Choose, Believe, Do by E. W. Farnsworth

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 14, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 14.

Choose, Believe, Do

By E. W. Farnsworth

"And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke 6:46.

GOD deals with no man as with an infant or an idiot. He did not make us in a hurry. He was not trifling with us when He gave us the power of choice. He made us in His own image physically, mentally, morally. He endowed the man He made with intellect. He commands the man He made to choose the path in which he will walk, the master whom he will obey.

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;" and He calls heaven and earth to record, and entreats His people to choose life, that both they and their seed may live. Deut. 30:15, 19.

Man can choose. He can do. He can obey God. It is inconsistent, it is folly, to call Him "Lord, Lord," and refuse to obey Him. Our Father never asked any man to do anything He would not give him the power to do.

Grace makes no compromise with sin. "Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." Rom. 6:15. Grace is the enablings of the law, that every jot and tittle of "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:4. Nothing is conceded, no license to sin is granted, by grace. "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." "If a man love Me, he will keep My words." Love means obedience. Disobedience is rebellion. "To obey is better than sacrifice."

"Believe," "Do," "Keep," "Perform," "Fulfil"—these are the commands of revelation. Our "resolutions," "covenants," "promises," "pledges," are interesting as symptoms, but it is only conduct that counts. No man is saved by works; but in describing the Judgment, inspiration states, "They were judged every man according to their works." Rev. 20:13.

To be, to do, to suffer, to bear the cross, are the vital lessons that should be emphasized in these days of a popular, easy-going religion. E. W. Farnsworth.