E. J. W by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 49.

E. J. W

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“Dost Thou Steal?”—Most people will say, “No; I am honest in all my dealing.” Very well, but let us not decide the case off-hand. Let us examine the Scripture. It says, “The law is spiritual.” Rom. 7:14. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. No matter how correct we are in our outward acts, if in spirit or thought we have transgressed, we are guilty. The Lord looks at the heart, instead of the outward appearance. 1 Sam. 16:7. Again, it is just as wrong to steal from God as to steal from man; have you given God his due? have you dealt in a perfectly honest way with him? Hear what he says: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” Mal. 3:8, 9. Does this mean you? Have you rendered to God that which is his due in tithes and offerings? If not, what will you answer when the word of inspiration asks, “Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?”

“The Law Is Spiritual.”—In the fifth chapter of Matthew the Saviour has set forth the spirituality of the law. He says that unless our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we can not enter the kingdom of heaven. What was their righteousness? He said to them, “Ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Mat. 23:28. Therefore, unless we are righteous inwardly, we are nothing. God desires “truth in the inward parts.” Ps. 51:6. Following on in the fifth of Matthew the Saviour shows that a man may break the sixth commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” by the utterance of a single word. He also shows that we may break the seventh commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” by a look and a thought. The same principle, of course, obtains with all the commandments. This being the case, it becomes a man to be very careful about saying that he has perfectly kept the law.

Some have said that the Ten Commandments are a very low standard, and that a man might keep them all and still not be worthy of admission into respectable society. Such know nothing about the law. As a matter of fact, a man may break all the commandments, and still figure as a shining light in the “best society.”

Name of God Blasphemed.—“The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles through you, as it is written.” Who has done this?—The man who teaches the law, and who says that a man should not take the name of the Lord in vain. When David sinned in the case of Uriah’s wife, God said to him, “By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” 2 Sam. 12:14. That is, he was a professed follower of the Lord, and by his violation of the law of the Lord, he had given unbelievers a chance to say, “There, that is a specimen of Christianity.” Who is there that can say that as a professed follower of the Lord he has always correctly represented the truth? Who is there that must not admit to himself and God that, either by his words or actions, he has sometimes, nay, very often, misrepresented the truth which he professed? Who is there that has not by his failures, either in teaching or acting, given people a miserably inadequate idea of what true godliness is? In short, who is there that must not say yes to the apostle’s question, “Through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God?” And since thus the name of God is blasphemed through professed Christians, who is there that can declare himself guiltless before God’s law?