Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
God addressed His favored people when their worship of sacrifices, offerings and prayers was rejected because their hands were full of blood and their lives transgressed His law. He commanded them to wash, be made clean, put away evil and cease to do evil, turning from outward ceremony to practical obedience. Learning to do well is active and purposeful doing of good day by day, requiring earnest effort, self-control and strict integrity according to His Word. True repentance bears this fruit in a renewed heart, pursuing justice, relieving the crushed and oppressed, and defending the rights of the fatherless, the widow and the needy. To the willing and obedient He promises that though sins are as scarlet they shall be white as snow and they shall eat the good of the land, but if they refuse and rebel they shall be devoured with the sword.
Setting and Original Terms
The word came in vision to Isaiah concerning the true spiritual condition of Judah and Jerusalem, the once favored people called to hold universal dominion under the seed of David but now addressed as rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah whom God would destroy for iniquity.
It was given because God rejected the multitude of sacrifices, vain oblations, incense, new moons and sabbaths, solemn assemblies, spread hands and many prayers when hands were full of blood and the life transgressed His holy law. Sacrifices and offerings cannot remove guilt without sincere repentance, but belong to a demand for genuine heart change, humility, and obedience to God's law.
To learn to do well is to turn from outward ceremony claimed as righteousness to practical obedience: wash, be made clean, put away evil doings and cease to do evil. Worship and sacrifice are worthless when people persist in evil; they must turn from wrongdoing and learn to do what is right, for true devotion opposes wrongdoing and cares for those who are vulnerable. The same condition was fulfilled by the leaders and teachers of the Jewish nation in Christ's day, whose city had become a harlot full of murderers, rebellious princes and thieves who judged not the fatherless and shut out the widow's cause, while Christ's heart still pleaded and wept over them. That is how God regards all who claim to be righteous while transgressing His law, the same condition seen in the men driven from the temple courts, exposing the contrast between outward religious ceremony and a life of obedience and mercy and between outward observance and the weightier duties of judgment and mercy.
Learning to Do Good
Merely stopping wrongdoing does not complete what is required, for learning to do well is active and purposeful doing of good that must be learned and practiced rather than only left off from evil. To cease evil yet fail to learn good is to live as if with no purpose in life, while a changed life must keep growing in Christ and bear fruit to God's glory. That learning calls for taxing every nerve and muscle to seek active good, taking advantage of circumstances to master every difficulty, and cultivating the qualities that give value to all that is done. It includes cultivating God-given abilities and using them in faithful service with God rather than continuing in disobedience and indulgence, since growth and choice carry responsibility and failing to pursue what is good can cost eternal life.
Learning to do well is a lesson to be learned day by day, beginning with training and control of self. It means living a life of strict integrity guided and restrained by the moral and religious principles plainly laid down in God's Word, walking in the way of God's commandments in accordance with the mind and will of God. It requires refusing to be led by hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, so that such a life becomes a continual education to others and a daily life in keeping with God's will.
Doing well must be learned and practiced, not merely desired, through earnest effort, patient work, and grace. By grace it means living faithfully in the work entrusted to each person, putting life and strength into it and continuing without giving in to idleness or discouragement. Words, actions, and character are recorded, and faithful, persevering labor with God prepares a harvest of blessings and blessedness. Daily labor to do God's work and represent Christ makes a person's life like a letter others can read, and steady progress through Christ leads to victory and bears fruit that brings glory to God.
These duties are a proper field for the use of the mind and for practical activity, providing worthwhile work for the intellect and a change of exercise. Doing well in this sense includes seeking justice, relieving the oppressed, protecting the fatherless, and pleading for the widow. Obedience to this instruction brings the promise of good.
Learning to do well is linked to accepting instruction and correcting wrongs, which helps overcome self-importance, while refusing counsel leaves a person more firmly settled in wrong habits. The change is active: righteous principles are to be cultivated and lived out in dealings with others.
