And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Ye also are to bear witness because ye have been constantly with Jesus from the beginning of His public ministry, seeing His life and deeds and hearing His teaching firsthand so as to testify of what was seen and heard. Their witness joins and cooperates with the testimony of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth sent from the Father, who brings Christ's words to mind and empowers public testimony of His death, resurrection and exaltation so that many believe. This charge was given as farewell encouragement with knowledge of coming hatred, persecution, imprisonment and death, that they would remember His words and continue witnessing because the world hated Him first. The call reaches beyond the first disciples to all who now hear Christ, who though not with Him in person may through the Holy Spirit guiding into all truth also bear witness for the Saviour in union with Him as branch to vine. That witness is borne not by lips alone but by works, by holding forth the word of life in pure and consistent lives, loving one another as Christ loved, and bearing much fruit to the glory of the Father.
Setting and Context
The saying was spoken privately to the eleven disciples alone in the upper chamber after Judas had left, as farewell words about His approaching separation from them near the close of His earthly ministry when a cruel death lay before Him. It belonged to His instruction to them before He was separated from them, whose future work would require human effort joined with divine power, since without reliance on God's agency they would fail in the work appointed them. They afterward repeated these words to strengthen one another, though they understood them fully only after the resurrection. In this setting the words stand as a source of courage, hope and comfort for believers.
It belongs to the encouragement of John 14-16, spoken because He knew the trials His church would face through unconverted believers, and though He knew His own terrible ordeal of betrayal, scourging and death, His thoughts were not of Himself but to comfort His disciples and strengthen them to endure without failing when faith and courage would be severely tried. That portion is full of encouragement and hope, and for those who study it, it imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time lasts. The chapter is full of encouragement, assurance and hope, urging believers to strengthen faith through Christ's evidence and the Word and to encourage others in faith. This instruction before He left them was meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations they would face.
It belongs to the teaching on the relation of the branch to the vine and of the true vine and the branches, giving lessons to be practiced in working together with Jesus Christ in obedience to His words. It is part of the teaching in John 14-15 showing Christ's love through obedience to His commandments, obedience being the Bible test for those who have received the privilege of light. Through the vine and its branches believers receive Christ's life by taking His word into practical life and obeying it, with faith shown in conversation and character. It continues the teaching that His followers are one and are to be one in Christ and through Christ in God, doing the obedience Christ gave to the Father and sharing the honor the Father gives the Son. The teaching calls Christ's followers to remain faithful to Him and obey His words rather than be ruled by the world, in conflict with a world that opposes from not knowing the Father who sent Jesus.
The surrounding instruction in John 14 and 15 is to be studied by city workers and all learners with hearts open to divine teaching and eyes fixed on Jesus as author and finisher of faith. It is to be understood with new enlightenment through the influence of the Spirit of God. It was written amid wonderful peace, with the atmosphere of heaven and the felt presence of Jesus, with the mind opened to matters of intense interest and to a line of merciful, compassionate action to restore one who has been tempted, deceived and almost destroyed.
Meaning of From Beginning
The reason given for bearing witness is having been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, from the beginning of His public ministry, with firsthand knowledge of His life and teaching to testify of what was seen and heard. That witness is joined to the Holy Spirit's testimony of Christ, and receiving the Spirit equips to impart blessing to others and brings many to faith. Their qualification to testify alongside the Spirit lay in that firsthand experience and in close, continuing connection with Him.
Being with Him meant being constantly with Him, hearing His words of instruction and warning and witnessing His deeds of mercy and compassion, learning from Him as the greatest Teacher. This being with Him fitted the twelve chosen ones to receive their commission and ordination to be laborers together with their Lord, imbued with the Spirit of Christ to bear the message of salvation and witness for the truth. They were honored with most valuable knowledge to impart to others, to work as Christ worked and shine as lights amid moral darkness, so that through these feeble agencies, through His Word and Spirit, salvation was placed within reach of all.
What they personally witnessed was God's works and manifestations through Christ, His miracles, and His words of wisdom and teaching. Their history and recorded evidence of His words and truths became the means by which salvation spread throughout the world and continues to comfort and give hope to believers. That history and record provide evidence about Jesus for people in every age and are to be studied by thoughtful people in every age.
