You have, as a family and as individuals, excused yourselves from earnest, active service in your Master’s cause. You have been too indolent and have left others to carry many of the heavier burdens which you could and should have borne. Your spiritual strength and blessing will be proportionate to the labor of love and the good works which you perform. The injunction of the apostle Paul is: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Keeping the commandments of God requires of us good works, self-denial, self-sacrifice, and devotion for the good of others, not that our good works alone can save us, but that we surely cannot be saved without good works. After we have done all that we are capable of doing, we are then to say: We have done no more than our duty, and at best are unprofitable servants, unworthy of the smallest favor from God. Christ must be our righteousness and the crown of our rejoicing. {3T 526.2}

I har som familie og som enkeltpersoner undskyldt jer fra alvorlig, aktiv tjeneste i jeres Mesters sag. I har været for dovne og har ladet andre bære mange af de tungere byrder som I selv burde have båret. Jeres åndelige styrke og velsignelse vil stå i forhold til jeres kærlighed for arbejde og de gode gerninger som I udretter. Apostlen Paulus' formaning er: »Bær hverandres byrder; således opfylder I Kristi lov.« At holde Guds bud kræver af os gode gerninger, selvfornægtelse, selvopofrelse og opofrelse for andres gode, ikke at vore gerninger alene kan frelse os, men at vi med sikkerhed ikke kan frelses uden gode gerninger. Efter at vi har gjort alt hvad vi kan gøre, kan vi da sige: Vi har ikke gjort mere end det er vor pligt og er i bedste fald unyttige tjenere, uværdige for den mindste gunst fra Gud. Kristus må være vor retfærdighed og vor glædes krone.