Practical Christianity And The Development Of Christian Character

Christianity, as Ellen White saw it, is to affect every part of a person’s daily life. Far from being something that happens to people when they are in church, true Christianity transforms people from the inside out. It changes their hearts, but that inner change, if it is genuine, carries over into family relationships, schooling and work, and even how people use their spare time. The large amount of material that Ellen White has written about recreation, marriage, health, the use of our time and abilities, and similar topics speaks to the practical implications of Christianity.EWIT 123.4

The belief in a conversion experience that transforms the heart undergirds her many counsels on practical Christianity. That belief is coupled to an understanding that outward actions stem from inward motives. Thus once a person is converted, it is only natural for him or her to live a Christian life through the power of God’s Spirit.EWIT 123.5

Ellen White pictures the core of practical Christianity to be acting like Jesus rather than living by the principles of Satan’s kingdom. And underlying the way of Jesus versus the way of Satan are two principles that diametrically oppose each other. “Sin,” she points out, “originated in self-seeking,” in selfishness. By way of contrast, self-giving love is “the great principle which is the law of life for the universe.” “The angels of glory find their joy in giving.... It is the glory of our God to give” (The Desire of Ages, 20, 21). Jesus illustrated the law of self-sacrificing love in daily life. He came not only to die for us, but “to give us an example of obedience.” Christ “revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan.”—The Desire of Ages, 24, 25.EWIT 124.1

From the perspective of Mrs. White, people will live either according to the principle of Satan’s kingdom (selfishness) or by the principle of God’s kingdom (self-sacrificing love). No other options exist. Nor can people’s principles be held only in their hearts and minds. Principles motivate daily actions. Thus she writes that “love can no more exist without revealing itself in outward acts than fire can be kept alive without fuel” (Testimonies for the Church 1:695). Who we are in our inmost being we will carry out into the practical experiences of daily life.EWIT 124.2

The transition from a life built on Satan’s principle to one founded on Christ’s principle takes place when a person surrenders his or her life to Jesus. “When a man is converted to God,” we read, “a new moral taste is supplied, a new motive power is given, and he loves the things that God loves” (Selected Messages 1:336). That new motive power will lead individuals to desire to be “as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere. To the extent of our ability, we are to make manifest the truth and love and excellence of the divine character.”—Selected Messages 1:337.EWIT 124.3

In short, Christians are, through God’s empowering grace, to aim at being like Jesus in their daily life. They are to emulate His character. But, she is careful to assert, “we can never equal the pattern” of Christ’s character, even though “we may imitate and resemble it” (The Review and Herald, February 5, 1895). God supplies His forgiving grace when we “fail.... in our efforts to copy the divine pattern.”—Selected Messages 1:337.EWIT 124.4

And just as love is the central characteristic of God and the core issue in the great controversy, so it is also at the heart of what it means to develop a Christlike character that finds expression in the practical affairs of daily life. Ellen White points out that “wherever there is union with Christ there is love. Whatever other fruits we may bear, if love be missing, they profit nothing. Love to God and our neighbors is the very essence of our religion. No one can love Christ and not love His children. When we are united to Christ, we have the mind of Christ. Purity and love shine forth in the character, meekness and truth control the life.” She goes on to say that even “the very expression of the countenance is changed. Christ abiding in the soul exerts a transforming power, and the outward aspect bears witness to the peace and joy that reign within.”—Selected Messages 1:337.EWIT 125.1

Being a child of God, Ellen White repeatedly asserts in a multitude of contexts, means a change in every part of daily life. It means dropping harmful habits and destructive ways of relating. But the Christian life involves much more than that. In fact, discarding activities, attitudes, and habits means nothing in itself. For the genuine Christian, abandoning less than Christian attitudes and activities is certainly important, but it is only the prelude to the incorporation of Christ’s active, positive characteristics. It is the adding on, not merely the dropping off, that lies at the center of what it means to live like Jesus.EWIT 125.2

And what was Jesus like? Ellen White puts it nicely in the opening words of The Ministry of Healing when she writes that “our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man’s necessity” (The Ministry of Healing, 17). He came to serve others, to help them, and to give them the words of truth. In that He is our example.EWIT 125.3

She repeatedly exhorts us to be like Jesus in servanthood. A Christian’s labor of love for others, she points out, is an “individual responsibility” that “cannot be done by proxy” (The Ministry of Healing, 147). Too many Christians, she adds, fail to become involved in sharing God’s love. Instead, they leave the actual work of witnessing and helping others to organizations and professionals.EWIT 125.4

It is no accident that the book Education begins and ends with a discussion of service to others. Lives devoted to service rather than to self-centered living have passed from Satan’s kingdom to Christ’s. As a result, Ellen White can write of those who finally enter the heavenly kingdom that they not only found their “greatest joy” in service while on earth, but that their “greatest joy” in the earth made new will also be found in serving others, in being like Jesus.—Education, 309.EWIT 126.1

Mrs. White even ties her discussion of Christian perfection to the internalization of God’s loving character in daily life. In Christ’s Object Lessons she notes that “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.”—Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.EWIT 126.2

Too many people have read that statement without carefully reading its context. As a result, they have imputed meanings to it that one does not find in the passage itself. The two previous pages make her intent clear. She plainly states that Christ is seeking to reproduce Himself in the hearts of others, and that those who have accepted Him will have put away the self-centered living of Satan’s kingdom. Instead, they will be serving others, telling others of God’s goodness, and doing good. They will be becoming more like Christ because they have received “the Spirit of Christ—the Spirit of unselfish love and labor for others.” As a result, she says to her readers, “your love [will] be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely” (Christ’s Object Lessons, 67, 68). Thus to reproduce the character of Christ perfectly is to let Him live out His love in our daily lives.EWIT 126.3

With that thought we have come full circle in our discussion of the integrative themes in the writings of Ellen White. We began with a discussion of the love of God and the challenge to that love in the great controversy. Now we will end with the thought that “the last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them” (Christ’s Object Lessons, 415, 416). They will be a demonstration that God is truly love and that His saving grace transforms both character and action.EWIT 126.4

The great controversy, the love of God, and the other great themes in the writings of Ellen White are not points for abstract discussion. Far from it. They affect our daily lives. Each of us must daily choose to live in the real world by accepting either God’s principles or Satan’s. God has provided the writings of Ellen White to guide us in those daily choices. Their purpose is to help us in making earthly decisions that have eternal consequences.EWIT 127.1

Praise God For All His Blessings!