Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .
h u m a n s t a n d a r d ( 3 RELATED PHRASES ) |
The phrase "human standard" appears 38 times in the writings of EGW page NOT on Original site Related Phrase: human standards ( ) - -
The householder’s dealing with the workers in his vineyard represents God’s dealing with the human family. It is contrary to the customs that prevail among men. In worldly business, compensation is given according to the work accomplished. The laborer expects to be paid only that which he earns. But in the parable, Christ was illustrating the principles of His kingdom — a kingdom not of this world. He is not controlled by any human standard. The Lord says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9. { COL 396.5} Read entire Chapter 28 |
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| The young man answered without hesitation, “All these things have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?” His conception of the law was external and superficial. Judged by a human standard, he had preserved an unblemished character. To a great degree his outward life had been free from guilt; he verily thought that his obedience had been without a flaw. Yet he had a secret fear that all was not right between his soul and God. This prompted the question, “What lack I yet?” { COL 391.4} Read entire Chapter 28
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| He proceeds to recount his good deeds: “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” The religion of the Pharisee does not touch the soul. He is not seeking Godlikeness of character, a heart filled with love and mercy. He is satisfied with a religion that has to do only with outward life. His righteousness is his own — the fruit of his own works — and judged by a human standard. { COL 151.1} Read entire Chapter 13
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| I have the word of the Lord for presidents of conferences. They should shoulder the responsibilities involved in the trusts reposed in them. In your work, do not try to meet a human standard, but the standard of God’s work. If you will not do this, if you will not seek the Lord most earnestly, if you will not be burden bearers, but choose to lay your whole weight of responsibilities upon the president of the General Conference, then, week by week, month by month, you are disqualifying yourselves for the work. You should leave it, and engage in common business transactions, which do not so decidedly involve eternal responsibilities. { TM 343.1}
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| You need to become acquainted with the weak as well as the strong points in your characters, that you may be constantly guarded lest you engage in enterprises and assume responsibilities for which God has never designed you. You should not compare your actions and measure your lives by any human standard, but with the rule of duty revealed in the Bible.... { GW 319.3} and { GW92 203.3 }
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| It is not he that putteth on the armor that can boast of the victory; for he has the battle to fight and victory to win. It is he that endureth unto the end that shall be saved. The Lord says, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” ( Hebrews 10:38). If we do not go forward from victory to victory, the soul will draw back to perdition. We should raise no human standard whereby to measure character. We have seen enough of what men call perfection here below. God’s holy law is the only thing by which we can determine whether we are keeping His way or not. If we are disobedient, our characters are out of harmony with God’s moral rule of government, and it is stating a falsehood to say, “I am saved.” No one is saved who is a transgressor of the law of God, which is the foundation of His government in heaven and in earth. { 1SM 315.1}
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| The commandments of God are comprehensive and far reaching; in a few words they unfold the whole duty of man. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” ( Mark 12:30, 31). In these words the length and breadth, the depth and height, of the law of God is comprehended; for Paul declares, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” ( Romans 13:10). The only definition we find in the Bible for sin is that “sin is the transgression of the law” ( 1 John 3:4). The Word of God declares, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” ( Romans 3:23). “There is none that doeth good, no, not one” ( Romans 3:12). Many are deceived concerning the condition of their hearts. They do not realize that the natural heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. They wrap themselves about with their own righteousness, and are satisfied in reaching their own human standard of character; but how fatally they fail when they do not reach the divine standard, and of themselves they cannot meet the requirements of God. { 1SM 320.1}
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| The work of our personal salvation also depends upon our cooperation with the divine agencies. God has imparted to us moral powers and religious susceptibilities. He has given His Son as a propitiation for our sins, that we might be reconciled to God. Jesus lived a life of self-denial and sacrifice, that we might follow His example. He has given the Holy Spirit to be in Christ’s stead in every place where help is needed. He employs the heavenly intelligences to bring divine power to combine with our human efforts. But we must accept the gift of God, we must repent, and believe in Christ. We must watch, we must pray, we must obey the requirements of God. We must practice self-denial and self-sacrifice for Christ’s sake. We must grow up into Christ by constant connection with Him. Whatever turns the mind away from God to trust in man, or conform to a human standard, will prevent us from cooperating with God in the work of our own salvation. This is why the Lord forbade His people to form any alliance with the heathen, “lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee” ( Exodus 34:12). He said, “They will turn away thy son from following me” ( Deuteronomy 7:4). And the same principle applies to the association of Christians with the ungodly. { 2SM 123.4}
