Matthew 5:18, commentary and pictures

Christ did not come to weaken or set aside the law but to fulfill it by living it perfectly, freeing it from human traditions and revealing its full spiritual reach to heart and thought, so not even its smallest detail loses authority until all is accomplished. The law thus preserved is the ten holy precepts of God's unchangeable character and government, distinct from the ceremonial system of types and sacrifices that ended when they met their fulfillment in His death. His suffering and death confirm and exalt that moral law rather than abolishing it, for He bore its penalty to satisfy justice because it could not be changed even to save fallen humanity. Therefore the Sabbath of the fourth commandment remains binding as long as heaven and earth endure, and no human or church authority can change it to another day. The same law remains the standard by which every person will be judged, so breaking even its least requirement or teaching others to do so brings condemnation, while doing and teaching it through His grace brings blessing and honor.

Wording Setting and Certainty

Christ spoke these words with divine authority at the opening of His ministry in the Sermon on the Mount, going up into a mountain to teach His disciples before the multitudes. The hearers included Pharisees and Sadducees and reached to the Gentile world, as a soul-saving exposition of His own law and of God's government correcting false ideas of the kingdom and how to enter it. Its sentences are simple enough for a child, rescuing truth buried under human traditions and rubbish to commend it to intellect and conscience. With the calls to be salt and light and to do good works that glorify the Father, they transform character, belonging with not destroying the law or the prophets but fulfilling it, with breaking even the least commandment and teaching men so bringing lowness in the kingdom while doing and teaching bringing greatness, and with righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees as the condition of entrance. The chapter is full of precious instruction to be studied, acted upon, and written on the tablets of the soul, showing a life reflecting the divine law and what cooperation and union with Christ can accomplish, and it must be tested by Scripture rather than by Fathers or ministers.

Till heaven and earth pass and till all be fulfilled means the law keeps full authority to the farthest edge of human history, as long as heaven and earth remain and through eternity. Till all be fulfilled means until everything concerning the human race and everything relating to the plan of redemption is accomplished. Since Christ's death did not cause heaven or earth to pass away, it did not abolish the law but testifies across generations to its unchangeable nature and enduring claims. Christ, who spoke the law at Sinai, explains its far-reaching claims in the Sermon as holy, just, and good, not a cold code of human traditions, perfect in all requirements so it cannot be improved and any remodeling only causes imperfection. It is the foundation of God's government and stands forever as the immutable standard of righteousness that all must reach to be saved and by which all cases will be decided when the books are opened, leaving no excuse for any power in heaven or earth to change it, including the Sabbath commandment, while claims it is done away come from unwillingness to obey.

God's Word is infallible and endures forever through the ceaseless ages of eternity. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the smallest part of it will fail and not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled. No power on earth, of men in the highest positions, or of devils, can make void the words of Christ. Events of history carry out God's purposes even through those who do not understand, while each person still chooses a course and forms character, and no part of God's word will be lost or thwarted as people act according to their own characters.

Jot or tittle means the smallest possible written mark, letter, particle, amount, bit, or value. Every jot and tittle therefore means the whole completely with nothing left out. To be moved one jot or tittle is to be moved even slightly at all, while to be moved by not one jot or tittle is to be wholly uninfluenced in a decision. To have given not one jot or tittle of cause leaves evil speeches and false accusations with no ground at all, and exact honesty requires adding not even that smallest amount above true worth, as in stating what land is worth. The wording is also used for every bit of strength to be given to reproduce what the Lord has shown and make it vivid, and for small scattered pieces of writing and every little bit of good news.

No word from God becomes void before it is fulfilled, but prophecy becomes history at fulfillment. The sacrificial offerings that prefigured Christ met antitype when the Son of God died. God's promises cannot fail in even the smallest detail but will be fulfilled completely for the faithful in every age, as a light in darkness until the day dawns. This includes that those who honor God will be honored, and that faithful teaching and example forming youth in principle, purity, and godliness will bring salvation and reward when those won stand before the throne in white linen which is the righteousness of the saints.

Messages given in the past and lessons of past experience keep full force at this stage of history and must be preserved, valued, remembered, and practiced. Younger believers need to understand them while those grown gray in service continue to testify to them. The great evidences made certain in 1844 after the passing of the time remain unchanged, standing as solid foundation pillars and principles that confirm and quicken souls, including ministers and physicians. Even difficult parts of the Word lose none of their force, and the lessons and warnings of Revelation must be remembered and practiced because the time is near when its symbols will be fulfilled.

Christ Fulfills and Magnifies Law

Christ came not to destroy, abolish, weaken or set aside the law or the prophets but to fulfil them, and not even the smallest detail passes away before all is fulfilled, so the law remains fully authoritative, binding, perpetual and unchangeable. His death for human sin did not abolish or lower its standard but atoned for transgression and upheld its justice and permanence, confirming rather than voiding every precept. Breaking even a least commandment or teaching others to break it brings consequence and dishonor, while doing and teaching the commandments is honored in the kingdom of heaven. He upheld the sacredness and authority of the law while freeing it from human traditions that obscured its meaning and showing its full significance.

He fulfils the law by vindicating, establishing and fully developing its principles, living it in perfect conformity as a living illustration with the law in His heart. He frees it from spurious human traditions, customs, rubbish, maxims, false interpretations and burdensome exactions that obscured it and made it a yoke of bondage, clearing away distortions to restore it to its eternal basis of virtue and purity. He reveals its length and breadth, dignity and nobility, purity and spirituality as reaching beyond outward acts to motives, heart and unspoken thoughts, teaching practical godliness by word and example. Spoken to Pharisees who thought disregard of traditions made the law void, the declaration rebuked their pretentious piety, corrected erroneous ideas, answered the charge that His teaching displaced God-given religion, and opposed self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. It exalts the law as more comprehensive than civil law and the royal law of the only true God bringing light and immortality, requires a piety exceeding theirs, and holds law and gospel hand in hand.

