Obey From Principle

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 2 Peter 1:10, NRSV.

Eternal life is worth your all, and Jesus has said, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). He who does nothing, but waits to be compelled by some supernatural agency, will wait on in lethargy and darkness. God has given His Word. God speaks in unmistakable language to your soul. Is not the word of His mouth sufficient to show you your duty, and to urge its fulfillment?

Those who humbly and prayerfully search the Scriptures, to know and to do God’s will, will not be in doubt of their obligations to God. For “if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). If you would know the mystery of godliness, you must follow the plain word of truth—feeling or no feeling,
emotion or no emotion. Obedience must be rendered from a sense of principle, and the right must be pursued under all circumstances. This is the character that is elected of God unto salvation.

The test of a genuine Christian is given in the Word of God. Says Jesus, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.... If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (Verses 21-24).

Here are the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life. Your obedience to God’s commandments will prove your right to an inheritance with the saints in light. God has elected a certain excellence of character; and everyone who, through the grace of Christ, shall reach the standard of His requirement will have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of glory.—Christian Education, 117, 118.