Repentance and Forgiveness
Turning from evil must be joined with learning to do what is right, for repentance requires more than admitting sin or offering pleasant words and profession while continuing to do wrong. Putting wrongdoing away belongs to cleansing and reform, including actively pursuing justice by seeking judgment, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and orphans, and pleading for widows. Those who have turned from God are called to stop doing evil, repent, humble themselves before Him, turn from transgression and surrender to Him, cooperating with Him in forsaking wrongdoing. This practical change of conduct transforms the sinful life and follows holiness.
Compassion for the afflicted and suffering is among the first fruits of repentance and the first outflowing of love from a renewed heart, coming after washing clean and putting away evil and ceasing to do evil. Sincere repentance, confession, conversion and cleansing must bring a change in conduct that makes confession acceptable, including learning to do good, pursuing justice, helping the oppressed, and defending the fatherless and widows. These duties express love for neighbor and obedience to the last six commandments, and they show the loving, merciful and righteous character God requires as part of pure religion, sanctification and thorough reformation. They are the loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in which God delights.
The call is urgent because people are hastening toward the judgment when every case will be decided for eternity. It is God's voice speaking today calling for repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, to stop evil life-practices and learn goodness through thorough reformation and sanctification. Time is short and eternity is before us, so preparation must be made to change worlds by humbling proud hearts, being converted, ceasing to do evil, and living a life conformed to the teachings of the Word, which alone enables rightly appreciating and understanding the words of truth. Even after grave wrongdoing and departure from God there is still a call to cleanse the life and reform, demanding decisive repentance before it is too late. Truth condemns wrong conduct and demands this change, which is why unbelievers fight it and refuse to believe, while men and women thoroughly awakened to their need of reformation will believe and do it.
The call to obey leads into God's offer of pardon and restoration, for He holds out His hand to take hold and help into the narrow path of self-denial and self-sacrifice to share heirship as sons of God, entreating discernment of the only hope. When people live humbly and penitently, cease from evil and do well, accept Christ by living faith, turn from sin and rely on Christ for pardon, God forgives transgressions, washes clean, frees from sin's burden and penalty, and accepts them as they grow in grace and knowledge. Changed conduct in learning to do what is right is part of the response to cleansing and forgiveness.
Genuine conversion makes the change visible in both heart and conduct, as the person leaves unrighteousness and the path of transgression and follows holiness. Those who repent and rely on Christ for pardon grow in grace and knowledge, obey Him, overcome selfish desires, walk blamelessly in all His commandments and ordinances, and show vigorous effort to obey because Christ is formed within. That means putting away sin and unbelief and choosing faith and hope rather than dwelling on discouragement, for faith grows as people act in trust and God honors their faith. The converted person's effort to obey makes the reality of conversion visible.
Learning to do well means continued growth in Christ, cultivating God-given abilities and using them in faithful service to God rather than continuing in disobedience and indulgence or returning to disobedience. Stopping evil is not enough, and failing to pursue what is good carries responsibility that can cost eternal life. Putting on Christ as a student in His school makes love perfect and ends harassing self-condemnation for the sinner saved by His blood. Low selfish motives are expelled and replaced with seeking how best to glorify Him by entering upon His life and practicing His virtues with Him as model, no longer corrupted by worldly maxims, with gratitude, love and loyalty dwelling richly as the motives that govern heaven in every final overcomer.
Remembering past wrongs should serve as lesson and guide to avoid repeating them and live without future regret. Those who seek God's help and walk in obedience receive divine help to correct their course and reform from disobedience and evil deeds. Apparent repentance without putting away evil works fails to answer reproof and brings shame and sorrow.
Justice for Vulnerable People
To seek judgment and relieve the oppressed is to pursue justice in active protection of the vulnerable, defending fatherless children, pleading for widows, and relieving those crushed by oppression as the expression of a loving, merciful and righteous character that should mark conduct including dealings at work. It means defending the rights of widows, orphans and strangers, rejecting bribes that would clear the guilty or punish the innocent, and working unselfishly for the good of others in public and social affairs. It requires living with integrity, turning from evil and from dishonest acts that take advantage of others into real reformation in everyday life. It means not neglecting or passing by those who are being wronged, but reproving the oppressor and pleading for justice even when the duty is disagreeable, and maintaining justice and equity in all institutions.
