Malachi 3:18, commentary and pictures

Then you will turn back to God and clearly tell apart the righteous from the wicked, those who truly serve Him from those who do not. That clear sight belongs to the future when He gathers and spares His treasured people who fear Him and speak of Him, in contrast to those who call serving Him useless and the proud happy. The difference is shown in character and life, for the faithful love and obey His commandments, faithfully return His tithes and offerings, and relieve the suffering as service to Christ, while mere profession without a changed life proves nothing. In the final harvest and judgment the loyal are openly acknowledged, rewarded and kept safe, but the proud and disobedient are consumed like stubble and left without excuse. Therefore His people are now to remain plainly separate from the world in obedience and spirit, keeping the line between serving and not serving Him clear and unbroken.

Immediate Context and Wording

The promise comes directly after the hearing of those who fear the Lord and speak often to one another while thinking upon His name, after the writing of their names in a book of remembrance before Him, after His claiming of them as His own precious possession and jewels in the day He makes them up, and after His promise to spare them with a father's mercy as a man spares his own son who serves him. It belongs to those sincere hearts who speak from within without deceit, guile, underhanded working, evil speaking, or complaint against God. The discernment follows His remembrance and sparing of those who fear and serve Him and honor His name, in contrast with the judgment of the proud and wicked.

It stands opposite the stout complaint that serving God brings no profit, that the proud are called happy, and that those who work wickedness and tempt God are built up and delivered. That complaint is made by the unconsecrated who have departed from God, who are blinded by the enemy, and who cannot discern God's ways and works. Those now judged in the world to be greatly favored because of worldly association and advantage will then be seen as stubble, while the children of God who feared and honored Him will be distinguished as honored by Him and spared as His own jewels.

The return is a turning back to God from neglected obedience and from forbidden paths, with restoration and repentance after wrongdoing under His judgment. In this chapter returning means turning from withholding tithes and offerings into the storehouse and receiving God's offered mercy, so that conduct toward God reveals whether a person serves Him. The renewed commitment of a young man fallen under discouragement illustrates this return as a choice to serve the Lord and help others, with the distinction then recognized.

What many cannot now see or understand will then be revealed and made unmistakably clear when God makes up His jewels, for at present the contrast between the righteous and the wicked may be hard to discern. Renewed spiritual discernment enables the distinction, and the mind must be kept clear and pure so it can recognize good and evil and see the duties taught in the chapter. That return and discernment comes when opposing elements are fully developed, after disunion and want of harmony where professed believers work against each other and those not united with Christ pull the wrong way, after natural temperament and passion collide and Satan brings confusion, and after loud opposition to reform and purity in committee meetings, board meetings, and public assemblies, distinguishing God's servants from those whose actions oppose that work. The promise was set forth in connection with people beginning to keep the Sabbath and obey the truth, and in calls to the unconverted, to backsliders, and to those burdened by sin to turn to God, with response in confession of wrongs, change of course, a better Christian life honoring God, and renewed concern for spiritual duty.

Time of Future Discernment

The clear distinction between those counted righteous and those counted wicked, between serving God and not serving Him, belongs to the future fulfillment of the promises when He makes up His treasured people. In that day the obedient who fear Him, think upon His name, speak often to one another, and remain loyal will be remembered, claimed as His own, and spared, while the proud and wicked are destroyed. Those who honor Him may now go unrecognized, but then He will openly acknowledge them and make the difference between being right with Him and not right, between true service and refusal to serve, unmistakable.

The present life is probationary testing of fitness for eternal life, shown by how entrusted temporal possessions are used as a sign of trustworthiness with eternal riches. Near the close a refining, winnowing process in every church will make the two parties plain, with vessels unto honor putting on Christ's righteousness and receiving the latter rain, while those continuing in sin under present light are blinded and accept satanic delusion. That discernment comes amid contempt for law, widespread ungodliness even under profession of Christianity and sanctification, signal rejection of grace, hostility toward the remnant, and scenes even in temple courts, with testing continuing until Christ comes to be glorified in believers.

At the harvest at the end of the world the floor is purged and wheat is separated from chaff and tares from wheat, revealing mere profession and outward forms without the Spirit's regenerating power. Church membership, pious profession, praise of ministers, and human ordinances do not prove belonging to Christ; character shown in words and works and fruit revealing repentance and a changed heart determines destiny as Christ decides who is worthy to dwell with heaven's family. Those lacking renewing work are chaff among the wheat, separated when the Lord purges His floor, since outward forms cannot make clean and only the Spirit makes fit to serve.