He fulfilled every letter by His own perfect, sinless obedience to every detail in humanity, observing even Mosaic precepts while Jewish teachers perverted the law and transgressed it. He kept complete loyalty without deviating one jot or tittle or doing anything contrary to the Father's will, never conceding to sin or leaving evil unrebuked, developing a perfectly upright character under infirmity and fierce temptation. His obedient life magnifies and exalts the law, proves it can be kept, vindicates God's justice in requiring it, condemns sin in the flesh, and will stand in the judgment for the law. It shows that through His grace, imputed righteousness and imparted divine nature every believer can obey, turn from the former life and be renewed in holiness, for the law's righteousness is Christ's righteousness received by faith, with no one hopelessly subject to bondage to sin and Satan. The moral law remains the rule of human conduct where even least disobedience is offensive, the ceremonial law did not end before its fulfillment in Christ, and those who keep and teach the commandments are counted great in heaven while those who break and teach others to break them are counted least, since heaven values humble obedience above earthly learning, wealth or position.

As Creator, Giver of the law at Sinai, guide of Israel in the wilderness and teacher in Eden He declares and makes plain its precepts for future generations in positive terms leaving no room for doubt or evasion. The law existed before the earth was called into being and angels are governed by its principles, made known to man in Eden when the morning stars sang together. As all nature from the mote in the sunbeam to the worlds on high is under law and the order and harmony of the natural world depend on obedience, so great principles of righteousness control the life of all intelligent beings and the well-being of the universe depends on conformity to them. His teaching and works agreed with both moral and ceremonial requirements, giving Israel its ceremonies and ordinances, observing what was binding on the Jews without diminishing the law's dignity or claims, and when His death fulfilled the sacrificial offerings they foreshadowed those offerings lost value without abolishing the law.

Eternal Unchangeable Moral Law

The law preserved is the ten holy precepts spoken on Sinai, the moral law distinct from the ceremonial system of types, shadows, sacrifices and offerings pointing to Jesus as the Lamb, which ceased and lost value when type met antitype in Christ's death. Christ's death ended the ceremonial law of sacrifices and ordinances when its symbols met fulfillment in Him, but it did not abolish the moral law, and the necessity of His death to atone for transgression confirms that law's unchanging authority. The moral principles made known in Paradise remain under the new covenant written in hearts and minds and will remain unchanged in Paradise restored, and the teachings given through Moses at Sinai remain relevant to guard against injustice and guide dealings with one another. No part of the moral law loses authority before fulfillment, and even the least disobedience is offensive, while the ceremonial law was not to end before its fulfillment in Christ.

The law is the moral law and revelation of God's will and character and transcript of His character and thought, as unchangeable as God and founded on love to God and neighbor. Its original is kept in heaven with the stone commands spoken amid Sinai's thunders as accurate transcript, enduring forever like God's throne. Though appearing negative it is Do and Live, holy, just and good, perfect in all requirements so it cannot be improved, strengthened, weakened or remodeled, and it is the foundation of His government and moral government over the world, the great standard of righteousness and rule of conduct. Not one moral precept is to be trifled with to please self or for convenience or pleasure, and breaking one commandment makes one guilty of the whole as breaking one link severs a chain. To break one of the least and teach men so brings judgment and registers one as least in value, not as an inferior subject admitted to heaven, for disobedient subjects never enter and misleaders are not proper teachers, while to do and teach them is to be recognized as one with Christ and God and called great by angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim.

The law will endure through the eternal ages as long as God's throne remains, as the eternal standard leaving no room for doubt or evasion. The enduring heavens and earth testify to its immutability, and no power in heaven or earth has excuse to change it. Even Satan in exalted glory before the fall could not change its smallest letter nor can he as apostate, nor does joining of world and church to make it void prove change, for to say God made an imperfect law needing change would stamp Him changeable and imperfect who will not break His covenant or alter what has gone out of His lips. It is as unchangeable as the everlasting hills no human arm can uproot, and God's servants are to remain as firm in fidelity to it. It remains binding as long as heaven and earth remain, with not even its smallest part passing away until all is kept or performed in perfect obedience, its plain words standing as judgment against transgressors and assurance of blessing for the obedient.

The law stands immutable and eternal as God's throne and as God Himself and cannot be weakened, strengthened, repealed, changed or explained away in even one principle, but remains holy, just, good and complete in itself. Changing any part would mar its perfection, suggest God's word is faulty and give Satan advantage in his challenge. Calling it honored or dishonored is merely human speech that does not alter it, and claims it is done away come from unwillingness to obey. The atonement was made so the divine law and government might be maintained, giving forgiveness through repentance and faith without setting the law aside, which Christ honored by implicit obedience.

God's law is no less binding now than when Adam and Eve were on trial in Eden, and people are more responsible now because they have the record of obedience and disobedience. What saves man is not abolishing the law, for it is immutable and changeless as His throne, and if it could have been changed Jesus need not have died. God would not leave men free to continue in transgression, and because man was lost he must be ransomed with a price. Its perpetuity stands with creation, the fall and the atonement as pillars of faith, its precepts existing before humanity and remaining as long as heaven and earth endure as the character of Father and Son. Christ's death met the demands of the law and upheld its dignity, ending typical sacrifices and ceremonies, not the moral law, which remains the standard distinguishing obedience and disobedience.