The widow and the fatherless are objects of special divine care. To rob them of what they should have, to regard their needs with indifference, to oppress a widow or to neglect a father who pleads for consideration is an offense charged against the one responsible, and such persons will be dealt with by the Judge of all the earth. No one can receive divine favor while unfeeling and selfish, for God tests His people as individuals and will not suffer His heritage to be oppressed. He will avenge His own elect who cry day and night to Him, and will avenge them speedily. His cause requires justice.
Doing what is right includes defending the poor, the fatherless, the motherless, the overworked and the afflicted, treating widows justly, relieving the needy, helping those in need, preventing others from taking unfair advantage of them, and speaking up when people are oppressed. Neglecting or exploiting the afflicted, including orphans, widows, and people with disabilities or illness, is a serious wrong, and the church is accountable for its members' conduct and must do what it can to correct such wrongs. Treatment of widows and fatherless children must be genuine, not covered by deception or a show of righteousness, because motives and actions are open to divine scrutiny. These acts of justice and mercy are fruits of a life brought into submission to God. God will not hear prayers while needy people are neglected.
Caring for the poor by pursuing justice, helping the oppressed, defending orphans and pleading for widows is a lasting investment that builds treasure of character enduring beyond earthly wealth. True repentance must be shown in doing what is right and in defending the vulnerable, and religious worship and prayer are unacceptable when joined with neglect of the needy, hardness of heart, or wrongdoing. The suffering have a claim on sympathy, help, comfort and Christlike love. Neglecting them is counted as neglecting Christ and is recorded in heaven.
The command is laid upon managers in religious institutions, ministers, leaders in the office, rulers, judges, and all connected with the divine cause and entrusted with authority. They must set aside pride, harshness and an exacting spirit, and act with meekness and Christian integrity. They are to work unselfishly for the good of others, defend the rights of the vulnerable, relieve the oppressed, reject bribes, and maintain justice and equity in all institutions and in public and social affairs, not neglecting those wronged but reproving the oppressor even when disagreeable. Turning from evil to practice such care and justice expresses the character God delights in, and heeding it brings sanctifying, cleansing, blessing and prosperity to the workers.
Worship and Obedience
Turning from evil to active good — seeking justice, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and pleading for the widow — is the test of acceptable worship, and prayer and outward religious observance do not please God when joined to wrongdoing and neglect of those in need. Worship and prayer are unacceptable when joined with hardness of heart, wrongdoing, or exploitation of the afflicted, and neglect of suffering people is counted as neglect of Christ and is recorded in heaven. The church is accountable for the conduct of its members and must do what it can to correct the neglect or exploitation of orphans, widows, and those with disabilities or illness, for God will not hear its prayers while needy ones among them are neglected.
Multiplying sacrifices as empty religious service cannot take the place of obedience and care for those in need, and turning from sin means learning to do right by acting justly toward the oppressed, fatherless, and widowed. These duties stand in contrast to offering sacrifices without sincere repentance, since religious service without repentance cannot remove guilt. Offerings cannot take the place of sorrow for sin and obedience to God, for a broken and contrite heart is worth more than many sacrifices offered without repentance. What is demanded is genuine change of heart expressed in humility and obedience to God's law.
These commands to seek justice and care for the vulnerable call all connected with God's cause to turn from evil and practice justice, and heeding them brings the Lord's sanctifying, cleansing, and blessing with prosperity in the work. They express love for neighbor and obedience to the last six commandments, belonging to pure religion and to the loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in which God delights. They show the loving, merciful, and righteous character God requires.
A heart not right with God is cold and loveless and cannot fulfill this learning to do well, while ceasing to do evil and learning to do well brings the blessing of the Lord. That learning begins with home missionary work by one's own fireside for members of one's own household. It requires partaking of the divine nature and following the great Example who neither fails nor is discouraged, bearing unappreciated kindness with meekness and doing everything for others as done for Christ who died for them.
