Enoch was an active worker for God. He did not seek ease and comfort. Nor did he spend his time in idle meditation or in striving to gain happiness for himself. He did not participate in the festivities and amusements constantly engaging the attention of the pleasure lovers of the antediluvian world. In his day the minds of many were absorbed in worldly pleasures—pleasures that tempted them to go astray. But Enoch was terribly in earnest. He did not idly saunter along the streets or linger near places of amusement, as if he were an indifferent worldling. He never engaged in common conversation with those who were corrupt, as if he were one of them. With the sinful and with the workers of iniquity he mingled only as God’s messenger, to warn them to turn with abhorrence from their evil ways and to repent and seek God. {Ms36-1902.2}
His Earnest Words And Decided Actions Showed His Separation From The World
Enoch lived an active, zealous life of self-denial. He walked with God in a world so corrupt that the Lord afterward destroyed it by the flood. And he walked with men as one among them, but not as one of them; as one whose purposes and works and hopes were based not only on time, but on eternity. He did not give the worldly-wise any reason to question his profession and his faith. By earnest words and by decided actions he showed that he was separate from the world. After periods of retirement he would mingle with the ungodly to exhort them to abhor the evil and to choose the good. As a faithful worker for God, he sought to save them. He warned the world. He preached faith in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, the sinner’s only hope. {Ms36-1902.3}
Enoch was an Adventist. He carried the minds of men forward to the great day of God, when Christ will come the second time, to judge every man’s work. Jude tells us, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.” [Jude 14-16.] {Ms36-1902.4}
He Walked With God
Like Enoch, we must walk with God, bringing the will into submission to His will. We must be willing to go where Jesus leads, willing to suffer for His dear sake. In seeking to save the souls for whom Christ has died, in conquering difficulties, and in keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, we reveal the genuineness of our religion. The faithful Christian does not seek the easiest place, the lightest burdens. He is found where the work is hardest, where his help is most needed. {Ms36-1902.5}
The responsibility of each Christian is proportionate to his entrusted talents. Christ’s true followers are fruit-bearing trees. They work as He worked, going about doing good. Thus they bear testimony that His Spirit is dwelling in their hearts. {Ms36-1902.6}
He Did Not Live To Please Himself
Very many who claim to be Christians act as if they were in this world merely to please themselves. They forget that Jesus, their pattern, pleased not Himself. They forget that the self-denial and self-sacrifice that characterized His life must characterize their lives, else in the day of God they will be found wanting and will hear from His lips the irrevocable sentence, “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” [Matthew 25:30.] Fearful sentence! Let every professing Christian, by zealous activity in the Master’s cause, seek to avert this fearful doom. {Ms36-1902.7}
We Must Encourage Others To Be Constantly Ready
Like Enoch, we should earnestly proclaim the message of Christ’s second coming. “The day of the Lord,” the Scriptures declare, cometh “as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, ... and they shall not escape.” [1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3.] In these words is emphasized the importance of being constantly prepared for this great event. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye (those who in the light of the Scriptures are brethren) are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love (these attributes are always united); and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.” [Verses 4-13.] The whole of the fifth chapter of first Thessalonians should be read and heeded. Carried into practice, this Scripture would bring about a great change in the lives of those who now are inspired by the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. This chapter should receive more attention, and should be read in every church before, as well as during, seasons of prayer. Concerning his first letter to the Thessalonian church Paul wrote, “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.” [Verse 27.] {Ms36-1902.8}