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| You need to become acquainted with the weak as well as the strong points in your characters, that you may be constantly guarded lest you engage in enterprises, and assume responsibilities, for which God has never designed you. You should not compare your actions and measure your lives by any human standard, but with the rule of duty revealed in the Bible. You have a work to do for yourselves, Brother and Sister A, that you have not dreamed was necessary. For years you have been cherishing temptations and jealousies in regard to us and our work. This is not pleasing to God. You may think that you believe the testimonies that God has given, but unbelief in regard to their being of God is gaining ground with you. { 3T 322.1} |
| There is a work to be done for every teacher in our college. Not one is free from selfishness. If the moral and religious character of the teachers were what it should be, a better influence would be exerted upon the students. The teachers do not seek individually to perform their own work with an eye single to the glory of God. Instead of looking to Jesus, and copying His life and character, they look to self, and aim too much to meet a human standard. I wish I could impress upon every teacher a full sense of his responsibility for the influence which he exerts upon the young. Satan is untiring in his efforts to secure the service of our youth. With great care he is laying his snare for the inexperienced feet. The people of God should jealously guard against his devices. { 5T 28.1}
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| There is a work to be done for every teacher in our college. Not one is free from selfishness. If the moral and religious character of the teachers were what it should be, a better influence would be exerted upon the students. The teachers do not seek individually to perform their own work with an eye single to the glory of God. Instead of looking to Jesus and copying His life and character, they look to self, and aim too much to meet a human standard. { CT 90.1}
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| Our people are making very dangerous mistakes. We cannot praise and flatter any man without doing him a great wrong; those who do this will meet with serious disappointment. They trust too fully to finite man and not enough to God, who never errs. The eager desire to urge men into public notice is an evidence of backsliding from God and of friendship with the world. It is the spirit which characterizes the present day. It shows that men have not the mind of Jesus; spiritual blindness and poverty of soul have come upon them. Often persons of inferior minds look away from Jesus to a merely human standard, by which they are not made conscious of their own littleness, and hence have an undue estimate of their own capabilities and endowments. There is among us as a people an idolatry of human instrumentalities and mere human talent, and these even of a superficial character. We must die to self and cherish humble, childlike faith. God’s people have departed from their simplicity. They have not made God their strength, and they are weak and faint, spiritually. { 5T 75.2} |
| The man is to be regarded and honored only as God’s ambassador. To praise the man is not pleasing to God. The message he brings is to be brought to the test of the Bible. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” But the word of the Lord is not to be judged by a human standard. It will be seen that those whose minds have the mold of earthliness, those who have a limited Christian experience and know but little of the things of God, are the ones who have the least respect for God’s servants and the least reverence for the message He bids them bear. They listen to a searching discourse and go to their homes prepared to sit in judgment on it, and the impression disappears from their minds like the morning dew before the sun. If the preaching is of an emotional character, it will affect the feelings, but not the heart and conscience. Such preaching results in no lasting good, but it often wins the hearts of the people and calls out their affections for the man who pleases them. They forget that God has said: “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.” { 5T 301.1} and { RH April 7, 1885, par. 10 }
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| The effort to earn salvation by one’s own works inevitably leads men to pile up human exactions as a barrier against sin. For, seeing that they fail to keep the law, they will devise rules and regulations of their own to force themselves to obey. All this turns the mind away from God to self. His love dies out of the heart, and with it perishes love for his fellow men. A system of human invention, with its multitudinous exactions, will lead its advocates to judge all who come short of the prescribed human standard. The atmosphere of selfish and narrow criticism stifles the noble and generous emotions, and causes men to become self-centered judges and petty spies. { MB 123.1}
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| The young man answered without hesitation, “All these things have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?” His conception of the law was external and superficial. Judged by a human standard, he had preserved an unblemished character. To a great degree his outward life had been free from guilt; he verily thought that his obedience had been without a flaw. Yet he had a secret fear that all was not right between his soul and God. This prompted the question, “What lack I yet?” { CC 299.5}
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| Some who claim to love Jesus are deceivers and all their religion is lip service. It does not transform the character. It does not reveal the inward working of grace. They do not show that they have ever learned in Christ’s school the lessons of meekness and lowliness of heart. They do not show by life or character that they are wearing Christ’s yoke or lifting Christ’s burdens. They are not reaching the standard given them in God’s Word, but a human standard. Their life is not pure like Christ’s life. They are not being refined and ennobled by His Spirit. The way of truth they have not known, and they are of that number who will say, “Lord, Lord, open unto us. We have taught in the streets. We have done many wonderful works.” But Christ will say of them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” ( Matthew 7:23).—Ibid. { TDG 299.3}