When wicked men and the church harmonize in hatred of God's law and make it void, the crisis and final test visibly separates the loyal from the disloyal. On one side stand disaffected professed Christians speaking stoutly against God, murmuring, complaining, accusing Him by accusing His children and calling the proud happy; on the other stand those fearing Him, speaking to one another, remembered in the book of remembrance, made His jewels and spared as a serving son, whose love for the commandments grows more precious than gold as contempt grows, with the choice of class now being made. The Sabbath becomes the great controverted test of loyalty, where keeping the true Sabbath in obedience brings the seal of God and observing a false sabbath in compliance with the state contrary to the fourth commandment avows allegiance to an opposing power.

The time of Jacob's trouble is when God intervenes to preserve His people while those deceived by false teaching recognize their loss and despair, making the final distinction plain. When judgments fall and are revealed after opportunity for repentance and reform has passed, the clouds open with the ten commandments revealed as with fire so all can read, Christ comes again, the dead are judged from the books according to works, and those not found in the book of life face the second death. Then God's law exposes the difference: those who trampled its holy requirements, set aside its precepts for worldly favor, taught transgression, compelled profaning of the Sabbath and urged others to it are condemned by the law they despised, see with awful distinctness they are without excuse, and prove whom they chose to serve and worship, while the coming day burns the proud and evildoers as stubble leaving neither root nor branch.

After rebellion is forever broken and Christ's mediatorial work is fully understood, the redeemed will recognize how His mission reclaimed fallen people as repentant, humble, meek beings. Faithful people now unnoticed or despised as weak and foolish will then be distinguished, openly acknowledged, rewarded, crowned and clothed in purity among the redeemed, while the wicked are ashamed and confounded, making clear the righteous were wise and the disobedient foolish.

Character of Two Classes

The righteous are those who fear the Lord, think upon His name, and speak often to one another from sincere hearts with no deceit, guile, underhanded working, evil speaking, or complaint against God. The Lord hears them, records them in a book of remembrance, claims them as His own precious possession, and spares them with a father's mercy toward a serving son. They encourage one another and glorify God through patience, hope, and charity, speaking of His glory and mercies and faithfully giving Him what is His.

The wicked stand opposite as the unconsecrated who have departed from God, are blinded by the enemy, cannot discern His ways and works, and declare that serving Him brings no profit while the proud and wicked are happy and delivered. They are disaffected professed Christians who speak stoutly against God, murmur and complain, accuse God by accusing His children, and call the proud happy. They serve themselves and withhold what belongs to God rather than honoring Him and doing their duty.

The servants of God are known because as contempt for His law grows around them their love for the commandments grows, holding them more precious and dear above gold. They cherish His commandments and serve Him faithfully while despisers reject them, and obedience including the Sabbath commandment marks the plain distinction between them. The choice of which class to belong to is now being made.

There are only two sides and only two parties in the world, those loyal and obedient whom God can trust and those who accuse God's children and stand under the banner of the prince of darkness. Active, living faith distinguishes God's people, while continual rejection of Christ distinguishes the wicked, who will not have Christ to rule over them. They will not eat and drink to the glory of God but follow inclination and pleasure, will not wear Christ's yoke nor learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, but will have their own way.

The righteous are His commandment-keeping people who are cleansed and sanctified and controlled by the Holy Spirit, receiving the illumination of the Spirit, while those not controlled by the Holy Spirit are controlled by the enemy of God. Serving God by obeying Jesus and doing His will marks one class, and serving the world through disobedience marks the other. Close fellowship with the world and being closely joined to it in spirit, aims, and principles obscures this distinction, and dependence on worldly praise and favor weakens spiritual judgment, alienates people from Christ, and reveals the child of the wicked one and enemy of God as distinct from the child of God and heir of the kingdom.

Their faithful fellowship is remembered by God, and He claims and spares them as His own. This testing amid widespread ungodliness, even where Christianity and sanctification are professed, continues until Christ comes, and outward religious appearance does not make a person a faithful servant. Merely outward or complaining service, professing knowledge of truth or claiming Christian blessings while conduct misrepresents Christ and lacks spiritual grace and good works, lacks true connection with God.

Selfish indulgence weakens people until they lose the distinction between what is sacred and what is common. Within His church on earth God distinguishes the classes by their portion: the righteous receive peace and comfort in this life even amid trial and affliction, and glory, honor, immortality and everlasting glory in the life to come, while the wicked receive confusion, unrest, and everlasting shame. Humanity is thus divided into those who serve God and those who do not, and the distinction between them is to remain clear. Those who seek entrance into His kingdom must live in union with Christ and follow the enduring principles of His government, and the lives of the righteous show the contrast between truth and error and expose the refusal of others to give allegiance to God.