Their close experience with Christ equipped them to testify, and their witness rests on that close, continuing connection with Him. Though they were simple, humble, true-hearted men, unlearned in the schools of the rabbis and needing to be instructed with patience and tenderness, divine light would shine forth from them. The words they spoke would echo from generation to generation.
Joined With Spirit's Testimony
When the Comforter is sent from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, He testifies of Christ, and those who have been with Christ from the beginning also bear witness of Him, joining and cooperating with that testimony as His witnesses and faithful representatives to an apostate world. Receiving the Spirit's ministry equips them to bless others and to impart blessing, for their witness accompanies and is joined with the Holy Spirit's testimony about Christ. Though followers of Jesus may be misunderstood by the world, they are to go forward in His footsteps and trust Him who is spirit and life to the believer, and while in the world they are not to be of the world but to bear faithful testimony against evil working in worldly plans and policies contrary to truth and righteousness. This bearing of witness is a responsibility that requires being brought into right relation to God by loving Him, keeping His commandments, being happy in His love, making an entire surrender to God, and searching the heart in business relations and in every other line to put away all working counter to the law of God.
The disciples were qualified to testify alongside the Spirit because they had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry and could bear witness to what they had seen and heard, and the Holy Spirit would testify of Him and bring Christ's words to their minds. Their witness would follow His death and resurrection, and at Pentecost, empowered by the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension, they testified publicly to Jesus' identity, death, resurrection and exaltation. As they understood the fulfillment of what had been foretold about Christ, their love for Him and for those He died to save shaped their words and prayers, and empowered by the Holy Spirit their witness helped bring many people to faith and to conversion. Having been warned that followers would face persecution, they remembered His words and were strengthened to continue their witness despite imprisonment and threats.
Through faith in the testimony of the Spirit, prophets and apostles, Christ's words and works become as real to believers as if they had seen them, and believers become agents who repeat God's words with the Holy Spirit's authority. The Holy Spirit's testimony and the living Christian's testimony together make the gospel a living commentary, repeating God's words to people with divine authority, declaring God's goodness and power and showing that He works through His obedient children.
The Holy Spirit is the great source of their strength and their changeless consolation, hope and courage, ever within their reach, and this promise assures believers that Christ equips them for the work He has given them. The Holy Spirit continues to help believers testify to their Redeemer's love and saving grace, so that as they walk more closely with God their witness becomes clearer and more powerful. Across generations and peoples the Spirit's transforming work is seen in the lives of those who serve the Lord, including those who endure persecution and trial.
Witness Amid Opposition
Christ warned that bearing witness would bring persecution and hatred, because the world hated Him first and the servant is not greater than his Lord. This opposition belongs to the conflict between Him and the world, arising because the world does not know the Father who sent Him. The disciples remembered His warning and kept testifying alongside the Spirit even when imprisoned, threatened, and opposed, without abandoning faith.
That witness provokes hatred of the very goodness and integrity seen in Christ and reproduced in those who show the same character. At the close of the world's history the deeds done to Christ will be repeated against His followers, and that hatred will become more evident as the end approaches. Without the controlling power of the Spirit humanity becomes a terrible power for evil, with unbelief, hatred of reproof, satanic influences and principalities and powers, misrepresentation, falsehood, and false witnesses leagued against God in the person of His saints.
He gave this instruction privately after Judas left, before His death and departure, to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations and persecution that would follow. It was meant to enable them to endure without abandoning faith, grounded in having seen God's works through Him, witnessed His miracles, and heard His words of wisdom. They repeated His words to one another to strengthen each other, though they fully understood them only after the resurrection, and their history and recorded evidence were left to be studied by thoughtful people through all ages.
Witness of Later Believers
The first disciples were honored to testify of His mission because constant companionship had given them most valuable knowledge to impart to others. Believers now cannot be with Christ in person as those first disciples were. He has sent His Holy Spirit to guide into all truth, and through this power they too can bear witness for the Saviour.
