going up to Jerusalem from there at Ephesus that, when the holy spirit by various agencies indicated Paul would run into trouble in Jerusalem, he pushed ahead in his determination. At Caesarea, just 55 miles from Jerusalem, he received final warning by the prophet Agabus. So the disciples there tried to dissuade him. But Luke tells us: “When he would not be dissuaded, we acquiesced with the words: ‘Let the will of Jehovah take place.’” And Jehovah’s will did take place. Paul eventually did get to Rome, even though it was as a prisoner.—Acts 19:21; 20:22-24; 21:4, 10-14, NW.

20, 21. (a) After making personal plans, for what should we look? (b) What admonition is given us against bragging about our plans?

²⁰ Thus it is with us today. As we cooperate with the theocratic congregation of Jehovah’s people we are left to considerable freedom of movement. The responsibility is left to us of planning for our personal course of action in our territory. After we have decided on our personal course, we can look for Jehovah’s blessing, guidance and use of us in his service. If we sow much, making good preparation for it, we may expect to reap much; and vice versa.

²¹ We should not brag over our plans or rely on our own strength and wisdom to carry them out. James warns against this, with these straightforward words: “Come, now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will travel to this city and will spend a year there, and we will engage in business and make profits,’ whereas you do not know what your life will be tomorrow. For you are a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing. Instead, you ought to say: ‘If Jehovah wills, we shall live and also do this or that.’ But now you take pride in your self-assuming brags. All such taking of pride is wicked. Therefore, if one knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him.”—Jas. 4:13-17, NW.

22. After making our plans, to whose will should we subject them, and how should we take our experiences while pushing ahead?

²² In accord with this, after we have made our personal plans regarding where, when and how we are going to be active in the field as a public witness of the Most High God, we should say, “If Jehovah wills, I will do his work then and there.” If he spares you and lets you get there and serve, you can thank him for this privilege. If you have pleasant experiences and get encouraging results from your efforts, you can thank him for these expressions of his favor, because every good gift and every perfect present comes from him the Father of celestial lights. If there is opposition or trials, if favorable results do not quickly show up, you can study the matter and determine how far Satan is responsible, as in Paul’s case, or how far the fault lies with you in your lack of preparation for service, your lack of tact, your bringing reproach on the message by personal conduct, or other causes. Do not be discouraged by trouble, opposition or persecution; no more than Jesus or Paul was. But, knowing you are doing God’s will, carry on his service faithfully and by this persistence defeat the enemy’s intention.

ARMOR OF PROTECTION

23. Why and how does the organization co-operate with you at work?

²³ Your authority to do God’s work as one of his proclaimers of the good news of his kingdom you have direct from his Word. His theocratic organization recognizes your authority from his Word, the Bible. So it uses you as one of its representatives in the field and it co-operates with you, supplies your needs, and renders you assistance. It gives you the benefit of what legal help and protection it can furnish you. It helps you to fight for the truth in unity with your brothers all over the earth.

24. So how are we advised we must fight, but not against whom?

²⁴ You cannot stand alone. You must fight shoulder to shoulder with your fellow witnesses, as Paul describes it: “You are standing firm in one spirit, with one soul fighting side by side for the faith of the good news, and in no respect being frightened by your opponents. This very thing is a proof of destruction for them, but of salvation for you; and this indication is from God, because to you the privilege was given in behalf of Christ, not only to put your faith in him, but also to suffer in his behalf. For you have the same struggle as you saw in my case and as you now hear about in my case.” (Phil. 1:27-30, NW) You must not fight physical combats with men and women outside the theocratic organization. Certainly you must not do so within the organization. You must fight the common enemy, and not your brothers. All the time be “earnestly endeavoring to observe the oneness of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace [between the brothers]. One body there is, and one spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all persons, who is over all and through all and in all”. This insures victory, this unity!—Eph. 4:3-6, NW.

25. Is all our defense left to organization and angels? What instrument plays a part?

²⁵ The theocratic organization affords us a great deal of help and protection, not to speak, too, of the invisible holy angels under Christ. Yet there are also personal defensive measures that we must individually take. In these measures the written Word of God performs a necessary and vital part; it is powerful for our protection. Paul makes this clear in his further words to the congregation of Ephesus with whom he was pleading for Christian unity.

26. Who are our real foes? So what must we make personal use of?

²⁶ We are in a real fight, and Paul points out who our real foes are against whom to strive, saying: “Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil; because we have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” In view of this, think of what we are up against—all this great invisible host is against us! It is working in an organized way by means of the visible organization of the Devil with all its propaganda and all its power to put us under pressure to destroy our faith and to entice or force us away from God’s service. We would quail in terror if we did not assure ourselves that God has made provision for protecting us. But we may not leave all the responsibility of protecting us to God. He has provided certain things for us to use for protecting ourselves and our brothers, and we must use these. What? The pieces making up the complete suit of spiritual armor. Not to use it leaves us exposed.

27. What is our girdle, our breastplate, our footwear in this outfit?

²⁷ “On this account,” continues Paul, “take up the complete suit of armor from God, that you may be able to resist [all the above-mentioned spirit foes] in the wicked day and, after you have done all things thoroughly, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, [how?] with your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and with your feet shod with the equipment of the good news of peace.” Righteousness is a breastplate of protection for our hearts, and the peaceful gospel message equips our feet to march on in field service in a peaceable way. Promoting peace rather than tactlessly stirring up strife makes it easier going for us over longer distances. Righteousness and the good news of peace you learn from the Bible and with the help of the theocratic organization.

