There is no reverence, regard, or sense of accountability to God kept before the eyes and in the heart to guide conduct, and that reverence is missing from the life. It describes the terrible condition now existing in the world and in the church as God sees it. This condition has been brought about by making void the law of God, when those entrusted with truth break it themselves and teach others to break it. Among those who claim to be God's people, to have no fear of God is to have no love of God in the heart, which greatly dishonors Him, while serving Him acceptably requires honoring Him by a well-ordered life, wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness under God's supreme control. Its outworking is seen when counsel is cast aside to follow one's own wishes in marrying, when selfish grasping and dishonest dealing leaven God's work, and when irreverent helpers and worldly associates corrupt pure youth.
Meaning and Present Condition
There is no reverence, regard, or sense of accountability to God kept before the eyes and in the heart to guide conduct, and that reverence is absent from the life. Acting without reverence for God or accountability to Him is what marks reckless workers, whose evil habits and actions make their company corrupting, so that those who desire a good and pure character must avoid imitating them and shun their influence.
Among those who claim to be God's people, to have no fear of God is to have no love of God in the heart, and selfishness and dishonest practices that give license to sin greatly dishonor God and do more harm than avowed unbelief. Serving God acceptably requires honoring Him by a well-ordered life and godly conversation, wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness. It requires taking the Saviour as guide and leader under God's supreme control, with heart, soul, mind, and strength under His training, so that the life bears witness to what union with Christ does for human beings.
This absence of the fear of God has been brought about by making void the law of God, when those entrusted with God's oracles break the law themselves and teach others who would seek and obey light to break it, deceiving the people as the leaders in Israel did in Christ's day. The lack of the fear of God so produced is the present terrible condition existing in the world and the church today, as seen by God. It stands as the heavenly record against those whom Christ gave His own life to free from slavery to sin when they dishonor Him by words, cheap talk, and riotous actions and give Him no pleasure. It presses the searching question whether this verdict shall be entered against students.
Outworking in Daily Life
When reverence for God is missing in the home, children show that neglect in their own lives, and prayer enables parents to instill reverence for God in them and to seek His protection over them. In deciding to marry, living with no reverence for God means resolving to marry in spite of counsel, without carefully and prayerfully seeking God's wisdom and submitting to the guidance of His Spirit. Instead such persons follow their own wishes and inclinations until passion sweeps them beyond reason and judgment, a disregard that brings regret, years of sorrow, and peril to salvation.
In God's work, having no fear of God before the eyes means turning aside from correct, righteous principle into selfish, forward action, grasping for the largest wages while setting aside plainly stated principles and all the light given. It means handling work connected with God's sacred cause without clean hands and pure hearts and without Bible principles, practicing injustice and dishonesty that leavens institutions. Repeated dishonest actions of this kind stand condemned by God, so that the extra wages gained become a curse and not a blessing and come under His rebuke, and those who do not walk carefully before God and preserve correct principles themselves cannot help others by precept and example. Reckless workers in the office display this same lack when they act without reverence for God or sense of accountability to Him. A desire to please others that shows no reverence for God likewise reveals that the fear of God is absent from the conduct.
Following worldly friends in conduct and dress shows sharing the outlook of those who live without reverence for God, and such worldly friendship leads away from God and denies Christ. Seeking one's own pleasure and enjoyment is living without reverence for God, whereas the fear of God is shown in a life shaped by pure religion and strong principles rather than self-pleasing. A girl's conduct and lack of purity reveal that she lives without the fear of God before her eyes. Those whose evil habits and actions make their company corrupting show that no reverence for God guides their conduct, so whoever desires a good and pure character must not imitate them but shun their influence.
Helpers whose eyes are degenerate through lack of reverence for God corrupt amiable, pure-moraled youth who come to the sanitarium, so that by contact the youth are first tempted and then become tempters themselves and ringleaders in wrong, which accounts for downfalls that would otherwise cause surprise. Worldly men and women of all grades of society who come in large numbers to places like the Battle Creek Sanitarium do not have the fear of God in their hearts, and making church youth their servants and bringing youth into close contact with them spoils the youth and robs them of simplicity. For that reason promising youth who could be fitted elsewhere for the Lord's work should not be drawn away to serve and associate with such people. In marriage, living without regard for God means sexual desire and animal passions rule over the mind and higher powers, showing itself when impulse is indulged and sexual privileges are abused. Men then corrupt their own bodies and make the wife a servant to inordinate lust, degrading body and soul in both, with the sure result of worn-out and diseased organs in women, unsafe childbearing, and terrible, painful, loathsome diseases that would not exist if a righteous course were pursued, including in eating and drinking.
