Individual Accountability, February 7

All thy commandments are righteousness. Psalm 119:172.RC 52.1

The Spirit of God will lead us in the path of the commandments; for the promise is that “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” We should try the spirits by the test of God's Word; for there are many spirits in the world. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” ...RC 52.2

God holds every one of us to an individual accountability, and calls upon us to serve Him from principle, to choose Him for ourselves....RC 52.3

God will not lightly esteem the transgression of His law. “The wages of sin is death.” The consequences of disobedience prove that the nature of sin is at enmity with the well-being of God's government and the good of His creatures. God is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of them that hate Him. The results of transgression follow those who persist in wrongdoing; but He shows mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments. Those who repent and turn to His service find the favor of the Lord; and He forgiveth all their iniquities and healeth all their diseases.RC 52.4

In earthly affairs, the servant who seeks most carefully to fulfill the requirements of his office, and to carry out the will of his master, is most highly valued. A gentleman once wished to employ a trusty coachman. Several men came in answer to his advertisement. He asked each one how near he could drive to the edge of a certain precipice without upsetting the carriage. One and another replied that he could go within a perilous distance; but at last one answered that he would keep as far as possible from such a dangerous undertaking. He was employed to fill the position.RC 52.5

Shall a man be more appreciative of a good servant than is our heavenly Father? Our anxiety should not be to see how far we can depart from the commandments of the Lord, and presume on the mercy of the Lawgiver, and still flatter our souls that we are within the bounds of God's forbearance; but our care should be to keep as far as possible from transgression. We should be determined to be on the side of Christ and our heavenly Father, and run no risks by heady presumption....RC 52.6

We should magnify the precepts of heaven by our words and actions. He who honors the law will be honored by it in the judgment.—The Review and Herald, June 22, 1911.RC 52.7