Unlike human laws the law takes cognizance of every act, word and thought, daily approving or condemning every soul as a sin detector. It reaches beyond outward acts to thoughts and intents of the heart, so evil thoughts, lustful looks, hatred and even the least injustice violate it, and outward observance with a corrupt heart is not enough. It requires perfect spiritual obedience, extends beyond outward acts to the thoughts and intents of the heart, and obeyed guides parents and children to well-being and leads men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously and godly. The ten holy precepts keep every jot of their claims through all generations to the close of time as the believer's rule of life and the sinner's condemnation, based on love to God and men.

Every detail of God's word, even its jots and tittles, is to govern the mind and affections, stamp the whole character, shape daily life including business conduct, and serve as the measure of actions and test of character in the judgment as a lamp for the feet. It is to be reverenced and obeyed without swerving for temptation and held fast though heaven and earth pass, with not one jot or tittle marred or dishonored. Grace does not permit making the law void by following natural desires or acting tyrannically, and disregarding or teaching others to disregard even a least commandment is warned against.

The binding claims of the law remain upon every soul to the end of time, requiring strict obedience to all precepts without respect of persons as proof of allegiance. It must be presented as pure and binding and defended when people unite to make its commandments void, with obedience letting God reveal His power and make His people lights. God has made His people its depositaries to uphold its downtrodden claims against opposition from ministers, men of learning, position and authority whose same refuted arguments are renewed again and again, and when the Christian world joins with Catholic and worldly powers to make them void God's chosen people arise to defend His law. God's holy requirements and Word will not be changed or done away to suit the unready, but all must be guided by His enduring Word even when heaven and earth pass away.

Cross Confirms the Law

Christ's suffering and death did not abolish, weaken, cancel, lessen, extinguish or set aside the law but confirms, upholds, vindicates, magnifies, honors and exalts it, standing forever as decisive proof of its unchangeable nature. He pledged to bear and suffered the penalty for its violation to atone for transgression, and if the law could have been changed or set aside He would not have needed to die to save man from the penalty of sin. His death ended the ceremonial law of sacrifices and ordinances when its symbols met their fulfillment in Him, but it did not abolish the moral law of the Ten Commandments which remains binding as long as heaven and earth remain with not even its smallest detail passing away until all is fulfilled. He denied coming to destroy the law, declared its smallest details remain binding while heaven and earth stand, came to magnify it and make it honorable, delighting to do God's will with the law within His heart and living every precept in humanity to show His followers the life He requires. Those who break even a least commandment and teach others to do so are least in the kingdom of heaven, while those who keep and teach the commandments are called great.

God would not change, repeal or set aside even the smallest part of the law to meet man in his fallen condition or to remove consequences and penalty. Redemption therefore required Christ as Substitute and Surety in human nature to bear guilt, suffer the penalty of transgression, conquer Satan and ransom humanity, and rather than alter even an iota God gave His only Son. He satisfied justice, met its demands, upheld and exalted the law, passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell, bore the test and proving of God with perfect obedience and resistance, and thereby provided probation, ransom, pardon and adoption instead of permission to keep transgressing. His life proves false Satan's declaration that man cannot keep the law and shows that through His merits people can become overcomers who live in obedience to it through His merits and righteousness. He came not to introduce a new law but to establish the old law that to all eternity will be the standard of obedience, to show its immutability and the holiness of its claims, to vindicate it and explain its claims, to remove deception, to make plain what Satan tries to make obscure, to establish what Satan seeks to make void, to show how far-reaching its principles are, to strip from it the burdensome human exactions loaded upon it, and to open before men its length and breadth, dignity and nobility, purity and spirituality. Its principles are unchangeable with no sinless swerving from them, and blessing follows those who reverentially obey; its letter sets out how to live while its spirit points to Christ as the atoning sacrifice through whom repentant sinners can meet its requirements, so law and gospel are in harmony. He kept every precept of the law, and those who accept Him as Saviour and share in the divine nature can also obey while God leaves them free to choose, for His mission was not to free people to break the law or to treat outward observance as enough when heart and life remain corrupt.

Obedience was ever the Lord's due from His creatures and His requirements have not been relaxed one jot or tittle to meet man in his fallen condition. The law requires unquestioning obedience and spiritual perfection, especially the fourth commandment Sabbath instituted in Eden, and no human law contrary to it may be obeyed. Christ upheld the law by making a full atonement, bearing the penalty of transgression so the human race might return to loyalty, imputing His righteousness to repentant believing sinners and presenting their penitence and obedience to God.

Salvation is from sin, not in sin. Christ's suffering for the world's guilt did not give people permission to keep breaking the law; they must cease transgressing it and become loyal to Christ, who kept His Father's commandments. His perfect character offered for guilty humanity makes it possible for people to obey God acceptably, with His righteousness imputed to them. His death makes it possible for transgressors to be saved, but He does not save them while they continue in sin; He gives them another probation and stands as their substitute and surety. Through faith in Christ and repentance toward God they may receive His righteousness, become partakers of the divine nature, and testify that the law is unchangeable and has brought in everlasting righteousness.

