"The truth of the matter has certain positive features which must be recognized and acted upon. The first is that those who are sons and daughters of the Almighty, are men and women of spiritual understanding; that is to say men and women having understanding of spiritual matters. It would seem superfluous to prove this. The very process of introduction to the divine family involves the enlightenment of those introduced for it is by enlightenment they are introduced. It is by the belief of the gospel that they are called from the darkness and condemnation of the natural man: and how can they believe the gospel without knowing it, and how know it without understanding it? What is the subject-matter of the gospel of salvation? "THE THINGS CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST." This is the gospel specifically defined; and the definition is in reality a summary of the whole mystery of godliness in its past and future manifestations. The "THINGS OF THE KINGDOM" comprehend the design and consummation of God's purpose in the future in the manifestation of his power regally administered throughout the whole earth through the kingdom of David in the hands of Jesus and the saints; the "THINGS OF THE NAME" embrace the facts and import of the advent of Christ in the flesh. Now, no man or woman can comprehend these things and be unenlightened. It is morally impossible. If he understand, in its amplitude, the truth consisting of these "things," he must necessarily answer the designation of the early disciples - "Children of light" (Eph 5:8), "filled with the knowledge of his mind with all wisdom and spiritual understanding," (Col. 1:9) "not unwise, understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph 5:17) "NOT AS OTHER GENTILES, HAVING THE UNDERSTANDINGS DARKENED" (Eph 4:18): "in understanding, MEN" (1 Cor. 15:20); symbolically described in the Apocalypse as a great assembly having "the name of the Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1).
Christ's accepted people are people of knowledge and understanding. This is the first positive feature of the question. IGNORANCE IS FATAL; it makes emancipation from Adamic bondage impossible. Christ is the life of the world by being its light, and this light is defined as "the light OF THE KNOWLEDGE of the glory of God." It is impossible for a person ignorant of this knowledge to be saved. Ignorant flesh and blood is of no value to God. The flesh is an unprofitable and abandoned thing. It is condemned to the grave. It is dust and ashes by constitution, and prone to ignorance and depravity by nature. "All nations are as nothing; and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity." (Isa. 40:17) "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the field." (1 Pet. 1:24). Only in proportion as it becomes conformed to His own mental image is it acceptable to God...
Christ is the pattern - the standard. We cannot go too far if we do not go beyond him. We cannot rise too high if we keep within his altitude. That is to say, we cannot be too enlightened, too profound, in our perceptions of the subtle relations of Deity, or too decided in our preference for "the things of the spirit."
In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Hence, absolutely, and in mature development, a son of God is a person in whom dwells a fully developed enlightenment in divine things. This is "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." But what is the meaning of these words reduced to concrete phrases? This: Definite knowledge and positive convictions in relation to what God has REVEALED - FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH BASED ON CLEAR PERCEPTIONS. This is the essential characteristic of true sons of God. Uncertainty and doubt are evidences of spiritual abortion.
These symptoms manifested themselves even under the teaching of the apostles. Paul speaks of those who are "ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." Of this class are those whom he speaks of as "unlearned and unstable," wresting the scriptures to their own destruction. If this state of things existed in the apostolic age, we need not be surprised at its appearance now within the pale of the professed brotherhood. There are some minds that seem incapable of an assured conviction on any subject beyond the test of the senses. It is their misfortune to be naturally sceptical. ...They can scarcely rise above the one-God belief of the demoniacs; and they have the inclination to keep everybody around them on the dead level of their own dwarfed attainments. God will doubtless deal mercifully with those who are thus naturally destitute of spiritual capacity, for he is not an hard master; he does not reap where he does not sow; but it is a misfortune when minds of this constitution attempt to influence others... Their influence is only evil continually. They obstruct true spiritual progress, check and blunt spiritual aspirations, and stand as barriers in the way of the simple who may be sincerely enquiring after the way of life. Teachers of this class are dangerous; and all the more so because they appear in the doctrinal garb of the truth. Did they but come forward as the champions of some tangible heresy, they would be less formidable, because even the unwary would detect the imposition; but when they present themselves in the form of the truth as regards phrases and the geographical and political features of it, they are as dangerous as the seductive reptile which charms with its music and the gorgeous hues of its apparently kindly eyes, and but leads to destruction while promising delights. They lead those who follow them so far in the right direction, but not far enough to be saved, and a long way in the wrong direction through their unskilled manipulation of spiritual things. They have the form of the truth, but not the power; its material features of locality and event, but not the spiritual essence of which these are but the expression.
In views of the Lord's approach, we warn our readers against this easy kindly school who, in much innocence it may be, have carnalized the newly recovered doctrines of the Kingdom and life by Christ, and alloyed them with the apostasy, committing fornication with the Harlot of the Earth and her daughters in matters of doctrine; and in matters of spirit and practice, obliterating the line [conformance to Yahweh's mental image] which divides the servants of God from the servants of the flesh, and generally reducing the truth to a few soulless propositions loosely held as a mere bond of social connection and entertainment. They have in fact brought about a state of Laodiceanism wherever their influence is potent. They are themselves well contented - "rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing," knowing not that in truth they are "wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked"; and they inspire a similar sentiment wherever they are listened to. Let every man see to it for himself."
(By Robert Roberts, The Christadelphian 1866, pages 3-5.)