The call to bear witness reaches down to the present and is for all who claim to be Christians. Those who hear Christ are to bear witness of Him, holding forth the word of life in pure, holy, consistent lives whose changed character, confession of truth, love, self-denial and self-sacrifice reveal the living Saviour at work and convince and convict others through the Holy Spirit. Every lesson and every phase of the chapter is to be taken personally to bring people into right relation to God, with faith in Christ and reliance on His promises lived out before the world. Its words are needed in every home as a message from God about receiving Christ's grace, and sanctified lives reveal His character and power as convincing testimony to the truth of His Word.
Union with Christ is as essential to the life and fruitfulness of the believer as union of the branch to the vine is to the branch. By receiving Him by faith and trusting in Him true believers become partakers of the divine nature. That oneness is the privilege in which humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity to become one with Him, taking hold of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Christ is with His workers so they are never alone, revealing Himself to them as they labor unitedly and heartily with Him for victory at every step, working for heaven and for beauty of character as earth's history soon closes.
Bearing witness is one of the duties specified in John 13-17 to be given careful study and earnest practice by all who honor God, and neglect cannot be afforded because doing these duties bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It is the most important work of obeying Christ. Such witness is not testimony with the lips only but witness by works.
Living and Sharing Witness
Bearing witness is not only testimony with the lips but witness by works, for those who have been with Jesus and received heavenly light are to talk about it. That speaking tells of the plan of redemption, of salvation felt in the heart, of Christ dying to bring sinners to God, of His suffering as sacrifice, of cleansing from sin and iniquity by His blood, and of the blessings and whole salvation to be claimed by faith through the Son. It also holds forth the word of life in pure, holy, consistent lives, where confession of truth with love, self-denial and self-sacrifice testifies to the power of the truth. The changed character reveals the living Saviour at work, and the sanctified life revealing His character and power gives convincing testimony to the truth of His Word, so that through obedient children declaring God's goodness and power the Holy Spirit convinces and convicts others and the gospel becomes a living commentary spoken with divine authority.
Those of like precious faith who have been with Christ bear witness by letting the light shine first in their own hearts and then to others in clear, distinct rays, so that souls come to the light. This includes giving personal testimony that encourages and blesses believers, and doing consecrated Bible work that enters the homes of those not in the truth, becomes acquainted with them, and labors by grace to arouse people from deep sleep, pleasure-loving indifference and self-complacency to earnestly inquire what is truth.
Faithful witness requires being brought into right relation to God by loving Him, keeping His commandments, being happy in His love, making entire surrender to God, and searching the heart in business relations and in every other line to put away all working counter to the law of God. It requires awaking from heavy spiritual slumber, praying in faith and earnestly seeking the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit rather than neglecting it, so that when every needless hindrance is cut away the Spirit flows in rich currents to the soul bringing all other blessings and enabling encouraging testimony to God's people. It calls for taking Christ's words to heart to cure lack of love and unwillingness to bear any cross or difficulty, for humbling the soul before God without delay, confessing where wrong has been done, and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working. It is lived out by having faith in Christ, relying on His promises, and practicing them before the world.
Bearing much fruit in this way glorifies the Father and marks true disciples, for Christ commands love for one another as He has loved, not as bondage to law but as spirit and life to be believed and acted on in faith, so that His joy remains in His followers and their joy is full. That love follows His example in serving the meek and distressed, sharing gifts with people in need, and refusing selfish pride or worldly status. It is practiced by walking humbly with God without reliance on personal merit, hiding the life in Christ and following the way Christ walked in the world. As those fitted by being with Him, believers work as Christ worked and shine as lights amid the moral darkness enveloping the world, so that through feeble agencies salvation is placed within reach of all.
The future work appointed to the disciples required human effort joined with divine power, for without reliance on God's agency they would fail in what He had given them to do. When believers labor unitedly and heartily with Christ for victory at every step, He is with His workers so they are never alone and reveals Himself to them, and that labor is working for victory, working for heaven, working to see the King in His beauty and seeking beauty of character for themselves and their children that they may be welcomed through the gates into the city and have right to the tree of life, because earth's history will soon close. Taken to heart in sacred union with God, this word cures lack of love and unwillingness to bear difficulty, so that the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner and believers are made ready by Christ's great work before standing in review at the Judgment. Spoken on the eve of separation and cruel death near the close of His earthly ministry, this instruction remains a source of courage, hope and comfort for believers.
