( For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Not those who merely hear, know, believe, profess, or talk about the law are counted as right before God, but only those who do what the law requires shall be justified. God will render to every person according to deeds, giving eternal life to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality, with no respect of persons for position, possessions, or outward appearance. The law by which all are judged is the holy law of ten commandments, binding in all ages, which as a mirror shows sin but has no power itself to cleanse or save. Justification is by faith and judgment is by works, for without faith it is impossible to please God, and sinful beings become doers only through Christ who pardons guilt and gives power to render obedience. This doing is inward of the heart and outward in daily life, in speech, dress, purity, honesty in every business transaction, and practical care for the poor and unfortunate, sustained by wholehearted cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
Hearers and Doers Defined
Not those who merely hear, know, read, believe, profess, possess, or talk about the law are just before God, but only those who do the law shall be justified. Mere hearing of God's law is not enough, and outward nearness to God does not make anyone just or screen from divine wrath those who trample the law. It is not enough to acknowledge the authority of the law, to rest in the law and boast in knowledge of God's will while teaching others without teaching self. Doing requires zeal according to knowledge and doing of the Word, with truth received in the heart transforming mind, heart, and character.
The principles of the law are an expression of God's character, and He expects its requirements to be fulfilled. True standing before God is inward, of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. When the law is treasured in the heart, speech gives evidence of it, especially in reverence toward God and charitable speech toward neighbor.
The warning was applied to the Jews as the chosen nation favored with the oracles of God, which was much advantage every way. They despised the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering that leads to repentance, transgressed the law and broke the covenant, and did not appreciate the pearl of great price committed to them. Even Gentiles who do not have the written law, when they do by nature the things contained in the law, show the work of the law written in their hearts, with conscience bearing witness and thoughts accusing or excusing. That inward working is testified by the outward appearance, especially in laying aside idolatry in dress and pride in apparel, gold, and outward adornment for modest apparel and good works.
Judgment According to Deeds
God will render to every person according to deeds, giving eternal life to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, and indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul that does evil, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Glory, honor, and peace come to every one who works good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Those who transgress the law and break the covenant treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Mere hearing of the law and outward nearness to God does not make anyone just before God and will not screen from divine wrath those who trample the law.
There is no respect of persons with God. He decides each case not according to position occupied, possessions, color, or outward appearance, but according to character formed. In the day when He judges the secrets of men, He does so by Jesus Christ. Outward appearances do not reveal the heart, so human measurement cannot read the heart or declare who is righteous before God.
As many as have sinned without law shall perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Every soul will be judged by the knowledge of God's will and the light that has come to him, which determines accountability including the destiny of those who have died. Sinners do not perish for want of opportunities and means of knowing His will but for unwillingness to come out from the world and be separate from selfish practices and to deal with justice and mercy. Mere profession of truth and hearing or possessing the law does not justify, for God counts as just not by how much light has been heard but by doing according to the light received. Those who profess to be Christians yet do not the works of a Christian and who turn from the presentation of truth and righteousness to take their own way will have no excuse when every case stands out as it is, and the line of demarcation between the obedient who serve God and the disobedient who serve Him not will be clear and distinct. People who live up to that light are tested, and their accountability depends on their willingness to stand that test, so that many standing aloof live more in obedience to their light than others do to greater light, and judging others who live up to the light they have reveals the foolishness of human wisdom. Applied to the Sabbath, those who know the commandment are accountable to keep it, for responsibility depends on the light received.
Punishment is proportionate to light rejected. Those who had abundant opportunity to know the truth with peculiar advantages and gifts to let light shine, but in blindness and unbelief contended against God and His messengers, turned from God's way to their own way, led others astray, dishonored God, and turned His truth into a lie, will be judged according to their works for the good they might have done but did not and for misused opportunities. As they were distinguished by mercies bestowed so they will be distinguished by severity of punishment. One who judges others for such things while doing the same shall not escape the judgment of God, which is according to truth. That judgment condemns all who have had the truth laid before them, including a sacred trust betrayed by selfishness and disobedience, yet continue the things the inspired record condemns.
Law as Standard of Righteousness
The law of God is the only standard of character by which all people are judged, condemning the guilty and justifying and rewarding the obedient. Hearing the law is not enough to be counted righteous before God; only the doers of the law shall be justified. Obedience to that law is necessary to be prepared to stand in the judgment. That judgment is the closing work of Christ's ministration, which began in 1844 and must continue until the cases of all the living and the dead are decided at the close of human probation. To make the law void would leave the world without that standard.
