Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

God and Father, and for us to follow in his footsteps we must have the same Teacher as he had. Persons of this world pride themselves on having gone to a certain school or college and having had certain renowned ones as instructors. But we could not have a teacher grander and more competent than Jehovah God, nor any schooling higher than what he gives, for this leads to sure success.

Because of Jesus’ faithfulness Jehovah sent him forth into this world to teach us. Hence we must become Jesus’ disciples or learners. We cannot gain entrance into Jehovah’s school of success unless through Jesus, for he said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NW) And so Jehovah’s entire school system has been organized with Jesus Christ as the main Teacher under Jehovah God himself. And as Jehovah taught Jesus that he might teach others, so we too, after ourselves being taught, must teach others. God’s bringing us into his school is for an unselfish purpose. It is not a school where mere theory is taught, but it is a most practical school. The purpose of our attending there is that we might learn to do what is in harmony with our Creator and may teach others for them also to win life from God through Jesus Christ.

STAYING BY THESE THINGS

This world and its invisible ruler the Devil are opposed to God’s will. It is in the midst of this world that we must live just now, but, thank God, it is now only a “short period of time” before the Devil and his world-rulers of this darkness are bound and put out of the way. But during this remaining “short period of time” in which this world stands we have to live in it, and for this special reason we must pursue our studies and learning in the divine school. We cannot afford to drop out or play hooky. We cannot afford to be dismissed from it for improper conduct, rebelliousness against our Teachers, and unfaithfulness. In order to be crowned with success we must keep on with our studies of God’s Word and with our efforts to teach others also. Some of us may have been privileged as full-time ministers of God to attend the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead and graduate from it and receive a diploma of merit. That has been a great blessing to all such graduates, and it has put them far ahead in understanding God’s will and in being able to study his Word and to teach others. But that is not the end of study and schooling for even such graduates. No; it is the beginning of living under a greater responsibility before God. Graduates of Gilead as well as all the rest of us must continue on in the greater school of Jehovah God by Christ Jesus, which is open to all of us. In this divine institution we must all carry on our studies as long as we are in this wicked enemy world, that we may not be destroyed with it.

Success, which leads to everlasting life in the new world, will never be attributed to us until we have finished our career in this old world and have kept the divine approval upon us down to the finish. It was only at the finish that the apostle Paul could say for himself: “The due time for my releasing is imminent. I have fought the right fight, I have run the course to the finish, I have observed the faith. As for the rest, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me as a reward in that day.”—2 Tim. 4:6-8, NW.

Hence Gilead graduates must press on with their studies, and thus put to practical use the training they so graciously received through Jehovah’s organization. They must now push their personal studies, no longer under the pressure of the Gilead School schedule or because of facing examinations or for the sake of winning passing grades; no, but for the sake of meeting the demands made on them by the great teaching work which they have to carry on after leaving school. Graduating from such a school and being able to exhibit a diploma is not the final goal. Your succeeding in finally saving your own soul and helping in the salvation of others is the great objective of all the schooling Jehovah gives through Jesus Christ. All this plays its part in vindicating Jehovah as a Father who gives life to obedient children who are devotedly attached to him and who are a credit to him. To such he says: “My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.” (Prov. 27:11) It is not only by our personal study of the Bible and the publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society at our abodes that we carry forward our study in the heavenly Father’s Word, but by “not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together” but “encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near”. (Heb. 10:25, NW) Our attending a public or private school with other pupils has its instructive benefits. So our gathering together with fellow Christians for study, prayer and field-service instruction has its invaluable benefits. If we get the largehearted spirit of our great Teachers, we just love to be together with persons who are studying and training with us in the same divine school.