Ye also are to bear witness because ye have been constantly with Jesus from the beginning of His public ministry, seeing His life and deeds and hearing His teaching firsthand so as to testify of what was seen and heard. Their witness joins and cooperates with the testimony of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth sent from the Father, who brings Christ's words to mind and empowers public testimony of His death, resurrection and exaltation so that many believe. This charge was given as farewell encouragement with knowledge of coming hatred, persecution, imprisonment and death, that they would remember His words and continue witnessing because the world hated Him first. The call reaches beyond the first disciples to all who now hear Christ, who though not with Him in person may through the Holy Spirit guiding into all truth also bear witness for the Saviour in union with Him as branch to vine. That witness is borne not by lips alone but by works, by holding forth the word of life in pure and consistent lives, loving one another as Christ loved, and bearing much fruit to the glory of the Father.
Setting and Context
The saying was spoken privately to the eleven disciples alone in the upper chamber after Judas had left, as farewell words about His approaching separation from them near the close of His earthly ministry when a cruel death lay before Him. It belonged to His instruction to them before He was separated from them, whose future work would require human effort joined with divine power, since without reliance on God's agency they would fail in the work appointed them. They afterward repeated these words to strengthen one another, though they understood them fully only after the resurrection. In this setting the words stand as a source of courage, hope and comfort for believers.
It belongs to the encouragement of John 14-16, spoken because He knew the trials His church would face through unconverted believers, and though He knew His own terrible ordeal of betrayal, scourging and death, His thoughts were not of Himself but to comfort His disciples and strengthen them to endure without failing when faith and courage would be severely tried. That portion is full of encouragement and hope, and for those who study it, it imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour, bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time lasts. The chapter is full of encouragement, assurance and hope, urging believers to strengthen faith through Christ's evidence and the Word and to encourage others in faith. This instruction before He left them was meant to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations they would face.
It belongs to the teaching on the relation of the branch to the vine and of the true vine and the branches, giving lessons to be practiced in working together with Jesus Christ in obedience to His words. It is part of the teaching in John 14-15 showing Christ's love through obedience to His commandments, obedience being the Bible test for those who have received the privilege of light. Through the vine and its branches believers receive Christ's life by taking His word into practical life and obeying it, with faith shown in conversation and character. It continues the teaching that His followers are one and are to be one in Christ and through Christ in God, doing the obedience Christ gave to the Father and sharing the honor the Father gives the Son. The teaching calls Christ's followers to remain faithful to Him and obey His words rather than be ruled by the world, in conflict with a world that opposes from not knowing the Father who sent Jesus.
The surrounding instruction in John 14 and 15 is to be studied by city workers and all learners with hearts open to divine teaching and eyes fixed on Jesus as author and finisher of faith. It is to be understood with new enlightenment through the influence of the Spirit of God. It was written amid wonderful peace, with the atmosphere of heaven and the felt presence of Jesus, with the mind opened to matters of intense interest and to a line of merciful, compassionate action to restore one who has been tempted, deceived and almost destroyed.
Meaning of From Beginning
The reason given for bearing witness is having been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, from the beginning of His public ministry, with firsthand knowledge of His life and teaching to testify of what was seen and heard. That witness is joined to the Holy Spirit's testimony of Christ, and receiving the Spirit equips to impart blessing to others and brings many to faith. Their qualification to testify alongside the Spirit lay in that firsthand experience and in close, continuing connection with Him.
Being with Him meant being constantly with Him, hearing His words of instruction and warning and witnessing His deeds of mercy and compassion, learning from Him as the greatest Teacher. This being with Him fitted the twelve chosen ones to receive their commission and ordination to be laborers together with their Lord, imbued with the Spirit of Christ to bear the message of salvation and witness for the truth. They were honored with most valuable knowledge to impart to others, to work as Christ worked and shine as lights amid moral darkness, so that through these feeble agencies, through His Word and Spirit, salvation was placed within reach of all.
What they personally witnessed was God's works and manifestations through Christ, His miracles, and His words of wisdom and teaching. Their history and recorded evidence of His words and truths became the means by which salvation spread throughout the world and continues to comfort and give hope to believers. That history and record provide evidence about Jesus for people in every age and are to be studied by thoughtful people in every age.