The law of the Ten Commandments is as lasting as heaven and earth, while the types and shadows ceased when Christ their fulfillment came. It reveals sin and condemns transgression but cannot pardon or cleanse the sinner; it acts as a divine mirror showing sinfulness and the heart's deformity to drive the sinner to repentance and faith in Christ for full and complete pardon through the atoning sacrifice. The gospel and faith do not cancel, weaken or set aside any part of the law but enforce it rather than lessening its standard or permitting continued transgression under freedom, and the gospel taught from Genesis to Revelation does not set aside the Old Testament. Faith that leads people to disobey the law betrays Christ rather than magnifying Him, and not even the least commandment may be set aside under pretense of honoring Christ or advancing the gospel or treated with indifference. The ten-commandment law still demands holiness in every part and calls every soul higher to be holy and holier still, divided as the first four and the last six commandments. It remains the just, holy and perfect standard for testing human character and by which all will be judged in the last day, so every person must decide whether to make void the law of God or to stand in its vindication by carefully examining thoughts and words, since outward observances do not amount to keeping it in the heart. His death does not immortalize sin or perpetuate transgression but gives the transgressor hope through His perfect sacrifice, and in the Sermon on the Mount He showed the true character of the law of Jehovah and its far-reaching claims, tearing away the mass of human traditions, customs and error that had brought truth to the dust and replacing the scribes' dwelling on technicalities with its great principles.

Sabbath Remains Binding Test

The saying proves that Christ did not change the Sabbath, for He came not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them, and not even the smallest letter or stroke passes from the law until heaven and earth pass and all is fulfilled. The Sabbath commandment therefore remains fully binding and claims obedience as long as heaven and earth remain, including its designation of the seventh day as the Lord's Sabbath blessed and hallowed from creation, and it was never removed, abolished, or changed to Sunday or the first day by church or papal authority or by human business arrangements. Christ honored it by word and example, teaching its sacred obligations, keeping it according to God's law, emphasizing its binding claims, and setting aside the selfish and arbitrary false teaching of the rabbis that had perverted its observance and misrepresented God's character. Breaking even the least of the commandments or teaching others to break them brings lowness in the kingdom of heaven, while doing and teaching them brings greatness.

The Sabbath thus preserved was made known in Eden before Sinai and was given to the world and not to Israel alone. It remains God's memorial of creating the world in six days and resting the seventh, and a sign of the Creator's power and of obedience, and it will be honored on the renewed earth where its inhabitants worship from one Sabbath to another. The fourth commandment stands unchanged as God wrote it on the stone tablets, with the seventh day remaining that memorial, and its wording is not to be altered into a counterfeit which has no biblical warrant. To remove it disregards God's honor and divides the loyal who keep His commandments from the disloyal, and papal breach cannot annul it, while calling Sunday the Sabbath echoes the first deceiver.

The saying stands against the Roman power and the man of sin who opposes God by seeking to change His times and laws. The coming test is between the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord God Jehovah and the spurious sabbath, with the Sunday law made a distinctive oppressing power against those who stand firmly to honor God. God's royal law stands firm while God holds the throne, and the third angel's message makes known that the Creator has always required obedience and always will. Churches have disregarded it and human enactments have been put in its place, and Sunday, a child of the Papacy bearing no sanctity, has been set before the people as sacred in place of the holy Sabbath of the fourth precept.

While God reigns no human power can alter even the smallest part of His unchangeable law, and the Sabbath command remains binding despite its replacement by Sunday in human practice. The fourth commandment was not abolished by Christ's death but was to be kept sacred even forty years afterward and continues to claim observance while heaven and earth endure. Christ's words cut through human traditions that burden or alter the Sabbath. The law is not open to human amendment but must be obeyed as given, and His sayings about doing good on the Sabbath do not turn transgression into obedience or remove the Sabbath's sanctity. It must be obeyed as God gave it without treating the Sabbath like a common workday, for the Sabbath is a test of loyalty and a sign of allegiance to the Creator.

Not even the smallest mark of precious scriptural truth passes away, and such truths are needed to steady those whose confidence is shaken by doctrines advanced to evade the Sabbath question, for truth cannot be changed into error. The Sabbath command remains binding truth to be obeyed, and preaching that the law is abolished is error. Upholding its permanence gives victory to truth, shines light on minds, and convicts and converts souls to obedience, with God on the side of truth and righteousness against opposition.

The Ten Commandments express God's will, written with His finger on stone with not one to be changed or erased, binding in every age and country. They are divided as the first four and the last six, still demanding holiness in every part and calling every soul higher to be holy and holier still. Proclaimed at Sinai by Christ Himself who will not countermand His own statutes, the law is as just as when given to Adam and still just today, and to assert a change in the law of the divine government casts reflection upon God's character. The gospel has not abolished it nor removed even its smallest claim, and the crucifixion established it even while the sacrificial offerings and ceremonial law ended when type met antitype in Christ's death. It has no power to pardon transgression but acts as a divine mirror showing the exceeding sinfulness of sin to drive the sinner to Christ, where repentance and faith receive full pardon through the atoning sacrifice without immortalizing sin or perpetuating transgression, and it remains the just and holy standard by which all will be judged in the last day. Obedience brings people into harmony with God and serves their good, preserving life, happiness, health, and joy now and in the life to come, and it is to be taught by ministers in the pulpit and by parents in the home line upon line, precept upon precept, enjoined upon children from their earliest years. Its perpetuity is reflected in Christians in history who regarded the Bible as their rule of faith and observed the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

Standard for Judgment and Obedience

To break one of the least commandments and teach others to do so by precept or example is to be called least in the kingdom of heaven, which means to be registered in the councils of heaven and of the universe as of least value among men and least in all creation by decision pronounced by God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and angels. To be called least does not mean to enter heaven as an inferior subject, for violators who mislead the inexperienced into forbidden paths have no part there and will never enter, but will be brought into judgment as not proper religious teachers. Breaking one commandment makes a person guilty of the whole law, just as breaking one link severs a chain, and such teaching directly or indirectly leading others to disregard the commandments will be faced in the judgment. To do and teach the commandments is to be called great in the kingdom of heaven, which means to be recognized in heaven as one with Christ and with God and to be accounted great and honored by angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim and the angelic hosts. Keeping the commandments is best because God reveals His power through an obedient people, and if all obeyed they would be lights in the world.