But as with Gilead graduates, we cannot just drop our studies as soon as we leave school or classroom. When we close our Bibles and our Bible-study books after a personal study, or when we leave a meeting-place and part from fellow Christians, we cannot forget the things we have learned. That would be a waste of time, money and mental effort. We must meditate on those things and apply them as we meet life’s daily problems and also tell these things out to others. We must put our acquired knowledge to work; as it is written: “Become doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning.” (Jas. 1:22, NW) Keep always in view the sublime purpose of your schooling under the tutelage of Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. That purpose is that, after our study hours, we may do God’s work to his glory and for the salvation of ourselves and of others. And this we are obliged to do in the midst of an unfriendly world. Remember, a great part of our own schooling comes through trying to teach others.

NOT FORSAKING MOTHER’S LAW

When Joshua marched across the Jordan river into hostile territory he needed great courage and unswerving devotion to Jehovah’s purpose. So with us now. We today march forward to the work for which our great Teacher has schooled us under Jesus Christ, and we do so in a world filled with foes. We know what we have been instructed to do, but we cannot successfully do it in our own strength and according to our natural understanding of things. We need the guidance, help and backing of the One who sends us out from his Theocratic school. He does not send us out and forget about us. He is keenly interested in how his pupils use the precious knowledge he has given them through his Theocratic organization under Christ. He has promised to be with them, but only if they carry out his commandments and act according to the way they have been taught. Naturally he would not be with those who prove disobedient and are not doers of his Word. The enemy world tries to compel us to act and live contrary to divine teaching, so that all our schooling may go for nothing, wasting God’s goodness. For that reason we need all the more to be fearless and to adhere strictly to what God has commanded and taught us. He does not guarantee us prosperity and good success in his service if we do otherwise.

But be sure of this one thing: He has not sent us forth on a vain mission, but he will grant us prosperity and good success if we carry out his Word; for his word never returns void and unfulfilled to him.—Isa. 55:11.

To be successful for life eternal we have to listen to God’s instruction through his Theocratic organization and to abide by it even under circumstances of great stress. Speaking to his pupils as children, God says: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law [or, teaching] of thy mother.” The heavenly Father here likens his organization for teaching his children to a woman, a mother who is very devoted to her husband and to their children. (Prov. 1:8, AS, margin) The heavenly Father wants us to have respect for his educational organization, and so he says: “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” (Prov. 6:20, 23) If we keep our Father’s instruction and commandment, not only will he be with us, but his “woman”, our “mother”, will also be with us. Every normal woman is attached to her children. Jehovah, who made woman, asks: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” (Isa. 49:15) God’s woman, or Theocratic organization, is like him. She never forgets her children, those whom she teaches and brings forth as witnesses and representatives of her husband, the Most High God. We should show our love for her by not forsaking the law of our mother. It would be foolish to give up her law and treat it with contempt. “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.”—Prov. 15:20.

A person who thinks he can get along without God’s organization and can study the Bible on his own and can do God’s work independently as he thinks best apart from all organization is very foolish. He lacks all understanding of how God has dealt with his servants in times past. We must not forget that God instructs us through his organization, his woman, our mother. He respects his woman and appreciates the work that she does in behalf of His sons and daughters. So he does not like it when any professed Christian disrespects the “mother” organization. To disrespect her means to disrespect Jesus Christ, for God has made this beloved Son the head of the Theocratic organization. He who robs the organization of the respect due this symbolic mother is working to destroy the organization, not build it up. He is guilty of transgressing against her divine husband, Jehovah our heavenly Father. What you do against her you do against him. “Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.” And the great destroyer is Satan the Devil. (Prov. 28:24) Let us, then, not rob and destroy, but show love and respect for our mother by never forsaking her law and teaching as the Devil did. Let us ever be obedient to her, doing so as to Jehovah, her Husband and Head.

She is a worthy woman. She is no adulteress or fornicator with the Devil, and we are not illegitimate children when we confess her motherhood. She is Theocratically subject to her Husband, the Most High God. We can therefore trust her to lead us in ways pleasing to Jehovah the Giver of everlasting life. Her loving concern is for His children, and she looks well to that, using all her organizational means and powers for their welfare. The thirty-first chapter of Proverbs likens