Their close experience with Christ equipped them to testify, and their witness rests on that close, continuing connection with Him. Though they were simple, humble, true-hearted men, unlearned in the schools of the rabbis and needing to be instructed with patience and tenderness, divine light would shine forth from them. The words they spoke would echo from generation to generation.
Joined With Spirit's Testimony
When the Comforter is sent from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, He testifies of Christ, and those who have been with Christ from the beginning also bear witness of Him, joining and cooperating with that testimony as His witnesses and faithful representatives to an apostate world. Receiving the Spirit's ministry equips them to bless others and to impart blessing, for their witness accompanies and is joined with the Holy Spirit's testimony about Christ. Though followers of Jesus may be misunderstood by the world, they are to go forward in His footsteps and trust Him who is spirit and life to the believer, and while in the world they are not to be of the world but to bear faithful testimony against evil working in worldly plans and policies contrary to truth and righteousness. This bearing of witness is a responsibility that requires being brought into right relation to God by loving Him, keeping His commandments, being happy in His love, making an entire surrender to God, and searching the heart in business relations and in every other line to put away all working counter to the law of God.
The disciples were qualified to testify alongside the Spirit because they had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry and could bear witness to what they had seen and heard, and the Holy Spirit would testify of Him and bring Christ's words to their minds. Their witness would follow His death and resurrection, and at Pentecost, empowered by the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension, they testified publicly to Jesus' identity, death, resurrection and exaltation. As they understood the fulfillment of what had been foretold about Christ, their love for Him and for those He died to save shaped their words and prayers, and empowered by the Holy Spirit their witness helped bring many people to faith and to conversion. Having been warned that followers would face persecution, they remembered His words and were strengthened to continue their witness despite imprisonment and threats.
Through faith in the testimony of the Spirit, prophets and apostles, Christ's words and works become as real to believers as if they had seen them, and believers become agents who repeat God's words with the Holy Spirit's authority. The Holy Spirit's testimony and the living Christian's testimony together make the gospel a living commentary, repeating God's words to people with divine authority, declaring God's goodness and power and showing that He works through His obedient children.
The Holy Spirit is the great source of their strength and their changeless consolation, hope and courage, ever within their reach, and this promise assures believers that Christ equips them for the work He has given them. The Holy Spirit continues to help believers testify to their Redeemer's love and saving grace, so that as they walk more closely with God their witness becomes clearer and more powerful. Across generations and peoples the Spirit's transforming work is seen in the lives of those who serve the Lord, including those who endure persecution and trial.
Witness Amid Opposition
Christ warned that bearing witness would bring persecution and hatred, because the world hated Him first and the servant is not greater than his Lord. This opposition belongs to the conflict between Him and the world, arising because the world does not know the Father who sent Him. The disciples remembered His warning and kept testifying alongside the Spirit even when imprisoned, threatened, and opposed, without abandoning faith.
That witness provokes hatred of the very goodness and integrity seen in Christ and reproduced in those who show the same character. At the close of the world's history the deeds done to Christ will be repeated against His followers, and that hatred will become more evident as the end approaches. Without the controlling power of the Spirit humanity becomes a terrible power for evil, with unbelief, hatred of reproof, satanic influences and principalities and powers, misrepresentation, falsehood, and false witnesses leagued against God in the person of His saints.
He gave this instruction privately after Judas left, before His death and departure, to prepare and strengthen them for the trials and temptations and persecution that would follow. It was meant to enable them to endure without abandoning faith, grounded in having seen God's works through Him, witnessed His miracles, and heard His words of wisdom. They repeated His words to one another to strengthen each other, though they fully understood them only after the resurrection, and their history and recorded evidence were left to be studied by thoughtful people through all ages.
Witness of Later Believers
The first disciples were honored to testify of His mission because constant companionship had given them most valuable knowledge to impart to others. Believers now cannot be with Christ in person as those first disciples were. He has sent His Holy Spirit to guide into all truth, and through this power they too can bear witness for the Saviour.