Those who break even a least commandment and teach others to do so are called least and of no esteem in heaven however high their worldly position, while those who obey and teach them are called great, for heaven values humble obedience above earthly learning, wealth, or position. Breaking even one point makes a person guilty of the whole law, and Christ condemns those who disobey and teach others to disobey while affirming the continuing authority of the law and the prophets against mistaken ideas. No one who willfully disregards a principle of the law will enter heaven, for those who obey as Christ did affirm that the law is good, while those who break it support the claim that it is unjust and cannot be obeyed, bringing dishonor and discord. True righteousness must exceed the outward righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

The law remains the holy, just, and good standard of righteousness by which all are judged when the judgment sits and the books are opened in the great day, revealing the obedient and the disobedient and condemning persistent transgression. Human standards of righteousness count for nothing against it, for it reaches to the intents of the heart and demands purity in secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions, requiring supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self and claiming perfect obedience so that the least deviation by neglect or willful transgression is sin. Christ fulfilled all righteousness and showed that people through the grace He provides can meet God's requirements and keep His commandments, and thus the law is magnified and honored rather than set aside to meet fallen man. Salvation is not brought by abolishing any smallest part of the law, for God did not alter the law to meet fallen man, and had He retracted His word no confidence could be placed in His government and Satan's claim that man cannot keep the law would have been proved true. The death of Christ testifies to heaven, to unfallen worlds, and to fallen Adam's sons and daughters that the law is immutable, and in the judgment the immutable law will condemn everyone who has persisted in transgression.

The law will be revealed as God's standard of character at Christ's return and in the judgment when the books are opened, confronting every transgressor and deciding every case in review before the Judge of the universe. Christ's statement, made by the Alpha and the Omega, will confront every transgressor of the law in the day of judgment, and those who have rejected or taught against its commandments, especially the Sabbath instituted in Eden and proclaimed at Sinai and not limited to the Jews, will face its authority. The law is perfect in all its requirements so it cannot be improved, and any attempt to remodel it only causes imperfection; it is the foundation of God's government standing forever as the immutable standard all must reach in order to be saved. Those who refuse obedience during probation could not safely enter God's kingdom, because they would oppose its law and bring about another rebellion, and executing justice against those who despise the law is consistent with God's love as shown at the cross. The declaration joins God's love and mercy with strict, impartial justice, including judgment and retribution for the wicked, and the law remains the rule of human conduct as long as time lasts and the rule of God's future judgment.

The law is God's great standard of righteousness by which every person will be judged in the great day, and not one jot or tittle of its claims is altered by convenience, worldly loss or gain, or danger to business interests, especially the Sabbath requirement of the fourth commandment. Infringing the Sabbath for worldly work steals God's time, removes its hallowed sacred dignity in one's own mind and in others, and brings what God made holy down to the level of common working days. Every transgression, with the character of the offense, is written by name against the offender in the books of heaven. The permanence of the law proves God's strict and impartial justice standing together with His love and mercy and divine tenderness and compassion in giving His only Son to redeem a lost race. In the cross the binding claims of the law and the condemnation of those who disregard it can be read, with obedience distinguishing God's people.

Every moral precept and principle is to be treated seriously without trifling to please self rather than obey God, and in just the degree a person does so God will bring him into judgment, for not one moral precept is to be set aside for convenience or pleasure. Obedience brings blessing to individuals and nations as it would have brought to ancient Israel, reveals God's power through an obedient people, gives freedom from sin when the law expressing true holiness is written on the heart and revealed in character, and proves holiness, while the gospel requires perfect obedience. Breaking the law or leading others to break it brings judgment, is incompatible with heavenly esteem, makes claims of sanctification false, and leaves those who know instruction yet continue in sin with no place among the blessed. Christ came not to introduce a new law but to establish the law that to all eternity will be the standard of obedience, showing its immutability and the holiness of its claims and how far-reaching its principles are. His life proves false Satan's declaration that man cannot keep the law and shows that man can keep it.

Obedience to every jot and tittle honors and exalts the holy law; those who yield to its claims have wickedness expelled from their hearts, and sacred, refining truth is revealed in their lives. Following Christ in self-denial and bearing the cross, with His spirit ruling the heart, enables people to meet the law's requirements and enter the city, while those who fail remain outside. Those who obey as Christ did affirm that the law is good, while willful disregard shuts one out of heaven. Obedience to the law leads people to reject ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this life, for its foundation is love to God and love to others and obedience to it is the whole duty of humanity reaching beyond outward actions to thoughts and intentions. If perfectly obeyed, oppression, injustice, corruption, selfishness, idolatry, and covetousness would give way to love, harmony, and joy, producing a different society including different conditions in families, whereas disobedience brings sin and misery.