Marks of True Service

Faithful bringing of all tithes and offerings into the storehouse marks obedience and loyalty, while withholding, diverting to other work, or appropriating the reserved portion is robbery, selfishness and unfaithful stewardship bringing curse and loss of heavenly treasure unless repented. The whole chapter must be read carefully and obeyed for personal good and example to others, and after attention has been called to the requirement it must not be disregarded as non-essential. Those who refuse to comply will be dealt with in the manner the chapter describes, for money kept back from the work becomes a curse while entrusted means are to spread the gospel throughout the world. The distinction belongs to instruction requiring everyone to pay tithe because it is commanded in plain terms as subjects of the kingdom, with faithful support of the ministry from the treasury and promise that faithful obedience brings blessing.

How temporal possessions are used reveals fitness for eternal riches, for the present life tests whether people can be trusted with eternal things. Property, time, strength and abilities are entrusted gifts for which each must answer, and the whole life-work is bound up with judgment. The final reward is proportionate to faithful, earnest and unselfish use, and the difference will be clear when every case is decided.

Merciful service discerns the difference, for every deed of compassion is noticed and written in the book of remembrance. Healing the afflicted, visiting the sick, relieving the suffering, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, coming to prisoners, caring for orphans and widows, dealing bread to the hungry, bringing the cast-out poor to the house, loosing bands of wickedness and letting the oppressed go free marks those who are the treasured possession to be spared as a father spares a serving son. This work is to be done personally and not by proxy nor left to institutions, with self-denial and self-sacrifice letting light shine from every home, following the example of giving more time to healing than to preaching. What was done for the least is counted as done to Christ himself, and will be commended plainly when He comes again.

Obedience to the commandments marks the distinction, and keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as memorial of creation, test and seal of loyalty is the great controverted point in the final conflict. The law makes the distinction plain and condemns those who despised, trampled and set it aside, taught transgression and urged profaning of the Sabbath, leaving them without excuse when judgments reveal the truth after opportunity for repentance has passed. The line between keepers and non-keepers must be made unmistakably clear, with conscientious honor, holiness and covenant faithfulness bringing needed blessing in severe trials. Keeping the true Sabbath in obedience brings the seal of God as evidence of loyalty to the Creator, while observing a human institution in its place in compliance with the law of the state contrary to the fourth commandment is an avowal of allegiance to an opposing power.

Character shown in words and works determines destiny, while church membership, profession of piety, praise of ministers or outward badge does not prove belonging to Christ. Those belonging to the church without belonging to Christ will be revealed at the harvest at the end of the world, when Christ decides who is worthy to dwell with heaven's family by judging each by words and works. Profession without a harmonious life does not make a safe guide, for faith is shown by good works and truth must be expressed in both words and deeds, with God's people set apart to live holy lives. Professing to know truth while acting wrongly misrepresents Christ and fails to show the distinction.

Serving God means loyalty and obedience with consequences in this life and eternity, for deliberate disregard brings its result, each reaps what is sown, and God honors those who honor Him. It is comprehensive consecration of all a person has and all lent talents to glorify His name, requiring earnest guarding against the errors of the wicked. Many who fancy they are on the way to heaven walk in strange paths because they have not given all for the pearl of great price.

Daily practical worship in character-building openly shows the difference, as believers stand before the world as representatives of a life hid with Christ in God. A life renewed through baptism is to witness to the power of grace, honoring baptismal vows and representing Christ with God's help. Christian conduct including modest dress testifies in words, spirit and life, while conversation united to Christ honors Him and uplifts, helps and benefits others under trial rather than hindering, harassing or provoking. Devout dependence, a sanctified spirit and earnest service display Christ's life and shine amid moral darkness, becoming a blessing as joined to the Light of the world and sharing His grace.

Standing firmly on Bible principles of health reform distinguishes serving God from serving self and prepares for Christ's appearing and peace with God. Leaders and teachers are to draw the distinction plainly and give a clear testimony to those living in the last days, reaching a higher standard through dedication of body, soul and spirit. The difference is shown by respecting and living by the light given, putting away self-pleasing and what defiles body and spirit, while disregard for that light is serving self. Such cleansing is necessary to be ready to meet God in peace.