Promise Warning and Healing
The call to stop doing wrong and learn to do right is joined to an offer to reason together, in which even faults as deep as scarlet and crimson can become as white as snow and wool for those who turn, wash clean, put away evil practices, separate from all that dishonors God, humble the heart and surrender to Him. God holds out His hand to lead into the narrow path of self-denial and self-sacrifice into heirship as sons of God, entreating discernment of the only hope, cleansing from all iniquity and every practice grievous in His sight through seeking just judgment, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and pleading for the widow. The condition is willingness and obedience, and those who take heed and obey shall eat the good of the land and be greatly blessed. Those who refuse and rebel shall be devoured with the sword, facing judgment, ruin and destruction. The same appeal was spoken to those called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, whose multitude of sacrifices, vain oblations, new moons, sabbaths, assemblies, spread hands and many prayers were refused because hands were full of blood, and it was fulfilled again by leaders and teachers in Christ's day whose beloved city had become a harlot full of murderers, with rebellious princes and thieves who judged not the fatherless and shut out the widow's cause, while Christ's heart still pleaded and wept over the rebellious son.
The same words speak directly to dealers in liquor, whose hands are full of blood from a bloody and unjust trade. They are commanded to wash, become clean, put away evil doings and stop doing evil. In their place they are to learn active right-doing and mercy by seeking justice, helping those crushed by oppression, defending orphans and speaking up for widows.
Applied to sickness, receiving blessing in answer to prayer for healing requires ceasing deliberate disobedience and transgression of God's law. This means giving up unhealthy practices, laying aside unhealthful habits, adopting correct habits, and living in harmony with God's natural and spiritual law. Those who stop doing evil and learn to do well receive healing power through Christ by the Holy Spirit, especially as the sick look to Christ as the great Healer and do all that is possible in cooperation with Him. Those who continue in willful sin and violation of the laws of heaven bring disease and suffering upon themselves that God cannot bless. In health reform likewise, health can be regained or preserved only through self-control and obedience to the laws of life by turning from harmful practices, not by relying on medicines while continuing harmful habits.
Applications for Daily Life
Every youth is called to stop doing evil by learning to do well, which means seeking to do one's best every day, fighting against hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, and uniting with others in being true to virtue and true to God. It means being studious and reaching upward for the highest attainments, with earnest, determined effort to gain the knowledge and understanding needed to take a place in the higher grade in the courts above. The Lord looks with approval on watchful, diligent students who make such effort. Gaining the life that measures with the life of God demands a firm stand against spreading depravity, rejecting the wrong and choosing the right, and bravely resisting temptation in every line. Overcoming small temptations strengthens for overcoming large ones.
The same call applies to personal change of direction: by yielding to Christ a person can leave evil behind and learn to do well. For the young man it means learning God's ways, will, and works and becoming more like Christ, for only then can God's blessing rest on him. In daily choices it means resisting wrong, choosing right, and refusing to excuse small wrongs, since small wrongs lead to greater wrongdoing and weaken the moral powers. For one who has done wrong it means repenting and changing conduct toward wife and children, stopping evil and learning to do what is right.
Learning to do good includes correcting wrong and seeking a righteous course toward one who has gone astray, seeking to bring the erring back through kind and tender reproof. If the person persists in sin, leave them with God after faithful warning has been given. The one who has faithfully tried to help has done duty, and though the effort may not persuade, doing what is right brings its blessing back to the faithful helper. Once warned, the erring person's continued sin is their own responsibility.
Doing well must be learned and practiced, not merely desired, calling for earnest effort and patient work. Applied to character, this means daily labor to do God's work and represent Christ, so that life is like a letter others can read, with steady progress through Christ leading to victory. By grace, learning to do well means living faithfully in the work entrusted to each person, putting life and strength into it and continuing without giving in to idleness or discouragement. Words, actions, and character are recorded, and faithful labor with God prepares a harvest of blessedness. Harmony with God includes learning to do righteous deeds after the example of Christ's earthly life, carried out in the simplicity of true godliness.