Obedience to every word is required with nothing conceded to sin, and Christ's rebuke of sin and hypocrisy rather than giving evil passions license brought Satan's hostility upon Him. His suffering at the cross fulfilled the prophecy that the serpent would bruise His heel, while His resistance to sin and Satan's role in bringing about His death led to Satan's defeat and downfall. The ten-commandment law remains binding in its moral prohibitions against intemperance and licentiousness such as alcohol, tobacco, and impurity, and the theory that the law is abolished deludes the intemperate and licentious so that no message can impress them and excuses continued indulgence of depraved appetite. Health, truth, happiness, prosperity, and safety for individuals and nations come only through intelligent knowledge of and full obedience to the law joined with perfect faith in Jesus Christ, and unwavering obedience is the only safety securing divine favor. Teachers and ministers who preach holiness while yielding to appetite and leading people to despise physical and moral law by teaching abolition will meet a fearful record.

The law is the rule of life to be taught diligently to children by precept and example, avoiding every smallest transgression with love and fear of God first rather than regard for what neighbors do and say and think. Neglect to teach its commandments diligently and apostasy from that law is transgression, for no part of the law loses its significance and not one jot or tittle has passed away. Obedience means working in harmony with God and brings His promised blessing when rising up and sitting down and when going out and coming in, with preservation, provision, and prosperity guiding parents and children toward well-being and a fruitful life. Careless disobedience brings the same ruin as Adam and Eve's transgression, deterioration of character, loss of God's blessing and power, and the education of children and children's children as confirmed transgressors until contempt for the law is almost worldwide. This requires quiet yet active, earnest, sincere piety giving God the whole heart, and this piety decides the destiny of parents and loved ones for the future life.

Opposition and Deceptive Claims

To teach that the law was done away at the cross directly opposes Christ's declaration that He came not to destroy the law and prophets but to fulfill every specification, with not even the smallest letter or stroke passing while heaven and earth remain. That demand to set aside the law was first made by Satan in heaven and refused, and after he tried in vain to find a flaw to prove it must change, war broke out and he was expelled with the angels he deceived. He clouded the great moral standard, rebelled against it, corrupted the commandments to make them appear rigorous and burdensome, and now leads human agents to believe the same lie. To abolish the law would immortalize sin, for sin is transgression of the law, and where there is no law there is no transgression and no sin, and where there is no sin there is no need of the gospel and no need of a Saviour. Christ as the Lamb of God came to take away sin and died for the transgressor to bring fallen beings like Adam and Eve back to loyalty and allegiance so they stop sinning, with a second trial provided by His pledging His own life as ransom, thereby magnifying the law and exposing sin in its true light. His death did not abolish the law but proves it unchangeable and stands as the great unanswerable proof of its immutability, leaving it living through the eternal ages and standing thoroughly vindicated when every case is decided in the great day of God.

Its perpetuity stands with creation, the fall of man, and the atonement as pillars of the Christian faith, to be literally obeyed and not changed or abrogated. Denying it wholly or in part, caviling at Scripture, and spiritualizing and explaining away its requirements is active infidelity against truth and righteousness, now at work not only in the world but in the church through ministers, professors, and teachers. A large share of the professedly Christian world practically rejects its continued validity, while those who hold its requirements as still binding are met with ridicule and contempt. Loyalty to the moral law tests a teacher's claim, for a true message leads to reverence and fear of God and to love shown by keeping His commandments. Anyone who does not feel the weight of the moral law, who makes light of God's precepts, who breaks one of the least commandments and teaches others to do so, will be of no esteem in heaven and proves his claims false, doing the work begun by Satan as the enemy of God.

The claim that Christ's death abolished God's law is Satan's deception, by which he leads many professed Christians to break the Father's commandments while professing devotion to His Son. It is a false doctrine opposed to the plainest statements of the Word, part of the wine of Babylon's fornication by which Babylon makes all nations drink false doctrine received through unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth, where friendship with the world corrupts faith and then exerts a corrupting influence upon the world. It is a dangerous and widely held assumption, even more dangerous than the temporal millennium of a thousand years of spiritual peace with conversion of the world before Christ's coming, and than natural immortality of the soul with its Romish errors of purgatory, prayers for the dead and invocation of saints, its Protestant denial of the resurrection and the Judgment, its eternal torment and its Universalism. Because the law still stands, the first day of the week is not now a holy day instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Christ's sacrifice did not abolish the law or lessen any part of its force or authority but upheld and exalted it, showing it as unchanging as God's throne, with its transgression making His suffering necessary, His obedience magnifying its precepts as an example, and faith in Him as substitute and surety enabling sinners condemned apart from Him to meet its demands as prisoners of hope. The assertion that keeping God's commandments means falling from grace is a delusion, and since the law makes known the eternal principles of God's character, claims that it has been altered or set aside repeat Satan's lie that it is defective.

To belittle the claims of the law is to reproach Christ, to war against Jehovah, to array against Christ, to deny and give the lie to His plain and most decided declarations, and to betray the Son of man while professing to exalt the gospel. He spoke more plainly and decidedly than anyone about its binding claims and immutability, coming to exalt it and make it honorable and thereby bring light and immortality to light, with His suffering and death proving it could not be set aside. Unless those who oppose the law repent they will be dealt with as the inhabitants of the old world were dealt with, while false teachers try to lead men away from obedience and God calls His people into the path of His commandments. No part of God's holy law may be treated lightly or disrespectfully, for to disregard or disobey a clear command is rebellion against Maker and Redeemer. Claiming the promises given to the obedient while disobeying dishonors Him and misrepresents His character, and setting up human standards He has not given, perverting pure and righteous principles, misleads others, corrupts influence, fails to be a light, and leads astray with false waymarks.

