Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
To be unwise is to drift through life without direction, but to understand the Lord's will is to learn it from His Word through prayer and then obey it in careful conduct, work and planning. In its setting this means walking carefully as wise rather than as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, awaking so Christ gives light, and having no fellowship with the works of darkness but reproving them as children of light. It also means being filled with the Spirit rather than dulled by excess, giving thanks in song, bearing the fruit of goodness and righteousness and truth, and living in love, forgiveness, submission and edifying speech. This understanding grows as believers advance step by step in the light of the Word, shown in faithful duty at home, kindness to neighbors and obedience to God's law. Above all it means recognizing that believers belong to God through the suffering and death of His Son, and therefore must keep body and mind holy and healthy for His service, rejecting whatever clouds the intellect, wastes vitality or indulges appetite and selfish pleasure.
Wisdom and God's Will
The command is not to live foolishly but to understand, seek and do what the Lord wills, and prayerful holding to His Word keeps from yielding to the world and from making trials by one's own choices. Wisdom in this sense is obedient understanding that walks carefully, uses time well because the days are evil, and refuses to treat life lightly. That understanding guides careful conduct and work, prayer to God, and the forming of wise plans. It is learned from Christ in doing the work He gives, as laborers together with God, by seeking to know more fully the excellence revealed in His life and by depending on Him for skill and wisdom to act in keeping with His Word.
Understanding of what the Lord wills grows in true Christians as they advance step by step in the light of His Word. That growth appears in parents and children helping one another, in faithful duties at home, in kindness and courtesy to neighbors, and in good works that let light shine amid moral darkness. For fathers and mothers especially it means walking in His light in obedience to His law.
In its setting, understanding the Lord's will is walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil. It is awaking from sleep and rising from death so that Christ gives light, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reproving them, and refusing even to speak of shameful secret things. It is walking as children of light with goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable and pleasing to the Lord, following God as dear children and walking in love as Christ gave Himself a sacrifice. This higher wisdom, first pure then peaceable and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, comes only by a minute-by-minute fight of faith and must be pondered and practiced or souls will be lost. It also requires refusing to be swayed to wrong when serving God collides with common opinions and practices, putting away lying, pretense, hypocrisy, criticizing and judging, and learning to love one another as Christ loved, with hearts of flesh in place of hearts of stone unto conversion and eternal life.
In the same setting, understanding the Lord's will is refusing drunkenness with wine wherein is excess and instead being filled with the Spirit. It is speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, instead of corrupt and worthless speech. It bears the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness and righteousness and truth, and lives in mutual submission in the fear of God, with gracious edifying speech, forgiveness, and love. Cherishing traits of darkness excludes from heaven, while cherishing traits of light opens the gates of the city of God.
Understanding what the Lord wills means realizing that believers are not their own but were bought by the sufferings and death of the Son of God, and therefore must preserve body and spirit in the best health for His perfect service and to honor Him in body and spirit which are His. Any course that expends vitality, lessens strength, or beclouds the intellect is sin against God and fails to glorify Him. It requires presenting the body a living sacrifice rather than following life-destroying indulgence of inordinate appetite for unhealthful things and selfish gratification with extremists in pleasure, since that sacrifices health, truth, righteousness, and eternal life. In evil days amid corruption and defilement, just before receiving immortality, His will is a holy body and pure spirit standing unstained, sought at once heartily and understandingly without selfishness, with the Spirit of God in perfect control of all actions. The use of wine or tobacco is not essential to Christian growth, for indulgence in intoxicating liquor puts a person wholly under control of the demon who devised this stimulant to deface and destroy the moral image of God.
Knowing God's will so it can be done requires trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, without shrinking from pain and self-sacrifice, without an anxious troubled heart, without fear to trust self with God or fear of the consequences of surrender, and without taking self back after surrender. It forbids showing weakness of character in word and attitude when feeling denied confidence and deference, complaining of brethren, or supposing they intend a hard and trying position. It demands cutting off the right arm and plucking out the eye that discerns in a wrong light, not bearing false witness against a brother in the heart, looking past the brother to Jesus, quelling the sense of being abused and slighted, and having incorrect and unjust suppositions reshaped into His likeness with a single eye to His glory, so that confidence in brethren draws confidence in return.
Understanding what the Lord wills requires speaking wisely, with words to brethren and associates ever respectful and courteous, in keeping with claiming to be Christian and pledging to be Christlike, for unwiseness in speech shows failure to learn in the school of Christ. That understanding keeps the soul steadfast amid harsh faultfinding words, answering anger not with anger but with conduct according to God's will. It forbids cutting off fellowship from those unwilling to be dictated to as children and forbids acting a lordly part, requiring remembrance of life in God's presence and action as Christ's servant.