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| Paul says that “as touching the law”—as far as outward acts were concerned— he was “blameless,” but when the spiritual character of the law was discerned, when he looked into the holy mirror, he saw himself a sinner. Judged by a human standard, he had abstained from sin, but when he looked into the depths of God’s law, and saw himself as God saw him, he bowed in humiliation, and confessed his guilt.— Review and Herald, July 22, 1890. { YRP 290.5}
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| We are never to rest in a satisfied condition, and cease to make advancement, saying, “I am saved.” When this idea is entertained, the motives for watchfulness, for prayer, for earnest endeavor to press onward to higher attainments, cease to exist. No sanctified tongue will be found uttering these words till Christ shall come, and we enter in through the gates into the city of God. Then, with the utmost propriety, we may give glory to God and to the Lamb for eternal deliverance. As long as man is full of weakness,—for of himself he cannot save his soul,— he should never dare to say, “I am saved.” It is not he that putteth on the armor that can boast of the victory; for he has the battle to fight and the victory to win. It is he that endureth unto the end that shall be saved. The Lord says, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” If we do not go forward from victory to victory, the soul will draw back to perdition. We should raise no human standard whereby to measure character. We have seen enough of what men call perfection here below. God’s holy law is the only thing by which we can determine whether we are keeping his way or not. If we are disobedient, our characters are out of harmony with God’s moral rule of government, and it is stating a falsehood to say, “I am saved.” No one is saved who is a transgressor of the law of God, which is the foundation of his government in heaven and in earth. { RH June 17, 1890, par. 8 }
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| Paul says that “as touching the law,”—as far as outward acts were concerned,— he was “blameless,” but when the spiritual character of the law was discerned, when he looked into the holy mirror, he saw himself a sinner. Judged by a human standard, he had abstained from sin, but when he looked into the depths of God’s law, and saw himself as God saw him, he bowed in humiliation, and confessed his guilt. He did not go away from the mirror and forget what manner of man he was, but he exercised genuine repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He was washed, he was cleansed. He says, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” { RH July 22, 1890, par. 16 }
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| The work of overcoming is in our hands, but we are not to overcome in our own name or strength; for of ourselves we cannot keep the commandments of God. The Spirit of God must help our infirmities. Christ has become our sacrifice and surety. He has become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Through faith in his name, he imputes unto us his righteousness, and it becomes a living principle in our life. The apostle shows unto us what is the privilege of the Christian. He says, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Christ imputes to us his sinless character, and presents us to the Father in his own purity. There are many who think that it is impossible to escape from the power of sin, but the promise is that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. We aim too low. The mark is much higher. Our minds need expansion, that we may comprehend the significance of the provision of God. We are to reflect the highest attributes of the character of God. We should be thankful of that we are not to be left to ourselves. The law of God is the exalted standard to which we are to attain through the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are not to walk according to our own ideas, and present before others in our example a human standard which they will follow; but we are to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and make straight paths for our feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. We are to keep the commandments and live. { RH July 12, 1892, par. 5 }
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| The law of nature is that we reap as we sow. But Christ was here laying down the principles of the law of his kingdom. He did not consult the opinions of others regarding him, but steadily worked out his own purpose according to his own standard. The way in which, in the parable, the owner of the vineyard dealt with his workers, represents God’s dealing with the human family. God declares, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Christ came to this earth to represent God, and he was not bound about by the actions of any other householder. He worked according to the laws of the kingdom that is not of this world. He did not aim to follow any human standard. { RH July 24, 1900, par. 8 }
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| “The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” He had been flattered for his amiable traits of character. He was willing to do good things, and he flattered himself that by his integrity in dealing with his fellow men he was fulfilling the law. The perfection of character he thought he possessed, ranked him in the same state spiritually as was Paul when, touching the letter of the law, he thought himself blameless. But no human standard can save a soul from death. God’s standard must be seen, acknowledged, and followed. { RH September 11, 1900, par. 2 }
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