28. What is our shield, and how is it made large?

²⁸ “Above all things, take up the large shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles.” Our faith, which rests on our knowledge of God’s Word and on our acquaintance with him and his works, prevents the burning missiles of bitter words of reproach and false accusation from sticking in us and inflicting a mortal wound on our spirituality. The more we know God’s Word and the more experience we have with his dealings, the larger our shield of faith becomes.—Ps. 64:3; Jer. 9:8.

29, 30. What are our helmet and our sword? How are these provided?

²⁹ But there is more you need: “Also accept the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word, while with every form of prayer and supplication you carry on prayer on every occasion in spirit.” For a protection of your head or mind God has provided the helmet of salvation or “hope of salvation”. By begetting Christ’s “little flock” of followers with his spirit the heavenly Father has created in them a hope of heavenly salvation. But today by means of his Word and his organization God acquaints the “great crowd” of other sheep with a hope of salvation to life in human perfection on a paradise earth. By faithfully enduring as Christians and thus gaining God’s approval we increase our hope or our expectation of receiving the things we desire according to his promise. With this intelligent hope of salvation we fight on with the “sword of the spirit, that is, God’s Word”.

³⁰ It is a spiritual sword for battling with the enemy at close quarters. The spirit of God forged, hardened, shaped and sharpened that sword, because the writers of that Word were just men and so they needed the spirit or active force of God to move them to write God’s message. Hence God’s spirit speaks to us by that Word, and that Word is an expression of the spirit of God. His spirit is invincible, and that is what makes this sword of God’s Word invincible against man and devil.—Eph. 6:11-18, NW; 1 Thess. 5:8, 9.

31. How did Jesus set us an example as a swordsman? How did he pray?

³¹ Jesus set us the example in using that spiritual sword, God’s Word. When the Devil put him to the test in the wilderness, Jesus parried every stroke of the Devil’s suggestions with the sword of God’s Word, saying, “It is written.” And when the Devil and all his organized demons attacked Jesus through their wicked visible organization and assailed his message and his course of action, he met their assaults with a thrust of the spiritual sword, quoting the written Word of God. “It is written” killed or stopped cold the traditional arguments and worldly philosophies or unscriptural reasonings of the religious dupes of the demons. But along with his expert use of this sword from God Jesus prayed. He prayed regularly and sincerely and in full accord with God’s purpose set out in his recorded Word. So his prayers were heard.

32. Why is this the “wicked day”? What does it make urgent?

³² With Satan and his demons now cast down from heaven and creating woe on the earth and warring against those belonging to God’s woman or organization, we are in the wicked day. We must wrestle determinedly against the mighty spiritual foes. We therefore need to put on and keep on the full suit of armor from God. The armor is the same for each and every one of us, and with it we can stand firm unitedly and hold the enemy at bay and beat back their assaults. So keep on each piece. Keep your heart fixed on righteousness, God’s righteousness, for your protection. Hold fast and enlarge your faith as a shield. Keep walking in the equipment of the good news of peace to protect you from the hardness of the road. Buckle about you the belt of the truth for strength to bear the load and to hold out. Keep your head helmeted with the right hope which leads to no disappointment. Strengthen your grip on the sword of the spirit, God’s Word. Now that we have come to close grips with the enemy, learn to brandish this sword. With it turn aside every hostile thrust and drive this two-edged weapon into the vitals of the enemy’s propaganda, traditions, philosophies and deceptive arguments.

33. Can we thus fight and pray while under detention? How so?

³³ If we are thus armored, we need never back down before our assailants, and the Devil and all his hosts of demons cannot do us one bit of spiritual harm. We may be killed as a result of their invisible influence on their earthly agents, but God will safeguard and preserve our inheritance of life in the new world, granting us a resurrection in his due time. We may be in prison or concentration camp because of demonized men and governments, but our enemies cannot take our spiritual armor off us. We can still retain this armor and fight in it there in detention, for Paul himself was wearing this armor in prison at Rome when he wrote us to wear it. And as we fight in it we can keep in communication with God and his invisible organization by means of prayer, every form of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, appreciation, petitions, and earnest supplications, for ourselves and for our brothers, our fellow fighters. Prayer makes us feel divine aid near.

34. What place, then, must we give God’s Word, and with what outcome?

³⁴ All considered, then, we cannot underestimate the value, importance and power of God’s Word. We must give it a continual place in our lives, ahead of the words and commandments of any men who would make God’s Word null and void, even under persecution. For our guide Psalm 119:161 (AS) says: “Princes have persecuted me without a cause; but my heart standeth in awe of thy words.” Hence we cleave to God’s written Word and obey it. By taking heed to his Word we can cleanse our path and keep it pure and clear through this dirty world. His Word taken into hearts and heads can make our minds over, and in this way can transform our lives away from all imitating of this corrupt system of things over to a course acceptable to God, in full harmony with him and leading us to eternal life in his new world.—Rom. 12:1, 2, NW.

Religious Respectability and Decay

● “The power of Christian Society cannot be measured by the number of its members who are listed in Who’s Who.” That was the point put across recently by Elton Trueblood, professor of philosophy and religion at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. He wrote in Presbyterian Life: “In many localities the initiative has moved away from the places marked by cushioned pews, fine organs and professional singers to the poor little store-front churches. Small but vigorous bands of Jehovah’s witnesses meet in their modest quarters called Kingdom Halls, and Alcoholics Anonymous meet wherever they can. But the lack of impressive surroundings seems to hinder them not at all.” Referring to early Christians, he continued: “But they were the ones who won, while most of the respectable people of that time are now forgotten. . . . We may as well face the fact that, in so far as our religion is represented exclusively or even chiefly by the attendance of well dressed, upper-middle class people at an impressive church for one hour on Sunday morning, we are already in decay.”