Faithful Living and Witness
Understanding the will of the Lord calls for wise and careful living that redeems the time because the days are evil. It requires refusing to act foolishly and rejecting the suggestions of Satan, since receiving them brings spiritual weakness, confusion, mistakes, and waste of time. Instead time is to be devoted to proclaiming present truth.
In united married and family life, understanding what the will of the Lord is, with the wise and circumspect walk of Ephesians 5:15-21, is the only way husband and wife can glorify God. This means walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, avoiding drunkenness with wine but being filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, giving thanks always for all things to God, and submitting to one another in the fear of God. It requires lifelong faithfulness to each other and self-sacrifice that brings the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with the husband as houseband of the family and priest of his home, loving and cherishing his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband. Putting this will into practice also means refusing to side with the world against Christ, ordering family life under God's control, training children in right habits, and setting a faithful example in home duties, eating, dressing, and work.
By knowing God's will instead of living foolishly, the church shines God's light in clear and distinct rays. This is walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, awaking from sleep and rising so that Christ gives light, walking as children of light in goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what pleases the Lord, following God as dear children, and walking in love as Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice. The character of the work before all who consent to be laborers together with God is to work in Christ's lines, exercising mental endowments to a purpose in making those within their influence wise and better, uplifting and strengthening the weak, and making straight paths for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.
For the worldwide work, acting wisely means understanding and doing what the will of the Lord is for His work in all the world. His will is that the work in every part of the world assist the work in every other part, and in no case is one part of His vineyard to be favored above another. The Southern field and the Australian field are as surely part of His vineyard as Michigan or California, and they are not to be left destitute, barren, and unworked while means are used in ways that do not accomplish the most for Him, but are to be given facilities, help, and hundreds of workers, with favorable opportunities to advance the truth not allowed to pass. Confining resources to one place, such as confining sanitarium earnings to Michigan, handicapping and retarding the medical missionary work, and binding about God's work by documents of human devising is not His will.
In ministry and institutions, understanding what the will of the Lord is means carrying on all work on strictly religious principles, continually asking what pleases the Master and whether this is the way of the Lord, visiting places where believers need encouragement and help, and laboring with an eye single to His glory, so that the work bears the divine mold and carries out His purposes. It means knowing and living in harmony with His will in spirit, word, and action at every step. It means discerning a sanitarium's purpose, whether it is merely to accommodate tourists or to spread truth and carry out medical missionary work. It means discerning God's way of working, refusing partnership with those who cannot discern His will, and separating from them, with readiness to give the warning message while there is still time because deception and opposition will intensify as the end nears. Ministers who side with the world and indulge selfishly in eating, drinking, and dress fail to live by this obedience, since studying and practicing the chapter belongs to understanding and following the Lord's will.
At the St. Helena Health Retreat this understanding calls for education after the divine mind and will instead of surface work with uninstructed hearts, a regenerating power and spiritual life by which each worker lives by every word proceeding from the mouth of God. It calls for refusing inspiration from those bitter against the truth, putting away criticizing and judging brethren whom Christ teaches to respect, love, and esteem better than self, unlearning many things and learning the first principles of loving one another as Christ loved. It calls for gaining moral power not by inheritance but by a minute-by-minute fight of faith into the higher wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, a wisdom that must be carefully pondered and practiced or souls will be lost. It calls for putting away lying, pretense, and hypocrisy because the Lord looks on the heart, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reproving them, awaking from sleep and arising from the dead so Christ gives light, and walking circumspectly as wise and redeeming the time because the days are evil. It calls for hearts of flesh replacing hearts of stone unto conversion and eternal life, complete renovation in the Health Retreat, working from Christlike principles so the cloud resting on the institution will be rolled back, and making a clear distinction between the precious and the vile, for God will not be trifled with and will never vindicate work that blurs that distinction.
In evil days and amid the final conflict, living wisely by understanding the Lord's will includes recognizing responsibilities and remaining loyal to God rather than being careless or asleep to the demands of the hour. At the very close of earth's history believers are to move cautiously, understanding what the will of the Lord is. Imbued with His Spirit, they are to do work that means much and counts for His cause, setting aside even their own planned work for it. That work proclaims the warning message to a world infatuated, deceived, and perishing in sin.
