Friend of Sinners, July 22

“When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.”—Ezekiel 33:8JNN 216.1

Every indignity, reproach, and cruelty that Satan can instigate human hearts to devise, has been visited upon the followers of Jesus. And it will be fulfilled in a yet more marked manner; for the carnal mind is still at enmity with the law of God, and will not be subject to its commands. We have been highly favored in living under a government where we can worship God according to the dictates of our conscience. But human nature is no more in harmony with the principles of Christ today than it has been in ages past. The world is still in opposition to Jesus. The same hatred that prompted the cry, “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” still works in the children of disobedience. The same satanic spirit that in the Dark Ages consigned men and women to prison, to exile, and to the stake, that conceived the exquisite torture of the Inquisition, produced the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and kindled the fires of Smithfield, is still at work with malignant energy in unregenerate hearts.JNN 216.2

We are required to be Christ-like toward those who are our enemies; but we must not, in order to have peace, cover up the faults of those we see in error. The world’s Redeemer never purchased peace by covering iniquity, or by anything like compromise. Though His heart was constantly overflowing with love for the human race, He was never indulgent to their sins. He was the friend of sinners, and He would not remain silent while they were pursuing a course that would ruin their souls—the souls that He had purchased with His own blood. He was a stern reprover of all vice. He labored that men and women should be true to themselves in being all that God would have them, and true to their higher and eternal interest. Living in a world marred and seared with the curse brought upon it by disobedience, He could not be at peace with it if He left it unwarned, uninstructed, unrebuked. This would be to purchase peace at the neglect of duty. His peace was the consciousness of having done the will of His Father, rather than a condition of things that existed as the result of not having done His duty.—The Review and Herald, January 16, 1900.JNN 216.3

Further Reflection: How do I relate to people who are engaged in open sin?JNN 216.4