His love and mercy buys him back. “Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Isa. 52:3. “Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price; glorify God therefore.” 1 Cor. 6:19, R.V. “Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19, R.V.
In a double sense, then, we belong to God. Our all is His. It is therefore our duty to love the Lord our God with all the heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. This is the first and great commandment. Deut. 6:4-6; Matt. 22:37, 38. And there is no true service of God which does not make this acknowledgment of God’s claims. Christianity is neither more nor less than this. Thus Christ did; thus will all those do who have the faith of Christ.
True love is true service. True loyalty is faithful obedience. It does not question God’s commands, nor discriminate between them. Neither will true love seek to be a law unto itself. There is much that is called love which is of this character. It says much in words and does little in deeds. It perverts liberty into license, love into lust. It loves in word, not in deed.
In order to weed out the spurious, in order that man himself might discern, in the light of God, his own motives, and so distinguish between the base and genuine, God has appointed two general tests of man’s love. One of these pertains to time, and one to means.

The Test of Time.

The test of time is the Sabbath day, to be kept unto the Lord. God gives man six days as specially his own, which man may use for himself, and yet in all of which God’s ownership is to be recognized. The Lord chose that proportion of time which was perfectly adapted to man’s nature. And He whose wisdom determined the proportion, marked out by the septenary cycle and in the septenary cycle just where that seventh part of time should fall, namely, on the seventh day. “The seventh day [the day just preceding ‘the first day of the week,’ Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2] is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8-11. Neither time, nor age, nor man, nor angel, can change man’s duty to God in this respect. From Eden to Eden the Sabbath has been a test of loyalty to God (save in dark human-blinded periods of earth’s history), filled with glorious blessing from God to His children. Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 20:8-11; Isa. 58:13; 66:22.

The Test of Means.

Another test of loyalty is that of means. As all we have belongs to God, He demands of us a tenth. He intrusts to us as stewards nine-tenths of all we receive, to be used as our wisdom and the guidance of His Spirit indicate. But one-tenth he reserves for Himself. He neither gives that to us, nor does he intrust it to our care to be used as we may determine. It is His: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s;it is holy unto the Lord. . . . And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, . . . the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.” Lev. 27:30-32.
This is not a law of the Levitical dispensation. It was a recognized law among the patriarchs of old. Jacob paid tithes; Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, and that in a way which showed that he recognized the obligation.
It is a law of the Christian dispensation. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for passing over judgment, mercy, and faith, and the love of God, while paying tithes of mint, and rue, and anise, and cummin. But He tells them that, while they “ought to have done” the former, they ought not to leave undone the latter. Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42.
Paul, in 1 Cor. 9:1-19, discourses upon the Christian ministry and their support. He refers to the Levitical priesthood, who ministered in sacred things, and who were supported by the tithes. Num. 18:21, 26-28; Neh. 10:37. God has called men in this dispensation to give their whole time for the labor of souls. These constitute the Christian ministry. This is what the apostle says of their support: “Know ye not that they which minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple [the tithes, especially], and they which wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so [“in this manner,” “in this fashion”] did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel.” 1 Cor. 9:13, 14, R.V. Therefore the duty of tithe-paying is as incumbent on the Christian since Christ as upon those who lived before Christ.
The same truth is taught in Heb. 7:8: “And here men that die [the Levites] receive tithes; but there [in Melchizedek, the type] He [Christ] receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that He liveth.”
The same is taught in Mal. 3:10, which, with its context, is as truly instruction for the Christian dispensation as any prophecy of old. It is especially for the last days, when Christ is about to come to judgment. Verses 2-5. Now note the simple, clear words of the Lord: “Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse [God’s house], that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Not only is the tithe a test of our loyalty to God, it is a means of proving, testing God. The good steward of God’s means, who recognizes God’s ownership, and who renders a faithful tithe, can come to God in the full assurance of faith. God is his partner in all the transactions of life. He has yielded to do all God requires; God will certainly do all on His part.
O, there is a blessing in faithful tithe-paying,—a blessing worth far more with nine-tenths than ten-tenths are without it! We may take the whole, and with it the curse. We may be loyal to God, live in the current of His life, and receive of His glorious, overflowing blessings; for the heart that has not room for all that comes to it, overflows to others. And this is what God wants His church to be. He wants it to have meat for the hungry souls dying while pleading for the bread of life. He wants each soul of that church, and so the church, to be so full of His life, and power, and love that all the nations shall know it. And all this will be if God’s ownership and man’s stewardship are recognized and man is loyal to God. X.