God addressed His favored people when their worship of sacrifices, offerings and prayers was rejected because their hands were full of blood and their lives transgressed His law. He commanded them to wash, be made clean, put away evil and cease to do evil, turning from outward ceremony to practical obedience. Learning to do well is active and purposeful doing of good day by day, requiring earnest effort, self-control and strict integrity according to His Word. True repentance bears this fruit in a renewed heart, pursuing justice, relieving the crushed and oppressed, and defending the rights of the fatherless, the widow and the needy. To the willing and obedient He promises that though sins are as scarlet they shall be white as snow and they shall eat the good of the land, but if they refuse and rebel they shall be devoured with the sword.
Setting and Original Terms
The word came in vision to Isaiah concerning the true spiritual condition of Judah and Jerusalem, the once favored people called to hold universal dominion under the seed of David but now addressed as rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah whom God would destroy for iniquity.
It was given because God rejected the multitude of sacrifices, vain oblations, incense, new moons and sabbaths, solemn assemblies, spread hands and many prayers when hands were full of blood and the life transgressed His holy law. Sacrifices and offerings cannot remove guilt without sincere repentance, but belong to a demand for genuine heart change, humility, and obedience to God's law.
To learn to do well is to turn from outward ceremony claimed as righteousness to practical obedience: wash, be made clean, put away evil doings and cease to do evil. Worship and sacrifice are worthless when people persist in evil; they must turn from wrongdoing and learn to do what is right, for true devotion opposes wrongdoing and cares for those who are vulnerable. The same condition was fulfilled by the leaders and teachers of the Jewish nation in Christ's day, whose city had become a harlot full of murderers, rebellious princes and thieves who judged not the fatherless and shut out the widow's cause, while Christ's heart still pleaded and wept over them. That is how God regards all who claim to be righteous while transgressing His law, the same condition seen in the men driven from the temple courts, exposing the contrast between outward religious ceremony and a life of obedience and mercy and between outward observance and the weightier duties of judgment and mercy.
Learning to Do Good
Merely stopping wrongdoing does not complete what is required, for learning to do well is active and purposeful doing of good that must be learned and practiced rather than only left off from evil. To cease evil yet fail to learn good is to live as if with no purpose in life, while a changed life must keep growing in Christ and bear fruit to God's glory. That learning calls for taxing every nerve and muscle to seek active good, taking advantage of circumstances to master every difficulty, and cultivating the qualities that give value to all that is done. It includes cultivating God-given abilities and using them in faithful service with God rather than continuing in disobedience and indulgence, since growth and choice carry responsibility and failing to pursue what is good can cost eternal life.
Learning to do well is a lesson to be learned day by day, beginning with training and control of self. It means living a life of strict integrity guided and restrained by the moral and religious principles plainly laid down in God's Word, walking in the way of God's commandments in accordance with the mind and will of God. It requires refusing to be led by hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, so that such a life becomes a continual education to others and a daily life in keeping with God's will.
Doing well must be learned and practiced, not merely desired, through earnest effort, patient work, and grace. By grace it means living faithfully in the work entrusted to each person, putting life and strength into it and continuing without giving in to idleness or discouragement. Words, actions, and character are recorded, and faithful, persevering labor with God prepares a harvest of blessings and blessedness. Daily labor to do God's work and represent Christ makes a person's life like a letter others can read, and steady progress through Christ leads to victory and bears fruit that brings glory to God.
These duties are a proper field for the use of the mind and for practical activity, providing worthwhile work for the intellect and a change of exercise. Doing well in this sense includes seeking justice, relieving the oppressed, protecting the fatherless, and pleading for the widow. Obedience to this instruction brings the promise of good.
Learning to do well is linked to accepting instruction and correcting wrongs, which helps overcome self-importance, while refusing counsel leaves a person more firmly settled in wrong habits. The change is active: righteous principles are to be cultivated and lived out in dealings with others.