The law to be obeyed is the holy law of ten commandments, written on tables of stone by the finger of God and placed in the ark. It is the expression of God's will, never to be changed or erased and binding on men in all ages and in all countries. It is the standard of righteousness by which hearers and doers are decided. In the last great day it will appear before the obedient and the disobedient, and all the wicked will be convicted by it. Their disobedience will show actions proceeding from a depraved character and a part in carrying on the rebellion begun in the heavenly courts, with cruelty and wickedness that dishonored the Creator and brought the wretchedness that fills the world. The law disobeyed was life, and obedience to it would have kept happiness and peace and made character as fine gold and principles as the golden wedge of Ophir, bearing fruit in sanctified love and beauty of character, and the world would have been filled with holiness and purity.
That same holy law will be the standard to judge people in the last great day of reckoning, calling for purity in personal life and in influence and associations with others, building character with pure seed rather than chaff. The law acts as a mirror that shows sin and defects and condemns, but it has no power to cleanse or save the sinner. Fearing God and giving glory to Him and worshiping Him as Creator of heaven and earth requires obeying His law. Fearing God means keeping His commandments as the whole duty of man, and keeping His commandments is the love of God, and without obedience to His commandments no worship can be pleasing to God, so that turning away from hearing the law makes even prayer an abomination.
Doing the law requires keeping all of God's commandments exactly as given. Especially it requires keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath just as the fourth commandment reads, and refusing to put the first day in its place. Worshiping on a common working day in ignorance is not sin, but when light shows the truth, error must be given up and truth accepted, because presenting to God something different while claiming it makes no difference deceives the soul to ruin. People are judged according to the light God has allowed to reach them, so responsibility depends on the light received, and those who know the commandment are accountable to keep it. Even the smallest acts of disobedience and transgression of His holy law are sin, God marks them, and sin must be seen as hateful and not as a small matter. Satan glosses over the heinousness of sin and makes sinners find pleasure and attraction in it and think God does not mark it against them, while sincere return to the Lord with full contrition brings pardon, which requires confessing a reckless course without palliation, excuse, or self-justification and being thoroughly converted.
Faith and Power to Obey
Faith is essential to keeping God's law, for without faith it is impossible to please God and whatever is not of faith is sin. Hearing the law is not enough, for only those who do the law shall be justified, and the law is the standard by which people are judged, so obedience to it is necessary to be prepared for the judgment. That judgment is the closing work of ministration that began in 1844 and must continue until the cases of all the living and the dead are decided at the close of human probation.
People are justified by faith and judged by their works, for justification is by faith yet judgment is by works, with God's law claiming obedience from all and condemning disobedience. Hearing or professing the law is not enough, for people are judged by what they do, and their works reveal whether their faith is living. Neglecting duties to God and others, including failing to use abilities and means to help others, leaves them wanting in the judgment. Being a doer who shall be justified requires a vital connection with Christ that earnestly carries forward the work committed to him, for the most splendid service originating with self is useless, and unless the root is holy no fruit can be borne to God's glory.
Becoming a doer is the work of redemption, for sinful human beings are unable of themselves to do Christ's words. The law acts as a mirror that shows sin and defects and condemns, but it has no power to cleanse or save the sinner. Christ does not do away with that condemning law but exalts it, and His great sacrifice was made so that man might be a doer of it. The condemned sinner who confesses sin receives pardon and cleansing through Jesus Christ the righteous as advocate with the Father, who takes guilt upon Himself and justifies before God, and who not only frees from sin but gives power to render obedience to God's will. Adam's disobedience made every human being a transgressor of the law and sold under sin, and unless a person repents and is converted he remains under bondage of the law, serving Satan, falling into the enemy's deceptions, and bearing witness against Jehovah's precepts. Justification requires perfect obedience to its requirements, not merely hearing it, so those whose natures have been perverted by sin must ever keep their eyes fixed on Christ, the author and finisher of faith.
Doing the law means wholehearted, unreserved cooperation with divine agencies to weave its divine principles into life practices, showing personal piety. In this doing heavenly agencies work with human agencies, the Holy Spirit cooperates with the willing, God-fearing, humble worker to increase tact and wisdom, and God works in believers to will and to do of His good pleasure as they work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Doing means laying hold upon God by living faith, being vitalized by the Holy Spirit, lifting up Jesus before the family, taking up home responsibilities, and trading upon the Lord's goods by extending effort into the neighborhood and into the church and giving to those not in the faith the knowledge received in order to keep first love fresh and strong, so that tidings that sinners are turning from error to truth and from sin to righteousness ascend to God. This obedience represents the character of God and does not lie against the truth, and it is the wedding garment that proves readiness for Christ's soon manifestation in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when judgments are already abroad and the end of all things is at hand.