To be unwise is to drift through life without direction, but to understand the Lord's will is to learn it from His Word through prayer and then obey it in careful conduct, work and planning. In its setting this means walking carefully as wise rather than as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, awaking so Christ gives light, and having no fellowship with the works of darkness but reproving them as children of light. It also means being filled with the Spirit rather than dulled by excess, giving thanks in song, bearing the fruit of goodness and righteousness and truth, and living in love, forgiveness, submission and edifying speech. This understanding grows as believers advance step by step in the light of the Word, shown in faithful duty at home, kindness to neighbors and obedience to God's law. Above all it means recognizing that believers belong to God through the suffering and death of His Son, and therefore must keep body and mind holy and healthy for His service, rejecting whatever clouds the intellect, wastes vitality or indulges appetite and selfish pleasure.
Wisdom and God's Will
The command is not to live foolishly but to understand, seek and do what the Lord wills, and prayerful holding to His Word keeps from yielding to the world and from making trials by one's own choices. Wisdom in this sense is obedient understanding that walks carefully, uses time well because the days are evil, and refuses to treat life lightly. That understanding guides careful conduct and work, prayer to God, and the forming of wise plans. It is learned from Christ in doing the work He gives, as laborers together with God, by seeking to know more fully the excellence revealed in His life and by depending on Him for skill and wisdom to act in keeping with His Word.
Understanding of what the Lord wills grows in true Christians as they advance step by step in the light of His Word. That growth appears in parents and children helping one another, in faithful duties at home, in kindness and courtesy to neighbors, and in good works that let light shine amid moral darkness. For fathers and mothers especially it means walking in His light in obedience to His law.
In its setting, understanding the Lord's will is walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil. It is awaking from sleep and rising from death so that Christ gives light, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reproving them, and refusing even to speak of shameful secret things. It is walking as children of light with goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable and pleasing to the Lord, following God as dear children and walking in love as Christ gave Himself a sacrifice. This higher wisdom, first pure then peaceable and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, comes only by a minute-by-minute fight of faith and must be pondered and practiced or souls will be lost. It also requires refusing to be swayed to wrong when serving God collides with common opinions and practices, putting away lying, pretense, hypocrisy, criticizing and judging, and learning to love one another as Christ loved, with hearts of flesh in place of hearts of stone unto conversion and eternal life.
In the same setting, understanding the Lord's will is refusing drunkenness with wine wherein is excess and instead being filled with the Spirit. It is speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with melody in the heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, instead of corrupt and worthless speech. It bears the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness and righteousness and truth, and lives in mutual submission in the fear of God, with gracious edifying speech, forgiveness, and love. Cherishing traits of darkness excludes from heaven, while cherishing traits of light opens the gates of the city of God.
Understanding what the Lord wills means realizing that believers are not their own but were bought by the sufferings and death of the Son of God, and therefore must preserve body and spirit in the best health for His perfect service and to honor Him in body and spirit which are His. Any course that expends vitality, lessens strength, or beclouds the intellect is sin against God and fails to glorify Him. It requires presenting the body a living sacrifice rather than following life-destroying indulgence of inordinate appetite for unhealthful things and selfish gratification with extremists in pleasure, since that sacrifices health, truth, righteousness, and eternal life. In evil days amid corruption and defilement, just before receiving immortality, His will is a holy body and pure spirit standing unstained, sought at once heartily and understandingly without selfishness, with the Spirit of God in perfect control of all actions. The use of wine or tobacco is not essential to Christian growth, for indulgence in intoxicating liquor puts a person wholly under control of the demon who devised this stimulant to deface and destroy the moral image of God.
Knowing God's will so it can be done requires trusting the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, without shrinking from pain and self-sacrifice, without an anxious troubled heart, without fear to trust self with God or fear of the consequences of surrender, and without taking self back after surrender. It forbids showing weakness of character in word and attitude when feeling denied confidence and deference, complaining of brethren, or supposing they intend a hard and trying position. It demands cutting off the right arm and plucking out the eye that discerns in a wrong light, not bearing false witness against a brother in the heart, looking past the brother to Jesus, quelling the sense of being abused and slighted, and having incorrect and unjust suppositions reshaped into His likeness with a single eye to His glory, so that confidence in brethren draws confidence in return.
Understanding what the Lord wills requires speaking wisely, with words to brethren and associates ever respectful and courteous, in keeping with claiming to be Christian and pledging to be Christlike, for unwiseness in speech shows failure to learn in the school of Christ. That understanding keeps the soul steadfast amid harsh faultfinding words, answering anger not with anger but with conduct according to God's will. It forbids cutting off fellowship from those unwilling to be dictated to as children and forbids acting a lordly part, requiring remembrance of life in God's presence and action as Christ's servant.