Repentance and Forgiveness
Turning from evil must be joined with learning to do what is right, for repentance requires more than admitting sin or offering pleasant words and profession while continuing to do wrong. Putting wrongdoing away belongs to cleansing and reform, including actively pursuing justice by seeking judgment, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and orphans, and pleading for widows. Those who have turned from God are called to stop doing evil, repent, humble themselves before Him, turn from transgression and surrender to Him, cooperating with Him in forsaking wrongdoing. This practical change of conduct transforms the sinful life and follows holiness.
Compassion for the afflicted and suffering is among the first fruits of repentance and the first outflowing of love from a renewed heart, coming after washing clean and putting away evil and ceasing to do evil. Sincere repentance, confession, conversion and cleansing must bring a change in conduct that makes confession acceptable, including learning to do good, pursuing justice, helping the oppressed, and defending the fatherless and widows. These duties express love for neighbor and obedience to the last six commandments, and they show the loving, merciful and righteous character God requires as part of pure religion, sanctification and thorough reformation. They are the loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in which God delights.
The call is urgent because people are hastening toward the judgment when every case will be decided for eternity. It is God's voice speaking today calling for repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, to stop evil life-practices and learn goodness through thorough reformation and sanctification. Time is short and eternity is before us, so preparation must be made to change worlds by humbling proud hearts, being converted, ceasing to do evil, and living a life conformed to the teachings of the Word, which alone enables rightly appreciating and understanding the words of truth. Even after grave wrongdoing and departure from God there is still a call to cleanse the life and reform, demanding decisive repentance before it is too late. Truth condemns wrong conduct and demands this change, which is why unbelievers fight it and refuse to believe, while men and women thoroughly awakened to their need of reformation will believe and do it.
The call to obey leads into God's offer of pardon and restoration, for He holds out His hand to take hold and help into the narrow path of self-denial and self-sacrifice to share heirship as sons of God, entreating discernment of the only hope. When people live humbly and penitently, cease from evil and do well, accept Christ by living faith, turn from sin and rely on Christ for pardon, God forgives transgressions, washes clean, frees from sin's burden and penalty, and accepts them as they grow in grace and knowledge. Changed conduct in learning to do what is right is part of the response to cleansing and forgiveness.
Genuine conversion makes the change visible in both heart and conduct, as the person leaves unrighteousness and the path of transgression and follows holiness. Those who repent and rely on Christ for pardon grow in grace and knowledge, obey Him, overcome selfish desires, walk blamelessly in all His commandments and ordinances, and show vigorous effort to obey because Christ is formed within. That means putting away sin and unbelief and choosing faith and hope rather than dwelling on discouragement, for faith grows as people act in trust and God honors their faith. The converted person's effort to obey makes the reality of conversion visible.
Learning to do well means continued growth in Christ, cultivating God-given abilities and using them in faithful service to God rather than continuing in disobedience and indulgence or returning to disobedience. Stopping evil is not enough, and failing to pursue what is good carries responsibility that can cost eternal life. Putting on Christ as a student in His school makes love perfect and ends harassing self-condemnation for the sinner saved by His blood. Low selfish motives are expelled and replaced with seeking how best to glorify Him by entering upon His life and practicing His virtues with Him as model, no longer corrupted by worldly maxims, with gratitude, love and loyalty dwelling richly as the motives that govern heaven in every final overcomer.
Remembering past wrongs should serve as lesson and guide to avoid repeating them and live without future regret. Those who seek God's help and walk in obedience receive divine help to correct their course and reform from disobedience and evil deeds. Apparent repentance without putting away evil works fails to answer reproof and brings shame and sorrow.
Justice for Vulnerable People
To seek judgment and relieve the oppressed is to pursue justice in active protection of the vulnerable, defending fatherless children, pleading for widows, and relieving those crushed by oppression as the expression of a loving, merciful and righteous character that should mark conduct including dealings at work. It means defending the rights of widows, orphans and strangers, rejecting bribes that would clear the guilty or punish the innocent, and working unselfishly for the good of others in public and social affairs. It requires living with integrity, turning from evil and from dishonest acts that take advantage of others into real reformation in everyday life. It means not neglecting or passing by those who are being wronged, but reproving the oppressor and pleading for justice even when the duty is disagreeable, and maintaining justice and equity in all institutions.
