It is said of Christ, “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1. Of Satan it is said, “For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Rev. 12:10 Christ an advocate; Satan an accuser. Now, reader, whose servant will you be, and in which of these works will you engage? A profession of religion does not debar you from doing the work of Satan. Personal application of the following scripture may help you to determine which side you are on: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” Heb. 10:24 This work is like Christ’s, and in keeping with His words in John 17:20-22 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:” The individual who will do this work will grow spiritually, and be a blessing to his brethren and a help to the cause of God.
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Rom 16:17 Here it is said that some cause division and offenses. This is what Satan likes to see, and if this spirit is indulged in, it will prove ruinous to any person, church, or people. Shall we not rather follow the apostles, and have exemplified in our lives the words recorded in Acts 4:13: “And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus”?
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald July 25, 1882