Friday: Further Thought – Social Relationships
Read Ellen G. White, “The Impending Conflict,” pp. 582-592, “The Scriptures a Safeguard,” pp. 593-602 and “The Time of Trouble” pp. 613-634 in The Great Controversy. Ellen G. White advocated that Seventh-day Adventists be good citizens and obey the law of the land.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
She even told people not to openly and flagrantly disobey local Sunday laws; that is, though they must keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy, as God has commanded, they don’t need to deliberately violate laws that forbid Sunday labor. In one case in particular, however, she was clear that Adventists should not obey the law. If a slave had escaped his or her master, the law required that the slave be returned to that master. She railed against that law and told Adventists not to obey, despite the consequences: “When the laws of men conflict with the word and law of God, we are to obey the latter, whatever the consequences may be. The law of our land requiring us to deliver a slave to his master, we are not to obey, and we must abide the consequences of violating this law. The slave is not the property of any man. God is his rightful master, and man has no right to take God’s workmanship into his hands, and claim him as his own.” – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, pp. 201, 202
Discussion Questions:
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We are born into many different circumstances and everyone must answer for themselves. When we are guided by opinion, is our salvation more, or less, assured in our understanding? Do we worry about what might happen and when during our life expectancy? Knowing what God has planned for us, where should our focus be?
Human laws are so important SOP says if it weren’t for them there would have been more evil in the land. However earthly laws prepare us to be good citizens only, they do not sanctify us to be loyal citizens of heaven. Daniel once was tested and they could not find fault in him with regards to Babylonian laws, may we as well not be found wanting but above all lets seek to be more than good citizens below but good citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
Essentially the lesson is teaching us to obey our masters in God. Through the footsteps of Jesus we should love one another as ourselves, and finally we should be submissive to our spouses as to God too.
When we pray for Christ to dwell in us, like in the time of the apostles in Acts, we will go through challenges that may come along the way either from kings or presidents. All is needed is to totally surender our lives to Christ and read the Bible because on our own we can do nothing.