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GOD'S EXAMPLE

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 26, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 20.

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GOD'S EXAMPLE

By L. A. R.

THE admonition of inspiration is, "Be ye . . . imitators of God, as beloved children." Eph. 5: 1. To imitate God — who could object to it? To do precisely as God does — what more could be asked? What a splendid destiny it is, and what a life it means!
It was exactly this thought God intended in giving the Sabbath. It is one phase of imitating God that none of us can afford to refrain from. What says the commandment? — It admonishes us to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, to work six days and observe the seventh day. It tells us why we should do this, — that God worked six days, and rested upon the seventh, and then gave us a week in which we could imitate Him throughout mortal time, working the six days in which He worked, resting upon the seventh day upon which God rested.
To take another day, would not be to imitate God, because it would place us at variance with Him. To imitate God, we must do exactly as He did, — work on the working-days, on which He worked; rest upon the seventh day, upon which He rested.
And we will do this if we love the Lord well enough; for Jesus says, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Our text admonishes us to imitate God, as dear children. In other words, God is our Father, and we are to obey Him. We are to be loving children, children who know that God loves them, children who know that they love God, and know it because of their willingness to do what He says.
And right here is the test. It is useless to talk of loving God when we do not the things that He says. Jesus, on one occasion, tells us that we call Him Master and Lord, and that we say well, for so He is, and that if we call Him Lord and Master, we should do as He has given us example. If we love Him, we keep His commandments, even though to do it puts us at variance with the world. And keeping the fourth commandment just as God gave it is one means of doing this very thing. Let us thank Him for anything that will cause us to imitate Him and cease imitating the world.
L. A. R.