There is no reverence, regard, or sense of accountability to God kept before the eyes and in the heart to guide conduct, and that reverence is missing from the life. It describes the terrible condition now existing in the world and in the church as God sees it. This condition has been brought about by making void the law of God, when those entrusted with truth break it themselves and teach others to break it. Among those who claim to be God's people, to have no fear of God is to have no love of God in the heart, which greatly dishonors Him, while serving Him acceptably requires honoring Him by a well-ordered life, wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness under God's supreme control. Its outworking is seen when counsel is cast aside to follow one's own wishes in marrying, when selfish grasping and dishonest dealing leaven God's work, and when irreverent helpers and worldly associates corrupt pure youth.
Meaning and Present Condition
There is no reverence, regard, or sense of accountability to God kept before the eyes and in the heart to guide conduct, and that reverence is absent from the life. Acting without reverence for God or accountability to Him is what marks reckless workers, whose evil habits and actions make their company corrupting, so that those who desire a good and pure character must avoid imitating them and shun their influence.
Among those who claim to be God's people, to have no fear of God is to have no love of God in the heart, and selfishness and dishonest practices that give license to sin greatly dishonor God and do more harm than avowed unbelief. Serving God acceptably requires honoring Him by a well-ordered life and godly conversation, wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness. It requires taking the Saviour as guide and leader under God's supreme control, with heart, soul, mind, and strength under His training, so that the life bears witness to what union with Christ does for human beings.
This absence of the fear of God has been brought about by making void the law of God, when those entrusted with God's oracles break the law themselves and teach others who would seek and obey light to break it, deceiving the people as the leaders in Israel did in Christ's day. The lack of the fear of God so produced is the present terrible condition existing in the world and the church today, as seen by God. It stands as the heavenly record against those whom Christ gave His own life to free from slavery to sin when they dishonor Him by words, cheap talk, and riotous actions and give Him no pleasure. It presses the searching question whether this verdict shall be entered against students.
Outworking in Daily Life
When reverence for God is missing in the home, children show that neglect in their own lives, and prayer enables parents to instill reverence for God in them and to seek His protection over them. In deciding to marry, living with no reverence for God means resolving to marry in spite of counsel, without carefully and prayerfully seeking God's wisdom and submitting to the guidance of His Spirit. Instead such persons follow their own wishes and inclinations until passion sweeps them beyond reason and judgment, a disregard that brings regret, years of sorrow, and peril to salvation.
In God's work, having no fear of God before the eyes means turning aside from correct, righteous principle into selfish, forward action, grasping for the largest wages while setting aside plainly stated principles and all the light given. It means handling work connected with God's sacred cause without clean hands and pure hearts and without Bible principles, practicing injustice and dishonesty that leavens institutions. Repeated dishonest actions of this kind stand condemned by God, so that the extra wages gained become a curse and not a blessing and come under His rebuke, and those who do not walk carefully before God and preserve correct principles themselves cannot help others by precept and example. Reckless workers in the office display this same lack when they act without reverence for God or sense of accountability to Him. A desire to please others that shows no reverence for God likewise reveals that the fear of God is absent from the conduct.
Following worldly friends in conduct and dress shows sharing the outlook of those who live without reverence for God, and such worldly friendship leads away from God and denies Christ. Seeking one's own pleasure and enjoyment is living without reverence for God, whereas the fear of God is shown in a life shaped by pure religion and strong principles rather than self-pleasing. A girl's conduct and lack of purity reveal that she lives without the fear of God before her eyes. Those whose evil habits and actions make their company corrupting show that no reverence for God guides their conduct, so whoever desires a good and pure character must not imitate them but shun their influence.
Helpers whose eyes are degenerate through lack of reverence for God corrupt amiable, pure-moraled youth who come to the sanitarium, so that by contact the youth are first tempted and then become tempters themselves and ringleaders in wrong, which accounts for downfalls that would otherwise cause surprise. Worldly men and women of all grades of society who come in large numbers to places like the Battle Creek Sanitarium do not have the fear of God in their hearts, and making church youth their servants and bringing youth into close contact with them spoils the youth and robs them of simplicity. For that reason promising youth who could be fitted elsewhere for the Lord's work should not be drawn away to serve and associate with such people. In marriage, living without regard for God means sexual desire and animal passions rule over the mind and higher powers, showing itself when impulse is indulged and sexual privileges are abused. Men then corrupt their own bodies and make the wife a servant to inordinate lust, degrading body and soul in both, with the sure result of worn-out and diseased organs in women, unsafe childbearing, and terrible, painful, loathsome diseases that would not exist if a righteous course were pursued, including in eating and drinking.