The call to bear witness reaches down to the present and is for all who claim to be Christians. Those who hear Christ are to bear witness of Him, holding forth the word of life in pure, holy, consistent lives whose changed character, confession of truth, love, self-denial and self-sacrifice reveal the living Saviour at work and convince and convict others through the Holy Spirit. Every lesson and every phase of the chapter is to be taken personally to bring people into right relation to God, with faith in Christ and reliance on His promises lived out before the world. Its words are needed in every home as a message from God about receiving Christ's grace, and sanctified lives reveal His character and power as convincing testimony to the truth of His Word.
Union with Christ is as essential to the life and fruitfulness of the believer as union of the branch to the vine is to the branch. By receiving Him by faith and trusting in Him true believers become partakers of the divine nature. That oneness is the privilege in which humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity to become one with Him, taking hold of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Christ is with His workers so they are never alone, revealing Himself to them as they labor unitedly and heartily with Him for victory at every step, working for heaven and for beauty of character as earth's history soon closes.
Bearing witness is one of the duties specified in John 13-17 to be given careful study and earnest practice by all who honor God, and neglect cannot be afforded because doing these duties bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It is the most important work of obeying Christ. Such witness is not testimony with the lips only but witness by works.
Living and Sharing Witness
Bearing witness is not only testimony with the lips but witness by works, for those who have been with Jesus and received heavenly light are to talk about it. That speaking tells of the plan of redemption, of salvation felt in the heart, of Christ dying to bring sinners to God, of His suffering as sacrifice, of cleansing from sin and iniquity by His blood, and of the blessings and whole salvation to be claimed by faith through the Son. It also holds forth the word of life in pure, holy, consistent lives, where confession of truth with love, self-denial and self-sacrifice testifies to the power of the truth. The changed character reveals the living Saviour at work, and the sanctified life revealing His character and power gives convincing testimony to the truth of His Word, so that through obedient children declaring God's goodness and power the Holy Spirit convinces and convicts others and the gospel becomes a living commentary spoken with divine authority.
Those of like precious faith who have been with Christ bear witness by letting the light shine first in their own hearts and then to others in clear, distinct rays, so that souls come to the light. This includes giving personal testimony that encourages and blesses believers, and doing consecrated Bible work that enters the homes of those not in the truth, becomes acquainted with them, and labors by grace to arouse people from deep sleep, pleasure-loving indifference and self-complacency to earnestly inquire what is truth.
Faithful witness requires being brought into right relation to God by loving Him, keeping His commandments, being happy in His love, making entire surrender to God, and searching the heart in business relations and in every other line to put away all working counter to the law of God. It requires awaking from heavy spiritual slumber, praying in faith and earnestly seeking the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit rather than neglecting it, so that when every needless hindrance is cut away the Spirit flows in rich currents to the soul bringing all other blessings and enabling encouraging testimony to God's people. It calls for taking Christ's words to heart to cure lack of love and unwillingness to bear any cross or difficulty, for humbling the soul before God without delay, confessing where wrong has been done, and letting light shine forth because the Lord is working. It is lived out by having faith in Christ, relying on His promises, and practicing them before the world.
Bearing much fruit in this way glorifies the Father and marks true disciples, for Christ commands love for one another as He has loved, not as bondage to law but as spirit and life to be believed and acted on in faith, so that His joy remains in His followers and their joy is full. That love follows His example in serving the meek and distressed, sharing gifts with people in need, and refusing selfish pride or worldly status. It is practiced by walking humbly with God without reliance on personal merit, hiding the life in Christ and following the way Christ walked in the world. As those fitted by being with Him, believers work as Christ worked and shine as lights amid the moral darkness enveloping the world, so that through feeble agencies salvation is placed within reach of all.
The future work appointed to the disciples required human effort joined with divine power, for without reliance on God's agency they would fail in what He had given them to do. When believers labor unitedly and heartily with Christ for victory at every step, He is with His workers so they are never alone and reveals Himself to them, and that labor is working for victory, working for heaven, working to see the King in His beauty and seeking beauty of character for themselves and their children that they may be welcomed through the gates into the city and have right to the tree of life, because earth's history will soon close. Taken to heart in sacred union with God, this word cures lack of love and unwillingness to bear difficulty, so that the salvation of God is seen in a remarkable manner and believers are made ready by Christ's great work before standing in review at the Judgment. Spoken on the eve of separation and cruel death near the close of His earthly ministry, this instruction remains a source of courage, hope and comfort for believers.