Obedience in Daily Life
Merely hearing without doing leaves a person no better morally or spiritually, for only those who eat and digest the Word receive spiritual strength and practice it. Such doers have hearts cleansed, refined and elevated, eyes anointed with heavenly eyesalve to see deeper lessons, and conscience under the working of the Holy Spirit revealing a pure, high standard of righteousness that puts to shame the low, cheap ideas of the surface reader whose mind is corrupted with sin. Doing means denying self and making any and every sacrifice for Christ's sake, so that precept and example harmonize and give power in teaching.
Reaching the righteousness the Word requires calls for diligent, persevering effort to learn justice, humility, patience, purity and love, and when the principles of the law rule the heart the person has the spirit of Christ and shows mercy in daily life. These qualities are more precious and acceptable to God than costly offerings or sacrifices. Faith must be sustained by works, not merely professed, for works reveal whether faith is living and people are justified by faith yet judged by what they do. Neglecting duties to God and others, including failing to use abilities and means to help others, leaves one wanting in the judgment.
Inward doing is testified outwardly, for when the law with its expression of God's character is treasured and fulfilled in the heart, speech gives evidence of it in reverence toward God and charitable speech toward neighbor rather than irreverence and uncharitableness. That inward transformation of mind, heart and character shows in outward appearance in laying aside idolatry in dress and pride in apparel, gold and outward adornment for modest apparel and good works. It also calls for purity in personal life and in influence and associations with others, building character with pure seed rather than chaff, since God's holy law is the standard of character He approves and by which He will judge in the last great day. Doing the Word is practical care for those who have little to make life happy, for orphans and the unfortunate, with moral sensibilities directed by the Spirit of God and following the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, putting self into His hands without reserve and obeying His directions implicitly, for much talking with little deep, earnest thinking and little work for the Master cannot make up the lack. It is laying hold upon God by living faith, being vitalized by the Holy Spirit, lifting up Jesus before the family, taking up home responsibilities, and trading upon the Lord's goods by extending effort into the neighborhood and into the church and giving to those not in the faith the knowledge received in order to keep first love fresh and strong.
God counts as just before Him not those who hear and know His holy law while connected with His work, but those who do it in every business transaction small or great. His law expresses His character of truth, righteousness and strict equity and is the great standard by which every action is measured, registered in the books of heaven, weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and either approved or condemned. Sharp dealing, oppression, selfish dealing, injustice and taking unfair advantage of any person, saint or sinner, even to advance a religious institution, transgresses that law, stamps the transaction with condemnation, reveals an unsanctified heart that does not know God and Christ, and forfeits divine favor, the divine signet and partnership with God.
Doers openly show their colors and stand fully under the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, adhering strictly to Scripture, prizing God's favor above gold, refusing to hide faith or meet the world's standard or evade and explain away His commandments, and waiting as obedient children in humility for the Lord's soon coming. Doing requires keeping all of God's commandments exactly as given, especially keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath just as the fourth commandment reads and refusing to put the first day in its place, for worshiping on a common working day in ignorance is not sin but when light shows the truth error must be given up and truth accepted lest the soul be deceived to ruin by presenting something different. Merely reading or believing the Bible does not save, for Christ's words are to be obeyed to the letter in pursuing duty to glorify God rather than to be praised by men, and no soul continuing in transgression and sin will be vindicated, since the test of judgment is truth practiced in life, words and actions. On such obedience depend life and happiness, health and joy, and well-being in this life and in the life to come, with physical and spiritual blessing through temperance, industry, economy, avoidance of evil and preservation of virtue, to be taught by ministers and parents and enjoined on children from earliest years.
The verse forbids putting human measurement on ministering brethren, attempting to number Israel, reading the heart, or excluding fellow workers as wanting, since outward appearances do not reveal the heart and the one found fault with may be more righteous in God's sight than the one judging. It is instruction for those living amid the perils of the last days to be careful how they measure a brother and to put no stumbling block in his way, for God shows no favoritism and will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. God counts people as just not by how much light they have heard but by doing according to the light received, so others are not to be judged who live up to the light they have, since many standing aloof live more in obedience to their light than others do to greater light.