Not one jot of principle from the law is to be sacrificed, and keeping every jot means not being led away by men's sophistry and maxims, not agreeing with those who teach for doctrine the commandments of men, and not letting love wax cold even when iniquity and transgression are in the ascendancy. All zeal for the law is to be retained with perfect familiarity with the Old Testament Scriptures, yet wisdom requires holding back expression of features of faith that would at once arouse prejudice. Loyalty is shown by dwelling on the types and shadows that typified Christ, exalting Christ and His special work for humanity, and bringing precious light upon prophecies not yet seen, thus laying the foundation so that when hearts soften Jesus can be presented as made flesh dwelling among men, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Not even the smallest part of the faith is to be sacrificed to gain the world's approval, for giving up any part separates people from God. Israel's request for a king to be like surrounding nations illustrates this, for though God was their King and sustained them they chose a human king, and then neither they nor their king fully followed God's commands, and when they dishonored God and trusted human wisdom He no longer sustained them.

Not even the smallest part of God's law is to be yielded or compromised, as illustrated by a man who refused to give up a jot or tittle when the church in Scotland considered conceding its principles. Not one jot or tittle of the faith has changed, supporting holding to the same truth taught for the past half century amid false doctrines and distinguishing loyalty from disloyalty. No part of God's truth is to be set aside, for every jot of it is precious, received through the Holy Spirit and to be valued by remaining on the same platform of truth maintained for more than half a century.

Holding Every Detail Faithfully

Every detail of revealed truth is to be held fast and brought into daily practice, not accepted as mere theory but searched inwardly as life-giving bread until it controls the mind, regulates the affections and stamps the whole character. Scripture is to be compared with Scripture through diligent study, for even what is thought established beyond controversy must be closely examined lest crude ideas, surface work or the sayings of others hide a flaw in interpretation. No part of the Word is to be removed, cut or altered to suit human judgment, and no one may decide which parts are inspired or reject a part because another called it uninspired, but the Bible is to be received with implicit faith while remaining open to further light, since human wisdom that departs even slightly is foolish and no tradition can take precedence over what God plainly said. No tittle of gospel truth is to be suppressed even to avoid danger or death.

Every jot and tittle of Scripture is heavenly treasure and precious ore to be searched out by deep personal study as long as mental capability lasts, then presented to others in native simplicity through books, pamphlets and tracts. Such earnest labor richly repays the searcher, exposing errors and finding precious gems of inestimable value by sinking the shaft deeper into the mines of truth, for the Word is the mine of the unsearchable riches of Christ and sharp, clear conceptions never reward indolence. Even the smallest points require complete careful scrutiny, so no message is to be proclaimed until examined in every jot and tittle in order to distinguish false claims from what the Word truly endorses. Every jot and tittle of God's will as revealed in His Word is precious to be stored in the mind and understood, giving knowledge of God and of truth that prepares for the future immortal life and for what is coming upon the earth, instead of filling the mind with fables, fiction and trifling rubbish that destroys appetite for solid reading. Even the smallest parts of God's word, gifts and Bible truth are to be treasured carefully, not kept for personal benefit only but shared with others through attention to needs and kindly words that open channels for truth.

No part of God's truth is to be suppressed even under threat, and not one small part of the gospel is to be set aside to escape suffering. As the Waldenses held fast through persecution and would not compromise distinctive principles, so not even the smallest part is to be yielded for worldly advantage, influence, cooperation, or to please anyone, but truth must be upheld without compromise because salvation must be received as God gave it. Hiding or compromising principles of faith even to seek wider patronage hinders the advance of truth, so God's people must represent those principles firmly and openly with a witness no less convincing than before, and at the sanitarium stronger still. Christ's disciples may give up forms, maxims and customs to reach people and bring them to Christ, but they must not surrender any vital truth even to please the world.

Not even the smallest detail of a message given by God may be reduced or left out, and faithfulness requires standing at the assigned post and bearing the whole entrusted testimony exactly as given. It is not to be lessened to gain favor nor withheld to avoid frowns, alienation and foreseen consequences, but done under the constraining love of Christ with the result trusted to God, and repeated continually until wrongs are expelled whether men hear or forbear. This applies even when the warning concerns one's own relatives, for loyalty to God's message takes precedence over family ties, wrong is to be named when necessary, and neither fear of criticism nor favoritism may silence truth. Obedience to God's plain word allows no deviation at all, so those in trust must hear Christ's counsels, be governed by His will and hold confidence firm to the end, never turning aside from a plain Thus saith the Lord. Every smallest jot and tittle of prevarication and falsehood must be put away without even the slightest shadow seen, because no falsehood can honor God, and only such exact faithfulness in unselfish service, doing all in Christ's name and keeping all His commandments rather than seeking worldly recognition or human wisdom apart from Christ, brings benefit from His intercession, rich blessing, and honor and ownership by God in the judgment.

Not even the smallest part can be left out of the third angel's message, for the people need every jot and tittle of it in all its parts. That means not the commandments of God alone but also the faith of Jesus, and to proclaim the commandments while leaving the other half scarcely touched mars the message in the hands of those who bear it. The faith of Jesus means more than is generally supposed, and God's holy requirements will not be changed to suit the unready but all must be guided by His enduring Word. God's promise cannot fail in even the smallest detail, and the showers of the Holy Spirit's grace will surely come when workers abide in Christ, put away selfishness and rivalry, become one, sanctify themselves and show love for one another. Discrediting others to display superiority shows the work lacks God's approval and He cannot bless it.

