Always Strive to Be on Vantage Ground, February 12

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. 1 Thessalonians 1:3. From the instruction given us in the Old and New Testaments God desires us to learn that we are not to place ourselves, and those connected with us, in intimate connection with [those] who are corrupt in thought, word, and action. If workers of limited experience are placed in close connection with this class, there is danger that they will by beholding become changed into the same image, that the standard of holiness and truth will be lowered. There is danger that corruption will cease to appear in its vileness to those who are trying to bring about a reform, and that the truth will become confused with that which is common and low.... The difference between a good person and a wicked person is not always caused by natural goodness of disposition. Goodness is the result of divine power transforming human nature. By believing in Christ, the fallen race that He has redeemed may obtain that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all defilement. Then Christlike attributes appear, for by beholding Christ people become changed into the same image.... People who are compelled by circumstances they cannot control—to be where wickedness, deep and pronounced, is all around them—may remember that God and the angels are with them. Their only safety is to keep looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. Their father, mother, brothers, and sisters may be on the side of the enemy, but they have the assurance that they are guarded by the Lord. It may cost them their lives to stand for the truth, yet they will be saved when the wicked are destroyed.... He [Enoch] did not make his abode with the wicked. He did not locate in Sodom, thinking to save Sodom. He placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. Then at times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message. Every visit he made to the world was painful to him. He saw and understood something of the leprosy of sin. After proclaiming his message, he always took back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning. Some of these became overcomers and died before the Flood came. But some had lived so long in the corrupting influence of sin that they could not endure righteousness. They did not retain their purity of faith, but returned to their former customs and practices.—Manuscript 42, 1900.