Not those who merely hear, know, believe, profess, or talk about the law are counted as right before God, but only those who do what the law requires shall be justified. God will render to every person according to deeds, giving eternal life to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality, with no respect of persons for position, possessions, or outward appearance. The law by which all are judged is the holy law of ten commandments, binding in all ages, which as a mirror shows sin but has no power itself to cleanse or save. Justification is by faith and judgment is by works, for without faith it is impossible to please God, and sinful beings become doers only through Christ who pardons guilt and gives power to render obedience. This doing is inward of the heart and outward in daily life, in speech, dress, purity, honesty in every business transaction, and practical care for the poor and unfortunate, sustained by wholehearted cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
Hearers and Doers Defined
Not those who merely hear, know, read, believe, profess, possess, or talk about the law are just before God, but only those who do the law shall be justified. Mere hearing of God's law is not enough, and outward nearness to God does not make anyone just or screen from divine wrath those who trample the law. It is not enough to acknowledge the authority of the law, to rest in the law and boast in knowledge of God's will while teaching others without teaching self. Doing requires zeal according to knowledge and doing of the Word, with truth received in the heart transforming mind, heart, and character.
The principles of the law are an expression of God's character, and He expects its requirements to be fulfilled. True standing before God is inward, of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. When the law is treasured in the heart, speech gives evidence of it, especially in reverence toward God and charitable speech toward neighbor.
The warning was applied to the Jews as the chosen nation favored with the oracles of God, which was much advantage every way. They despised the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering that leads to repentance, transgressed the law and broke the covenant, and did not appreciate the pearl of great price committed to them. Even Gentiles who do not have the written law, when they do by nature the things contained in the law, show the work of the law written in their hearts, with conscience bearing witness and thoughts accusing or excusing. That inward working is testified by the outward appearance, especially in laying aside idolatry in dress and pride in apparel, gold, and outward adornment for modest apparel and good works.
Judgment According to Deeds
God will render to every person according to deeds, giving eternal life to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, and indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul that does evil, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Glory, honor, and peace come to every one who works good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Those who transgress the law and break the covenant treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Mere hearing of the law and outward nearness to God does not make anyone just before God and will not screen from divine wrath those who trample the law.
There is no respect of persons with God. He decides each case not according to position occupied, possessions, color, or outward appearance, but according to character formed. In the day when He judges the secrets of men, He does so by Jesus Christ. Outward appearances do not reveal the heart, so human measurement cannot read the heart or declare who is righteous before God.
As many as have sinned without law shall perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Every soul will be judged by the knowledge of God's will and the light that has come to him, which determines accountability including the destiny of those who have died. Sinners do not perish for want of opportunities and means of knowing His will but for unwillingness to come out from the world and be separate from selfish practices and to deal with justice and mercy. Mere profession of truth and hearing or possessing the law does not justify, for God counts as just not by how much light has been heard but by doing according to the light received. Those who profess to be Christians yet do not the works of a Christian and who turn from the presentation of truth and righteousness to take their own way will have no excuse when every case stands out as it is, and the line of demarcation between the obedient who serve God and the disobedient who serve Him not will be clear and distinct. People who live up to that light are tested, and their accountability depends on their willingness to stand that test, so that many standing aloof live more in obedience to their light than others do to greater light, and judging others who live up to the light they have reveals the foolishness of human wisdom. Applied to the Sabbath, those who know the commandment are accountable to keep it, for responsibility depends on the light received.
Punishment is proportionate to light rejected. Those who had abundant opportunity to know the truth with peculiar advantages and gifts to let light shine, but in blindness and unbelief contended against God and His messengers, turned from God's way to their own way, led others astray, dishonored God, and turned His truth into a lie, will be judged according to their works for the good they might have done but did not and for misused opportunities. As they were distinguished by mercies bestowed so they will be distinguished by severity of punishment. One who judges others for such things while doing the same shall not escape the judgment of God, which is according to truth. That judgment condemns all who have had the truth laid before them, including a sacred trust betrayed by selfishness and disobedience, yet continue the things the inspired record condemns.
Law as Standard of Righteousness
The law of God is the only standard of character by which all people are judged, condemning the guilty and justifying and rewarding the obedient. Hearing the law is not enough to be counted righteous before God; only the doers of the law shall be justified. Obedience to that law is necessary to be prepared to stand in the judgment. That judgment is the closing work of Christ's ministration, which began in 1844 and must continue until the cases of all the living and the dead are decided at the close of human probation. To make the law void would leave the world without that standard.