Every jot and tittle counts in action and planning, where not one mistake can be afforded because Satan will take advantage of every opening. Every step must be ordered by the Lord under the Holy Spirit, moving carefully in preparations and plans for school work in relation to the educational law, with truth and righteousness prevailing and every action bearing the heavenly Father's approval to fit for the courts above. Keeping every detail requires scrupulous honesty in business, refusing bribes and worldly schemes, standing incorrupt, betraying no trust and testing every act by whether it is the Lord's way under God's all-seeing eye to become without spot. No part of the law may be violated to achieve a desired end, even when strict obedience requires great sacrifice, for departing from rectitude forfeits God's blessing and though disobedience may appear to prosper for a time it will surely reap its fruit. This demands integrity of character, truthfulness, no deception, and perfect purity of thought, word and deed, including refusing underhanded stealing of affections through deceptive courtship and secret communications, with love and fear of God first and parents teaching children by precept and example to avoid every smallest transgression.

Even the smallest trace of influence or conduct calls for complete moral care, leaving nothing that could lead another to stumble, distrust or do evil, including spotless financial credit and influence purified of every doubtful shade. Exact honesty requires stating what land is worth without adding even that smallest amount above its true worth. Position adds nothing to standing before God, for God values character alone and not rank or authority. Those fully with the Lord take no smallest part of glory to themselves but ascribe all glory to God for influence and opportunities, honoring Him without selfishness in private and public life, home, church and business, and every jot and tittle of strength and influence is to be placed on the side of truth and righteousness in calling people to decision.

Every jot and tittle of influence is given to be used in God's service, with every part of ability refined, purified and used on the Lord's side and none given to work against Christ. No one is to bring fellow minds under control or use God's gifts to strengthen secret societies and confederacies God condemns, but to array himself against them, and those who do not use God's gifts to honor Him are under deception ending in ruin unless they change. Students are to give not even the slightest influence or ability to Satan but put will and influence on Christ's side through order, diligence and obedience, and every small measure of influence is needed in standing firmly for principle. Every jot and tittle is essential and must be preserved, yet matters are to appear at the proper time, as in careful preparation and timely publication of the testimonies. The same applies to the full extent of missionary work, where even its smallest part must be encouraged and carried out faithfully, with each person adding a small part in Christ's way to bring light, including children's small contributions to medical missionary work and a jot here in love and a tittle elsewhere building home education line upon line with pleasant words showing children the way to Christ.

The jots and tittles also cover even the smallest details of evil in daily fellowship, which believers must not spend powers gathering, reporting or accusing over, but must use words and actions to show Christlike character in unity, love and Christian fellowship, lest condemnation come and the example contradict God's teaching. Every jot and tittle is a gift to be treasured and imparted, with God's pure truth in jots and tittles opened wisely to those needing its soothing power, so that one with personal religion and peace in the heart imparts peace to diseased minds and every kindly word makes a channel through which truth flows in rich currents to other souls. Not even the smallest degree of influence should encourage the sale of liquor, in faithful adherence to temperance light. Jots and tittles as smallest details of the law are also used figuratively to warn against making small points of dress into exacting personal requirements, distinguishing attention to essential profitable principles from excessive insistence on minor particulars, especially when one makes conscience a standard for others.

Jots and tittles describe small points that can be raised against the truth, magnified out of proportion and talked about when silence would be wiser. Picking at such details or correcting small things in books is not a great work when it diverts attention from the message and creates disagreement and confusion, showing the danger of magnifying nonessential differences. Spending time on trivial disputes and manufactured controversies perplexes the mind and distracts from presenting and repeating truth. Minute points of Scripture or doctrine called jots and tittles must not receive excessive attention leading to needless argument, controversy, criticism and confusion, for not every point needs debate especially when not essential to salvation. Simplicity of the Word is to be kept with focus on work that strengthens faith, since dwelling on smallest details and enlarging them out of proportion misrepresents God and His kingdom, and minor issues must not distract from important testing truths or provoke division and questioning.

Jot and tittle is used for insisting that every detail conform to one's own ideas, yet on minor points Christians may yield for cooperation, since treating every such point as essential causes division while yielding on matters of little consequence allows believers to work together. The same smallest marks describe teaching only a few minor points contrasted with bringing present truth fully, and specific points gathered as alleged contradictions to be written down so they can be answered. Jot and tittle signify even the smallest details of Scripture to be guarded, for instruction that distorts Scripture and leads students toward unbelief must be countered, even teachings appearing as minor distortions can grow into snares for the inexperienced, and a jot here and a tittle there of error among much straight truth acts as seed taking root until many are defiled. Picking up a jot and tittle about another and turning small details into grave sins distorts what critics seize on and does not justify faultfinding or condemning without knowledge. The image also applies to small repeated habits accumulated in a school that made reforms difficult, to how unbelief grows little by little through repeated small acts until faith weakens and the heart shuts out reform, and to small points used to sow uncertainty that grows into unbelief when cherished.

Jot or tittle means the slightest amount, so not even the smallest lasting influence of education based on human inventions or given by absorbing games will prepare teachers and students for the severe conflicts of the last days. Satan will bring every smallest bit of influence possible to divert minds from truth. No act of defiance can diminish the Lord's purity, and those who try damage their own characters without excuse. Not even the smallest part of God's law is to be taken away in larger or tiny details, applied to not robbing God and upholding every command with reverence, and remaining steadfast without turning aside even a little departs nothing from God's law, while even influence exerted to counteract His message must be repented of. Even the smallest detail of unfair, unjust or selfish work is recorded in heaven, showing the exactness of that record and the need to set a right example with compassion, tenderness and love and to deal justly with every worker. Every jot and every tittle of grace and power is of God and not from any human agent, so when favored with success self must not swell but the person must humble himself that the Lord may be exalted.