Closing work such as restaurants on the Sabbath makes the distinction visible and gives opportunity to explain faith and the message for this time when people ask about the principles behind the practice. The crisis after the golden calf illustrates the same distinction, when the Levites who stood with the Lord carried out the command and bore testimony by loyalty even against close family, with the call to consecrate joined to promise of blessing. The righteous are connected with faithfulness, keeping the commandments, and the everlasting inheritance, joys and reward prepared for those who love God and share the light received.

Judgment and Final Outcome

The verse teaches that God's law itself makes the difference between the righteous and the wicked plain, distinguishing the one who serves God by obedience from the one who refuses His requirements. When God's judgments are revealed, after the opportunity for repentance and reform has passed, all return to this clear discernment. Then the clouds open and the ten commandments are revealed in heaven as with a pen of fire, so plain that all can read them. Those who trampled God's holy requirements, set aside its precepts to secure the favor of the world, taught others to transgress, and endeavored to compel God's people to profane His Sabbath — including rejecting His Sabbath and urging others to profane it — are condemned by that law they despised. They see with awful distinctness that they are without excuse, and prove whom they chose to serve and worship.

The coming day of the Lord makes that difference unmistakable, when He claims the obedient who fear Him as His treasured people and spares them, while the proud and wicked face destruction. That day burns the proud and all that do wickedly as stubble, leaving neither root nor branch. Satan as the root of every sin and all evil-workers as his branches will be utterly cut off. When Satan's rebellion is proved to have brought ruin to himself and to all who chose to become his subjects, and when the wages of sin is death, an end will be made of sin with all the woe and ruin that resulted from it. Some who profess to serve God will then be shown not truly to serve Him, when Christ comes.

That day brings terror and destruction to transgressors of God's law, but brings no fear to the children of God who know righteousness and have God's law in their heart. To the obedient it brings joy unspeakable and full of glory, with safety, because the Lord will be the hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel. God takes the cup of trembling from their hand so they will drink it no more, comforts them Himself, and assures them that though mountains depart and hills be removed His kindness will not depart and His covenant of peace will not be removed. Then amid the tempest of divine judgment He gathers His saints who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, and the heavens declare His righteousness, for God is judge Himself.

The verse teaches that complaining that serving God brings no profit and calling the proud happy is wrong, for a time is coming when God will openly distinguish between those who serve Him and those who do not. He gives continuing, special love to His faithful and obedient children, claiming them as His own preferred jewels and sparing them. His people are to depend on Him, trusting that He can open a way for them and exalt and honor them as preferred over transgressors. Those now judged in the world to be greatly favored because of worldly association and advantage will then be seen as stubble, while the self-sufficient and obstinate who do not show Christ in their character are seen as spiritually barren.

Present Call to Separation

God's people are to be distinguishable from those who do not serve Him, and service to God must be visibly distinct from service to the world. When those with special light become conformed to the world, copy its customs, fashions and ways, and grow outwardly like it in spirit, that difference becomes difficult to see and hard to discern whom they serve. Such conformity obscures the distinction between the righteous and the wicked and leads others astray, but coming out from the world and being separate allows character as God's people to be seen and lived distinctly rather than conformed.

God Himself has drawn a broad, clear and deep line between the righteous and the unrighteous, the godly and the ungodly, meaning between those obedient to His commandments and those disobedient. That line must be kept plain and certain before children and others by steady, firm, living righteousness exercised over them and practiced before them, by letting the true light and heaven's light shine, and by giving the trumpet a certain sound. It must never be blurred or hidden by a life and spirit no higher and purer than worldlings, by a false deceptive light and lower standard that leads to ruin. Holding faith unchanged and proclaiming it with a loud voice, with power and assurance in a decided positive manner, without relying on human wisdom or supposed good works and without courting the world, keeps it plain. Serving God in this distinctness is shown by increased purity of faith and Christlikeness of character, by increasing in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ as righteousness and sanctification, by keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus, by letting truth abide in the heart for sanctification through the truth, and by staying in His love through diligent obedience while looking for His keeping power and mercy and expecting salvation through grace.

The barrier God sets between those who serve Him and those who do not must not be broken down, and when obedience and disobedience become mingled with worldly sentiments that distinction grows confused and indistinct. Joining with those who do not recognize His law in order to gain their influence and support, while claiming a neutral non-committal position, breaks down that barrier and slips away from truth to the side of unbelievers, causing grief and giving the enemy triumph. Compromising with unbelief puts people on unsafe ground, and issues ahead will force all who sincerely desire to do right to take a clear true position on one side of the line, while those who try to erase the distinction lose solid ground and will never again stand safe. God's people must therefore keep the distinction clear by holding to His principles and presenting the truth distinctly.

