Gen 3:17–19
17) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
18) Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
19) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Gen 3:19
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.
SC 9
It is written that God cursed the ground for man’s sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle—the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.
FE 314
Industry was a pleasure to Adam and Eve. The fall of Adam changed the order of things; the earth was cursed: but the decree that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, was not given as a curse. Through faith and hope, labor was to be a blessing to the descendants of Adam and Eve.
CT 274
While our first parents obeyed God, their labor in the garden was a pleasure, and the earth yielded of its abundance for their wants. But when man departed from obedience, he was doomed to wrestle with the seeds of Satan’s sowing and to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Henceforth he must battle in toil and hardship against the power to which he had yielded his will.
Job 12:8
…speak to the earth, and it will teach you…
YI May 6, 1897
Through transgression, through his many inventions and the abuse of the laws of his being, man has partially destroyed the harmony of nature with God’s purpose in creating the world. God designed that nature should be to man a lesson-book to guide him from the path of disobedience back to God. There is need of a close study of nature, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is giving object lessons; He is making holy truths familiar to the human mind, through the most simple things in nature.
4T 606
The mind is the garden; the character is the fruit. God has given us our faculties to cultivate and develop. Our own course determines our character. In training these powers so that they shall harmonize and form a valuable character, we have a work which no one but ourselves can do.
Proverbs 24:30, 31
30) I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
31) and there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down.
4T 202, 203
The soil of the heart, like that of a garden, will produce weeds and brambles unless the seeds of precious flowers are planted there and receive care and cultivation. As in visible nature, so is it with the human soul.
1MCP 7 (RH, Nov 9, 1886)
The similarity between an uncultivated field and an untrained mind is striking. Children and youth already have in their minds and hearts corrupt seed, ready to spring up and bear its perverting harvest; and the greatest care and watchfulness are needed in cultivating and storing the mind with precious seeds of Bible truth.
Matthew 13:27, 28
27) “So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
28) “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’”
2SM 288
Not one noxious plant was placed in the Lord’s great garden, but after Adam and Eve sinned, poisonous herbs sprang up. In the parable of the sower the question was asked the master, “Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?” The master answered, “An enemy hath done this” (Matt. 13:27, 28). All tares are sown by the evil one. Every noxious herb is of his sowing, and by his ingenious methods of amalgamation he has corrupted the earth with tares.
3MR 331 (Letter 165, 1901)
All sin is selfishness. Satan’s first sin was selfishness… And the temptation which led Adam to sin, was the false statement of Satan that it was possible for him to attain to something more than he already enjoyed—possible for him to be as God Himself. Thus seeds of selfishness were sown in the human heart.
7MR 232, 233
All sin is selfishness… The sowing of seeds of selfishness in the human heart was the first result of the entrance of sin into the world.
HS 138, 139
Selfishness is inwrought in our very being. It has come to us as an inheritance…
5BC 1128
Because of sin his [Adam’s] posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience.
4T 384
Under the general heading of selfishness [comes] every other sin.
Exodus 20:5
For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.
2T 62
You have transmitted to your children a miserable legacy, a depraved nature rendered still more depraved by your gross habits of eating and drinking.
MH 371
What the parents are, that, to a great extent, the children will be. The physical conditions of the parents, their dispositions and appetites, their mental and moral tendencies, are, to a greater or less degree, reproduced in their children.
RH Aug 22, 1899
Bear in mind that they [our children] have received their perversity as an inheritance from the father or mother, and be patient with the children who have inherited your own traits of character.
PP 561
And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children.
AG 145
…the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.
John 15:5
…for without Me you can do nothing.
Phil 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
RH Jan 4, 1881
To understand this matter aright, we must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved, and we are unable, of ourselves, to pursue a right course. It is only by the grace of God, combined with the most earnest efforts on our part, that we can gain the victory.
Prov 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
HP 195
Bad habits are more easily formed than good habits, and the bad habits are given up with more difficulty. The natural depravity of the heart accounts for this well-known fact… Self-indulgence, love of pleasure, enmity, pride, self-esteem, envy, jealousy, will grow spontaneously, without example and teaching. In our present fallen state all that is needed is to give up the mind and character to its natural tendencies. In the natural world, give up a field to itself and you will see it covered with briers and thorns; but if it yields precious grain or beautiful flowers, care and unremitting labor must be applied.
COL 50
Grace can thrive only in the heart that is being constantly prepared for the precious seeds of truth. The thorns of sin will grow in any soil; they need no cultivation; but grace must be carefully cultivated. The briers and thorns are always ready to spring up, and the work of purification must advance continually. If the heart is not kept under the control of God, if the Holy Spirit does not work unceasingly to refine and ennoble the character, the old habits will reveal themselves in the life.
Phil 3:21 (KJV)
Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…
4T 496
In the human heart there is natural selfishness and corruption, which can only be overcome by most thorough discipline and severe restraint; and even then it will require years of patient effort and earnest resistance.
YI Feb 19, 1903
The formation of character is the work of a lifetime, and it is for eternity. If all could realize this, if they would awake to the thought that we are individually deciding our own destiny for eternal life or eternal ruin, what a change would take place! How differently would this probationary time be occupied and what different characters would fill our world!
PP 223
An upright character is of greater worth than the gold of Ophir. Without it none can rise to an honorable eminence. But character is not inherited. It cannot be bought. Moral excellence and fine mental qualities are not the result of accident. The most precious gifts are of no value unless they are improved. The formation of a noble character is the work of a lifetime and must be the result of diligent and persevering effort. God gives opportunities; success depends upon the use made of them.
ML 52
If you will battle against selfish human nature, you will go forward steadily in the work of overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong.
HP 231
Each soul inherits certain un-Christ-like traits of character. It is the grand and noble work of a lifetime to keep under control these tendencies to wrong.
CT 20
There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Appetite and passion must be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. There is no end to the warfare this side of eternity.
Ed 109
The harvest of life is character, and it is this that determines destiny, both for this life and for the life to come. The harvest is a reproduction of the seed sown. Every seed yields fruit after its kind. So it is with the traits of character we cherish. Selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-indulgence, reproduce themselves, and the end is wretchedness and ruin. “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Galatians 6:8. Love, sympathy, and kindness yield fruitage of blessing, a harvest that is imperishable.
John 19:2
And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.
Heb 2:18
For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Luke 22:44
And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
5T 53
Kill the thorns, or they will kill you. Break up the fallow ground of the heart. Let the work go deep and thorough. Let the plowshare of truth tear out the weeds and briers.