HONORING CHRIST by G. H. Rogers

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 6, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 14.

HONORING CHRIST.

By G. H. Rogers

MANY honest souls have been reassured in the observance of the first day of the week by the pleasing sophism that they were thereby honoring Christ, and by the converse statement that to neglect to observe the first day of the week would be to dishonor him.

Now in either case the question is, What will honor Christ? and, Who shall decide in what his honor consists? Seeking an answer to this question we find that even Christ sought not to honor himself (John 8:54): "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing, it is my Father that honoreth me." He also tells us why his Father honors him,—"I know him and keep his sayings." And this is the only condition upon which God will honor any; he says: "Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 1 Sam. 2:30.

In the common acceptation of the word, honor is the respect which persons have for, and pay to, those to whom they owe particular marks of deference; as shown to God, it implies the adoration due to God only. As shown by God to man, the blessings he bestows. Ps. 29:2: "Give unto the Lord the glory [margin, honor] due unto his name." And again, Mal. 1:6: "A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible."

Then to set up something as worship or honor to God or his Son which he has not required at our hands, or for which there is no divine command, and neglect, as did this people in the days of the prophet Malachi, what he has expressly demanded of us, is to despise God's name and to offer polluted bread upon his altar.

Of this God further says (1 Sam. 15:22, 23): "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee." This was said to Saul when, in reply to his boast of performing the commandment of the Lord persistently and repeatedly made, the prophet tells him he has not obeyed. We learn from this, that no profession of devotion or claim of desire to sacrifice for God's honor can take the place of obedience. Obedience is the sacrifice that honors God and Christ.

Now Jesus tells us (John 5:23) we are to honor him by the very same means that we honor his Father. Hence if we would honor the Lord Jesus Christ there can be but one acceptable way to do it, and that is by keeping the commandments of God. "And I know that his commandment is life everlasting." John 12:50. Therefore to obey the ten precepts faithfully is keeping "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.

But God has never given commandment to keep the first day of the week or ever said we may neglect the seventh day. Hence to keep the day he has not commanded and profane the day he has commanded, no matter how much we may profess before God or the world that we do it to honor Christ, is simply to offer upon his altar polluted bread, despise his name, and say the table of the Lord is contemptible.

And as an almost universal rule we find that those who do this draw a contrast between the Old and New Testaments, boldly declaring that they do not go by the Old Testament, thus showing their contempt for the Lord's table, as is shown by Matt. 4:4: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And to show his displeasure at this God says (Mal. 1:8): "Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts." Now when it is clearly shown, as Samuel showed to Saul, that a certain act is not obeying the voice of the Lord, then to persistently claim that it is, is only to presume upon God's mercy as did King Saul.

But who does keeping the first day of the week honor, and what does it commemorate? God's way of commemorating the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, is clearly set forth in Rom. 6:3-5: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we

are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Here, then, is God's way of commemorating the resurrection of Christ.

Keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day, commemorates the work of creation, and honors the Creator; but Sunday-keeping is the great distinguishing feature of a rival religion—sun worship—which has followed down through all the ages to oppose the worship of the true God. And we will by listening to the voice of this charmer simply be doing for its author what Christ refused to do (Matt. 4:9), "If thou wilt fall down and worship me."

Oh, awake! dear friend, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light! G. H. ROGERS.