Discipleship in the Writings of Ellen White

It is your privilege ever to grow in grace, advancing in the knowledge and love of God, if you maintain the sweet communion with Christ it is your privilege to enjoy. In the simplicity of humble faith ask the Lord to open your understanding, that you may discern and appreciate the precious things of His Word. Thus you may grow in grace, grow in simple, trusting faith 
(God’s Amazing Grace, 292).

Abiding in Christ is choosing only the disposition of Christ, so that His interests are identified with yours. Abide in Him, to be and to do only what He wills. These are the conditions of discipleship, and unless they are complied with, you can never find rest. Rest is in Christ; it cannot be as something apart from Him 
(Selected Messages, book 1, 110). 

The closer we come to Christ, the nearer we shall be to one another. God is glorified as His people unite in harmonious action (The Adventist Home, 179).

We need to live in close fellowship with God, that we may love one another as Christ has loved us. It is by this that the world is to know that we are His disciples 
(Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 218, 219).

All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another. . . . This love is the evidence of their discipleship. “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples,” said Jesus, “if ye have love one to another.” When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence (The Desire of Ages, 677, 678).

When in conversion the sinner finds peace with God through the blood of the atonement, the Christian life has but just begun (The Faith I Live By, 117).

So the Christian strikes root deep into Christ. He has faith in his Redeemer. He knows in whom he believes. He is fully persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners. . . . The roots of faith strike deep down. Genuine Christians, like the cedar of Lebanon, do not grow in the soft surface soil, but are rooted in God, riveted in the clefts of the mountain rocks 
(Our High Calling, 331).

The Saviour . . . points out the sign of discipleship: “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” 
(Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, 292).

Our Saviour compares Himself to a vine, of which His followers are the branches. He plainly declares that all who would be His disciples must bring forth fruit; and then He shows how they may become fruitful branches. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:4) 
(Reflecting Christ, 96).

The humility and benevolence of Christ’s life revealed in ours, is the testimony we give to the world that we are his disciples. Through a life of obedience and self-sacrifice we are to reveal the love of God for fallen man 
(Review & Herald, September 17, 1908).

Christ is our personal Saviour; and if we are His disciples, our wrong-doing will cease, unrighteousness will come to an end. The strife to be first will no longer exist; for Christ will be formed within, the hope of glory. Pure and undefiled religion will be seen in our lives 
(Youth’s Instructor, December 8, 1898).

In becoming His disciples, we surrender ourselves to Him with all that we are and have. These gifts He returns to us purified and ennobled, to be used for His glory in blessing our fellow men
(Christ’s Object Lessons, 328).

Do not seek to shun responsibilities. To do this is to dishonor the claim of discipleship. In His ministry on this earth Christ represented His Father. We are to follow in His steps 
(Letter 140, 1901).

As you reveal wisdom by faithfulness in the home life . . . you will reveal faithfulness in the church as patient, kind, forbearing teachers. The Lord will see that you can be trusted with souls. You have learned lessons in His school as to how to deal with human minds and to lead them forward and upward to the holy standard of God, that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
(Testimonies to Southern Africa, 33).

Those who are called of God to labor in word and doctrine should ever be learners in the school of Christ. . . . Those who do not feel the importance of going on from strength to strength will not grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
(Reflecting Christ, 297).

There are many Seventh-day Adventists who do not understand that to accept the cause of Christ means to accept His cross. The only evidence they give in their lives of their discipleship is in the name they bear. But the true Christian regards his stewardship as a sacred thing. He perseveringly studies the Word, and yields up his life to the service of Christ 
(Reflecting Christ, 287).