The law to be obeyed is the holy law of ten commandments, written on tables of stone by the finger of God and placed in the ark. It is the expression of God's will, never to be changed or erased and binding on men in all ages and in all countries. It is the standard of righteousness by which hearers and doers are decided. In the last great day it will appear before the obedient and the disobedient, and all the wicked will be convicted by it. Their disobedience will show actions proceeding from a depraved character and a part in carrying on the rebellion begun in the heavenly courts, with cruelty and wickedness that dishonored the Creator and brought the wretchedness that fills the world. The law disobeyed was life, and obedience to it would have kept happiness and peace and made character as fine gold and principles as the golden wedge of Ophir, bearing fruit in sanctified love and beauty of character, and the world would have been filled with holiness and purity.
That same holy law will be the standard to judge people in the last great day of reckoning, calling for purity in personal life and in influence and associations with others, building character with pure seed rather than chaff. The law acts as a mirror that shows sin and defects and condemns, but it has no power to cleanse or save the sinner. Fearing God and giving glory to Him and worshiping Him as Creator of heaven and earth requires obeying His law. Fearing God means keeping His commandments as the whole duty of man, and keeping His commandments is the love of God, and without obedience to His commandments no worship can be pleasing to God, so that turning away from hearing the law makes even prayer an abomination.
Doing the law requires keeping all of God's commandments exactly as given. Especially it requires keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath just as the fourth commandment reads, and refusing to put the first day in its place. Worshiping on a common working day in ignorance is not sin, but when light shows the truth, error must be given up and truth accepted, because presenting to God something different while claiming it makes no difference deceives the soul to ruin. People are judged according to the light God has allowed to reach them, so responsibility depends on the light received, and those who know the commandment are accountable to keep it. Even the smallest acts of disobedience and transgression of His holy law are sin, God marks them, and sin must be seen as hateful and not as a small matter. Satan glosses over the heinousness of sin and makes sinners find pleasure and attraction in it and think God does not mark it against them, while sincere return to the Lord with full contrition brings pardon, which requires confessing a reckless course without palliation, excuse, or self-justification and being thoroughly converted.
Faith and Power to Obey
Faith is essential to keeping God's law, for without faith it is impossible to please God and whatever is not of faith is sin. Hearing the law is not enough, for only those who do the law shall be justified, and the law is the standard by which people are judged, so obedience to it is necessary to be prepared for the judgment. That judgment is the closing work of ministration that began in 1844 and must continue until the cases of all the living and the dead are decided at the close of human probation.
People are justified by faith and judged by their works, for justification is by faith yet judgment is by works, with God's law claiming obedience from all and condemning disobedience. Hearing or professing the law is not enough, for people are judged by what they do, and their works reveal whether their faith is living. Neglecting duties to God and others, including failing to use abilities and means to help others, leaves them wanting in the judgment. Being a doer who shall be justified requires a vital connection with Christ that earnestly carries forward the work committed to him, for the most splendid service originating with self is useless, and unless the root is holy no fruit can be borne to God's glory.
Becoming a doer is the work of redemption, for sinful human beings are unable of themselves to do Christ's words. The law acts as a mirror that shows sin and defects and condemns, but it has no power to cleanse or save the sinner. Christ does not do away with that condemning law but exalts it, and His great sacrifice was made so that man might be a doer of it. The condemned sinner who confesses sin receives pardon and cleansing through Jesus Christ the righteous as advocate with the Father, who takes guilt upon Himself and justifies before God, and who not only frees from sin but gives power to render obedience to God's will. Adam's disobedience made every human being a transgressor of the law and sold under sin, and unless a person repents and is converted he remains under bondage of the law, serving Satan, falling into the enemy's deceptions, and bearing witness against Jehovah's precepts. Justification requires perfect obedience to its requirements, not merely hearing it, so those whose natures have been perverted by sin must ever keep their eyes fixed on Christ, the author and finisher of faith.
Doing the law means wholehearted, unreserved cooperation with divine agencies to weave its divine principles into life practices, showing personal piety. In this doing heavenly agencies work with human agencies, the Holy Spirit cooperates with the willing, God-fearing, humble worker to increase tact and wisdom, and God works in believers to will and to do of His good pleasure as they work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Doing means laying hold upon God by living faith, being vitalized by the Holy Spirit, lifting up Jesus before the family, taking up home responsibilities, and trading upon the Lord's goods by extending effort into the neighborhood and into the church and giving to those not in the faith the knowledge received in order to keep first love fresh and strong, so that tidings that sinners are turning from error to truth and from sin to righteousness ascend to God. This obedience represents the character of God and does not lie against the truth, and it is the wedding garment that proves readiness for Christ's soon manifestation in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when judgments are already abroad and the end of all things is at hand.