The widow and the fatherless are objects of special divine care. To rob them of what they should have, to regard their needs with indifference, to oppress a widow or to neglect a father who pleads for consideration is an offense charged against the one responsible, and such persons will be dealt with by the Judge of all the earth. No one can receive divine favor while unfeeling and selfish, for God tests His people as individuals and will not suffer His heritage to be oppressed. He will avenge His own elect who cry day and night to Him, and will avenge them speedily. His cause requires justice.
Doing what is right includes defending the poor, the fatherless, the motherless, the overworked and the afflicted, treating widows justly, relieving the needy, helping those in need, preventing others from taking unfair advantage of them, and speaking up when people are oppressed. Neglecting or exploiting the afflicted, including orphans, widows, and people with disabilities or illness, is a serious wrong, and the church is accountable for its members' conduct and must do what it can to correct such wrongs. Treatment of widows and fatherless children must be genuine, not covered by deception or a show of righteousness, because motives and actions are open to divine scrutiny. These acts of justice and mercy are fruits of a life brought into submission to God. God will not hear prayers while needy people are neglected.
Caring for the poor by pursuing justice, helping the oppressed, defending orphans and pleading for widows is a lasting investment that builds treasure of character enduring beyond earthly wealth. True repentance must be shown in doing what is right and in defending the vulnerable, and religious worship and prayer are unacceptable when joined with neglect of the needy, hardness of heart, or wrongdoing. The suffering have a claim on sympathy, help, comfort and Christlike love. Neglecting them is counted as neglecting Christ and is recorded in heaven.
The command is laid upon managers in religious institutions, ministers, leaders in the office, rulers, judges, and all connected with the divine cause and entrusted with authority. They must set aside pride, harshness and an exacting spirit, and act with meekness and Christian integrity. They are to work unselfishly for the good of others, defend the rights of the vulnerable, relieve the oppressed, reject bribes, and maintain justice and equity in all institutions and in public and social affairs, not neglecting those wronged but reproving the oppressor even when disagreeable. Turning from evil to practice such care and justice expresses the character God delights in, and heeding it brings sanctifying, cleansing, blessing and prosperity to the workers.
Worship and Obedience
Turning from evil to active good — seeking justice, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and pleading for the widow — is the test of acceptable worship, and prayer and outward religious observance do not please God when joined to wrongdoing and neglect of those in need. Worship and prayer are unacceptable when joined with hardness of heart, wrongdoing, or exploitation of the afflicted, and neglect of suffering people is counted as neglect of Christ and is recorded in heaven. The church is accountable for the conduct of its members and must do what it can to correct the neglect or exploitation of orphans, widows, and those with disabilities or illness, for God will not hear its prayers while needy ones among them are neglected.
Multiplying sacrifices as empty religious service cannot take the place of obedience and care for those in need, and turning from sin means learning to do right by acting justly toward the oppressed, fatherless, and widowed. These duties stand in contrast to offering sacrifices without sincere repentance, since religious service without repentance cannot remove guilt. Offerings cannot take the place of sorrow for sin and obedience to God, for a broken and contrite heart is worth more than many sacrifices offered without repentance. What is demanded is genuine change of heart expressed in humility and obedience to God's law.
These commands to seek justice and care for the vulnerable call all connected with God's cause to turn from evil and practice justice, and heeding them brings the Lord's sanctifying, cleansing, and blessing with prosperity in the work. They express love for neighbor and obedience to the last six commandments, belonging to pure religion and to the loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in which God delights. They show the loving, merciful, and righteous character God requires.
A heart not right with God is cold and loveless and cannot fulfill this learning to do well, while ceasing to do evil and learning to do well brings the blessing of the Lord. That learning begins with home missionary work by one's own fireside for members of one's own household. It requires partaking of the divine nature and following the great Example who neither fails nor is discouraged, bearing unappreciated kindness with meekness and doing everything for others as done for Christ who died for them.
