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“THE BOND OF PERFECTNESS.” COL. 3 : 14

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, November 25, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 47

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“THE BOND OF PERFECTNESS.” COL. 3 : 14.

By N. J. Bowers

BY N. J. BOWERS.
CHARITY, or love, is this bond. Now what is a bond? It is that which binds. It ties and makes fast. It has the sense of a seal. Isa. 8 : 16. “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” That to which a seal is attached becomes valid and safe. The seal is the assurance that that upon which it is placed is good and up to the standard of requirement. So love is the bond or seal of Christian perfection. This is what makes our profession genuine, that stamps it as valid. Love was at the beginning of human redemption. John 3 : 16. Love sent Jesus from the skies. We should love him who first loved us.
How is this bond of our perfection made manifest? Not by willful self-righteousness, but by willing obedience. John 14 : 15. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” 1 John 5 : 2, 3. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments : and his commandments are not grievous.” How do we know our perfection is genuine, then? Answer : By keeping God’s commandments. What are God’s commandments? Deut. 4 : 13 : “And he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments ; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” This is the law of the Lord, conceived in his mind, spoken by his voice, and written by his finger. This law is perfect. Ps. 19 : 7 ; Jas. 1 : 25 ; 2 : 12. Here is the law of perfection. By this law our perfection must be measured. A perfect moral character is formed by perfect moral action. Perfect moral action must be gauged by a perfect moral rule or law. This law speaks out from its bosom, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work.” Reader, look well to your bond. Does your perfection ignore this voice? If it does, by the word of the living God, it is a delusion. It will fail you when you are weighed in the Judgment scales.
—Let your religion be seen rather than heard. A lighthouse sounds no drum, beats no gong ; yet far over the waters its friendly light is seen by the mariner.