Obedience in Daily Life
Merely hearing without doing leaves a person no better morally or spiritually, for only those who eat and digest the Word receive spiritual strength and practice it. Such doers have hearts cleansed, refined and elevated, eyes anointed with heavenly eyesalve to see deeper lessons, and conscience under the working of the Holy Spirit revealing a pure, high standard of righteousness that puts to shame the low, cheap ideas of the surface reader whose mind is corrupted with sin. Doing means denying self and making any and every sacrifice for Christ's sake, so that precept and example harmonize and give power in teaching.
Reaching the righteousness the Word requires calls for diligent, persevering effort to learn justice, humility, patience, purity and love, and when the principles of the law rule the heart the person has the spirit of Christ and shows mercy in daily life. These qualities are more precious and acceptable to God than costly offerings or sacrifices. Faith must be sustained by works, not merely professed, for works reveal whether faith is living and people are justified by faith yet judged by what they do. Neglecting duties to God and others, including failing to use abilities and means to help others, leaves one wanting in the judgment.
Inward doing is testified outwardly, for when the law with its expression of God's character is treasured and fulfilled in the heart, speech gives evidence of it in reverence toward God and charitable speech toward neighbor rather than irreverence and uncharitableness. That inward transformation of mind, heart and character shows in outward appearance in laying aside idolatry in dress and pride in apparel, gold and outward adornment for modest apparel and good works. It also calls for purity in personal life and in influence and associations with others, building character with pure seed rather than chaff, since God's holy law is the standard of character He approves and by which He will judge in the last great day. Doing the Word is practical care for those who have little to make life happy, for orphans and the unfortunate, with moral sensibilities directed by the Spirit of God and following the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, putting self into His hands without reserve and obeying His directions implicitly, for much talking with little deep, earnest thinking and little work for the Master cannot make up the lack. It is laying hold upon God by living faith, being vitalized by the Holy Spirit, lifting up Jesus before the family, taking up home responsibilities, and trading upon the Lord's goods by extending effort into the neighborhood and into the church and giving to those not in the faith the knowledge received in order to keep first love fresh and strong.
God counts as just before Him not those who hear and know His holy law while connected with His work, but those who do it in every business transaction small or great. His law expresses His character of truth, righteousness and strict equity and is the great standard by which every action is measured, registered in the books of heaven, weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and either approved or condemned. Sharp dealing, oppression, selfish dealing, injustice and taking unfair advantage of any person, saint or sinner, even to advance a religious institution, transgresses that law, stamps the transaction with condemnation, reveals an unsanctified heart that does not know God and Christ, and forfeits divine favor, the divine signet and partnership with God.
Doers openly show their colors and stand fully under the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, adhering strictly to Scripture, prizing God's favor above gold, refusing to hide faith or meet the world's standard or evade and explain away His commandments, and waiting as obedient children in humility for the Lord's soon coming. Doing requires keeping all of God's commandments exactly as given, especially keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath just as the fourth commandment reads and refusing to put the first day in its place, for worshiping on a common working day in ignorance is not sin but when light shows the truth error must be given up and truth accepted lest the soul be deceived to ruin by presenting something different. Merely reading or believing the Bible does not save, for Christ's words are to be obeyed to the letter in pursuing duty to glorify God rather than to be praised by men, and no soul continuing in transgression and sin will be vindicated, since the test of judgment is truth practiced in life, words and actions. On such obedience depend life and happiness, health and joy, and well-being in this life and in the life to come, with physical and spiritual blessing through temperance, industry, economy, avoidance of evil and preservation of virtue, to be taught by ministers and parents and enjoined on children from earliest years.
The verse forbids putting human measurement on ministering brethren, attempting to number Israel, reading the heart, or excluding fellow workers as wanting, since outward appearances do not reveal the heart and the one found fault with may be more righteous in God's sight than the one judging. It is instruction for those living amid the perils of the last days to be careful how they measure a brother and to put no stumbling block in his way, for God shows no favoritism and will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. God counts people as just not by how much light they have heard but by doing according to the light received, so others are not to be judged who live up to the light they have, since many standing aloof live more in obedience to their light than others do to greater light.