Faithful Living and Witness
Understanding the will of the Lord calls for wise and careful living that redeems the time because the days are evil. It requires refusing to act foolishly and rejecting the suggestions of Satan, since receiving them brings spiritual weakness, confusion, mistakes, and waste of time. Instead time is to be devoted to proclaiming present truth.
In united married and family life, understanding what the will of the Lord is, with the wise and circumspect walk of Ephesians 5:15-21, is the only way husband and wife can glorify God. This means walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, avoiding drunkenness with wine but being filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, giving thanks always for all things to God, and submitting to one another in the fear of God. It requires lifelong faithfulness to each other and self-sacrifice that brings the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with the husband as houseband of the family and priest of his home, loving and cherishing his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband. Putting this will into practice also means refusing to side with the world against Christ, ordering family life under God's control, training children in right habits, and setting a faithful example in home duties, eating, dressing, and work.
By knowing God's will instead of living foolishly, the church shines God's light in clear and distinct rays. This is walking circumspectly as wise and not as fools, redeeming the time because the days are evil, awaking from sleep and rising so that Christ gives light, walking as children of light in goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what pleases the Lord, following God as dear children, and walking in love as Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice. The character of the work before all who consent to be laborers together with God is to work in Christ's lines, exercising mental endowments to a purpose in making those within their influence wise and better, uplifting and strengthening the weak, and making straight paths for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.
For the worldwide work, acting wisely means understanding and doing what the will of the Lord is for His work in all the world. His will is that the work in every part of the world assist the work in every other part, and in no case is one part of His vineyard to be favored above another. The Southern field and the Australian field are as surely part of His vineyard as Michigan or California, and they are not to be left destitute, barren, and unworked while means are used in ways that do not accomplish the most for Him, but are to be given facilities, help, and hundreds of workers, with favorable opportunities to advance the truth not allowed to pass. Confining resources to one place, such as confining sanitarium earnings to Michigan, handicapping and retarding the medical missionary work, and binding about God's work by documents of human devising is not His will.
In ministry and institutions, understanding what the will of the Lord is means carrying on all work on strictly religious principles, continually asking what pleases the Master and whether this is the way of the Lord, visiting places where believers need encouragement and help, and laboring with an eye single to His glory, so that the work bears the divine mold and carries out His purposes. It means knowing and living in harmony with His will in spirit, word, and action at every step. It means discerning a sanitarium's purpose, whether it is merely to accommodate tourists or to spread truth and carry out medical missionary work. It means discerning God's way of working, refusing partnership with those who cannot discern His will, and separating from them, with readiness to give the warning message while there is still time because deception and opposition will intensify as the end nears. Ministers who side with the world and indulge selfishly in eating, drinking, and dress fail to live by this obedience, since studying and practicing the chapter belongs to understanding and following the Lord's will.
At the St. Helena Health Retreat this understanding calls for education after the divine mind and will instead of surface work with uninstructed hearts, a regenerating power and spiritual life by which each worker lives by every word proceeding from the mouth of God. It calls for refusing inspiration from those bitter against the truth, putting away criticizing and judging brethren whom Christ teaches to respect, love, and esteem better than self, unlearning many things and learning the first principles of loving one another as Christ loved. It calls for gaining moral power not by inheritance but by a minute-by-minute fight of faith into the higher wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, a wisdom that must be carefully pondered and practiced or souls will be lost. It calls for putting away lying, pretense, and hypocrisy because the Lord looks on the heart, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reproving them, awaking from sleep and arising from the dead so Christ gives light, and walking circumspectly as wise and redeeming the time because the days are evil. It calls for hearts of flesh replacing hearts of stone unto conversion and eternal life, complete renovation in the Health Retreat, working from Christlike principles so the cloud resting on the institution will be rolled back, and making a clear distinction between the precious and the vile, for God will not be trifled with and will never vindicate work that blurs that distinction.
In evil days and amid the final conflict, living wisely by understanding the Lord's will includes recognizing responsibilities and remaining loyal to God rather than being careless or asleep to the demands of the hour. At the very close of earth's history believers are to move cautiously, understanding what the will of the Lord is. Imbued with His Spirit, they are to do work that means much and counts for His cause, setting aside even their own planned work for it. That work proclaims the warning message to a world infatuated, deceived, and perishing in sin.