Promise Warning and Healing
The call to stop doing wrong and learn to do right is joined to an offer to reason together, in which even faults as deep as scarlet and crimson can become as white as snow and wool for those who turn, wash clean, put away evil practices, separate from all that dishonors God, humble the heart and surrender to Him. God holds out His hand to lead into the narrow path of self-denial and self-sacrifice into heirship as sons of God, entreating discernment of the only hope, cleansing from all iniquity and every practice grievous in His sight through seeking just judgment, relieving the oppressed, defending the fatherless and pleading for the widow. The condition is willingness and obedience, and those who take heed and obey shall eat the good of the land and be greatly blessed. Those who refuse and rebel shall be devoured with the sword, facing judgment, ruin and destruction. The same appeal was spoken to those called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, whose multitude of sacrifices, vain oblations, new moons, sabbaths, assemblies, spread hands and many prayers were refused because hands were full of blood, and it was fulfilled again by leaders and teachers in Christ's day whose beloved city had become a harlot full of murderers, with rebellious princes and thieves who judged not the fatherless and shut out the widow's cause, while Christ's heart still pleaded and wept over the rebellious son.
The same words speak directly to dealers in liquor, whose hands are full of blood from a bloody and unjust trade. They are commanded to wash, become clean, put away evil doings and stop doing evil. In their place they are to learn active right-doing and mercy by seeking justice, helping those crushed by oppression, defending orphans and speaking up for widows.
Applied to sickness, receiving blessing in answer to prayer for healing requires ceasing deliberate disobedience and transgression of God's law. This means giving up unhealthy practices, laying aside unhealthful habits, adopting correct habits, and living in harmony with God's natural and spiritual law. Those who stop doing evil and learn to do well receive healing power through Christ by the Holy Spirit, especially as the sick look to Christ as the great Healer and do all that is possible in cooperation with Him. Those who continue in willful sin and violation of the laws of heaven bring disease and suffering upon themselves that God cannot bless. In health reform likewise, health can be regained or preserved only through self-control and obedience to the laws of life by turning from harmful practices, not by relying on medicines while continuing harmful habits.
Applications for Daily Life
Every youth is called to stop doing evil by learning to do well, which means seeking to do one's best every day, fighting against hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, and uniting with others in being true to virtue and true to God. It means being studious and reaching upward for the highest attainments, with earnest, determined effort to gain the knowledge and understanding needed to take a place in the higher grade in the courts above. The Lord looks with approval on watchful, diligent students who make such effort. Gaining the life that measures with the life of God demands a firm stand against spreading depravity, rejecting the wrong and choosing the right, and bravely resisting temptation in every line. Overcoming small temptations strengthens for overcoming large ones.
The same call applies to personal change of direction: by yielding to Christ a person can leave evil behind and learn to do well. For the young man it means learning God's ways, will, and works and becoming more like Christ, for only then can God's blessing rest on him. In daily choices it means resisting wrong, choosing right, and refusing to excuse small wrongs, since small wrongs lead to greater wrongdoing and weaken the moral powers. For one who has done wrong it means repenting and changing conduct toward wife and children, stopping evil and learning to do what is right.
Learning to do good includes correcting wrong and seeking a righteous course toward one who has gone astray, seeking to bring the erring back through kind and tender reproof. If the person persists in sin, leave them with God after faithful warning has been given. The one who has faithfully tried to help has done duty, and though the effort may not persuade, doing what is right brings its blessing back to the faithful helper. Once warned, the erring person's continued sin is their own responsibility.
Doing well must be learned and practiced, not merely desired, calling for earnest effort and patient work. Applied to character, this means daily labor to do God's work and represent Christ, so that life is like a letter others can read, with steady progress through Christ leading to victory. By grace, learning to do well means living faithfully in the work entrusted to each person, putting life and strength into it and continuing without giving in to idleness or discouragement. Words, actions, and character are recorded, and faithful labor with God prepares a harvest of blessedness. Harmony with God includes learning to do righteous deeds after the example of Christ's earthly life, carried out in the simplicity of true godliness.