It is the privilege and duty of those in charge, especially the president of the General Conference, to distinguish true servants of God from those who do not serve Him when deciding who shall stand beside him as counsellors. Safe counsellors are those who keep the way of the Lord and preserve clear sharp discernment by cultivating home religion. Failure to make this distinction is a strange blindness caused by a leavening influence upon minds, and it dishonors God. The same discernment recognizes workers appointed by the Lord as useful in service, as when a church recognizes Elder Rice and his wife.

The distinction must be maintained even when the unfaithful are church leaders or teachers who defy counsel, and they must not be treated as though in harmony with the faithful, for so treating them obscures the difference. Open rebuke of evil is necessary to keep others from being ensnared. When those in positions of trust fail to make that distinction, accept unbelievers' attacks on God's people as truth, or direct workers to violate the Sabbath, they confuse righteousness and truth and show they are not acting for God's glory.

Close ties that require violation of the Sabbath must be refused, and trust and close connection belong with God's servants, while ties to those who do not believe the truth and do not serve God should be severed. Serving God means being joined to Christ, not standing partly with believers and partly with unbelievers, for a divided misleading influence fails to represent true service. Those unable to recognize the difference may be attracted to societies that have no connection with God, but a sincere Christian cannot thrive in their spiritual atmosphere, which lacks the Holy Spirit's refreshing presence and leaves the soul barren like the hills of Gilboa without dew or rain. A follower of Christ may sometimes have to witness unholy pleasures, but does so sorrowfully and does not choose those associations, and when circumstances require such company should rely on God for preservation and never sacrifice principle. Close fellowship with the world and dependence on worldly praise and favor weakens spiritual judgment, obscures the distinction between obeying Jesus and doing His will versus serving the world through disobedience, and alienates from Christ, and placing worldly people in trusted positions in institutions can blur it.

Studying and practicing the principles of present truth and of the gospel, closely examining God's will, keeps the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not unmistakable and clearly discernible. It unfolds the riches of Christ's grace, which God's people are to receive and impart. Wherever they go they are to faithfully live out Christ's kingdom principles, making that difference plain. The truth as it is in Jesus reveals the dividing line, and the Word of life, the Sword of the Spirit sharper than any two-edged sword, makes it plain. Those who serve God show it in spirit and action by separating from the world without withdrawing from the world or wearing an outward badge, striving at all times and in all places to live worthy of heaven's blessings and going forth with hearts filled with heavenly love to give food in due season to the flock.

Serving God means putting entire trust in Christ, giving Him undivided service, and worshiping the Lord God and serving Him and Him only, and this wholehearted trust and service brings success. Genuine followers make a clear visible contrast with those who do not serve Him, and their Christlike lives, constrained by love for Christ and joined to Him, make Him known before a worldly and idolatrous world.

Those who know the truth are not to call for constant labor from ministers but to carry on the work of the church themselves and keep up the meetings, building one another up in faith, so ministers can labor in new fields and no district is left in darkness as a testimony to unfaithfulness. Their strength and effort are to be directed toward saving people outside the church. Those who fear the Lord, speak often to one another, and think upon His name have a book of remembrance written for them, shall be the Lord's jewels, and shall be spared as a man spares his serving son, and then they shall return and clearly tell apart the righteous from the wicked. Doing one's best now to advance the work in Washington, so unbelievers may see that having begun the work His people are able to finish it, and answering constant calls from foreign fields for men and means with liberal collections to enlarge the work, belongs to this service.

Love and unity among God's people, together with greater zeal, would have made the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not plain to the world and clearly discerned. The nearness of the Lord's coming and the coming time of discernment make this a reason to avoid judging fellow believers or nurturing grievances, distrust, hostility and division.

The Lord weighs character, and work such as that carried on in Battle Creek is recorded in heaven from its first action to its last. The whole chapter is to be carefully studied, practiced, obeyed and then taught to others so they may receive blessing, since instructing others is the calling of God's people. Dealing faithfully with God brings His promised blessing financially and spiritually, and when all come into harmonious action in obedience the salvation of God will be seen. God judges His people according to the light, privileges and opportunities received, and they are found wanting if spiritual experience and work do not match those gifts. The difference will be made plain in whether people and institutions bear the influence of heaven or are controlled by satanic agencies.