them understand God’s purposes and promise of a righteous new world—we are using our resources to glorify God.

20. Why is it urgent to make friends with God now, and with whom should we associate?

²⁰ By using our resources to glorify God, we are laying up heavenly treasure and making friends with those who will never forsake us, never abandon us and who can give us the gift of everlasting life under the kingdom of heaven. This matter of making friends with God and his Son is urgent because this world is now in its “time of the end,” and will soon pass away at God’s war of Armageddon. Now is the time to show that we are friendly toward God. Now is the time to get all the help we can in winning God’s friendship. That is why we need to associate regularly with those who love and obey God, those whom Jesus Christ called “my friends.” (Luke 12:4) By associating with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, thousands of persons are learning the course to take to make friends for themselves ‘by means of the unrighteous riches, so that, when such fail, they may receive them into the everlasting dwelling places.’—Luke 16:9.

Proving Ourselves God’s Friends

“O Jehovah, who will be a guest in your tent? Who will reside in your holy mountain? He who is walking faultlessly and practicing righteousness and speaking the truth in his heart.”—Psalm 15:1, 2.

1. How does the Bible describe God’s new world, and what requirements should interest us?

NO ONE will gain entrance into God’s new world, there to reside permanently as God’s guest, unless he is a friend of God. Since God gathers around him only the pure and the good, there are requirements for being a guest in Jehovah’s tent. What these requirements are should be the interest of every true Christian, for only by meeting them may he attain the blessed realization of everlasting life in a dwelling place of which the Bible declares: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away . . . I heard a loud voice from the throne say: ‘Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them.’”—Rev. 21:1, 3.

2. What divine description is given of the friend of God?

² The psalmist David was inspired to set down the requirements for being God’s guest, hence God’s friend: “O Jehovah, who will be a guest in your tent? Who will reside in your holy mountain? He who is walking faultlessly and practicing righteousness and speaking the truth in his heart. He has not slandered with his tongue. To his companion he has done nothing bad, and no reproach has he taken up against his intimate acquaintance. In his eyes anyone contemptible is certainly rejected, but those fearing Jehovah he honors.”—Ps. 15:1-4.

3. Why is Jehovah rightly careful about those who will be his guests, and how was this carefulness shown in David’s day?

³ That the Almighty God takes into his tent as guests only certain ones is not surprising. Whoever has a home of his own does not receive into it as a guest just anybody; he does not entertain all persons. Many home owners would not have bad persons staying with them even for a short time. The same principle applies with Jehovah God. He does not receive everybody into his tent: “No one bad may reside for any time with you.” (Ps. 5:4) This was true in David’s day, in regard to the tent of God. David had brought the ark of Jehovah from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem: “So they brought the ark of Jehovah in and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.” (2 Sam. 6:17) To enter this tent was to enter into the presence of the Most High. David selected certain ones to serve at this tent, Asaph being among those so privileged. (1 Chron. 16:4-6) Only those who walked faultlessly and who were pure and upright could be in constant attendance in Jehovah’s tent on his holy mountain.

4. What is said about the requirement for staying in God’s presence, and so what should be the Christian’s attitude?

⁴ Jehovah is very careful about those who stay in his holy presence. If the requirements in David’s day for being a guest in Jehovah’s tent there on his holy mountain were strict, then how much more so must be the requirements for abiding in Jehovah’s tent as a permanent guest, as a member of his holy family! That we may be accounted worthy of this incomparable privilege and be able to say with David, “I will be a guest in your tent for times indefinite,” we must prove ourselves God’s friends. Since “His intimacy is with the upright ones,” it is absolutely imperative that those who would enjoy his protection and hospitality forever learn what God requires for being upright in his eyes. (Ps. 61:4; Prov. 3:32) Hence every Christian should ask himself these questions: “O Jehovah, who will be a guest in your tent? Who will reside in your holy mountain?” And every Christian should be thoroughly familiar with what the psalmist answered: “He who is walking faultlessly and practicing righteousness and speaking the truth in his heart.”—Ps. 15:1, 2.

WALKING FAULTLESSLY

5. How did Adam fail to walk faultlessly, and so what did he lose?

⁵ To walk faultlessly, in God’s eyes, the Christian must trust Jehovah God implicitly and prove that trust by being obedient to his commands. Adam, the first man, was God’s guest in the Paradise of Eden. Adam could have enjoyed that Paradise as an everlasting dwelling place, one blessed with God’s presence. But Adam failed to prove himself God’s friend. Because of Adam’s failure to obey his heavenly Father and Host, he lost his Paradise dwelling place and disqualified himself for being a guest in “the garden of God.” (Ezek. 28:13) Adam failed to walk faultlessly, and so could not be God’s friend.

6. Who was called “Jehovah’s friend,” and why?

⁶ But the Bible abounds with examples of those who succeeded in proving themselves God’s friends. A list of those who proved themselves friends of God is found in the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven. Mentioned in that chapter is Abraham, of whom James wrote: “The scripture was fulfilled which says: ‘Abraham put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness,’ and he came to be called ‘Jehovah’s friend.’” (Jas. 2:23) What a privilege to be called “Jehovah’s friend”! Are we, like Abraham, willing to meet the requirements for being Jehovah’s friend? We cannot be God’s friends by merely wishing it to be so; we must prove ourselves friends of God. Abraham demonstrated his faith and trust in God by obeying Jehovah’s command to leave Ur of the Chaldees and later in attempting to offer up his only son by Sarah, his beloved Isaac. Thus the writer of Hebrews states: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, although not knowing where he was going. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, as good as offered up Isaac, and the man that had gladly received the promises attempted to offer up his only-begotten son, although it had been said to him: ‘What will be called “your seed” will be through Isaac.’” (Heb. 11:8, 17, 18) Abraham walked faultlessly, proving his faith and trust in God by his obedience; “and he came to be called ‘Jehovah’s friend.’”

7. What is the proper evaluation of being God’s friend?

⁷ Can any satisfaction compare with that of being Jehovah’s friend? What is so-called success in this world’s commercial enterprises compared to earning God’s friendship? Nothing can bring the happiness and satisfaction as that which comes from being “rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21) Men expend tremendous efforts to learn how to be a success in the commercial world; learning how to walk faultlessly in God’s eyes so as to become his friend is worthy of far greater efforts.

CONSTANCY IN FAULTLESS WALKING

8. (a) What examples are there of those who were constant in walking faultlessly? (b) How is faultless walking possible, as shown in the case of Daniel?

⁸ When we examine the lives of those who proved themselves God’s friends, we find that they were constant in walking faultlessly. “Enoch kept walking with the true God.” “Noah was a righteous man. He proved himself faultless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with the true God.” (Gen. 5:23, 24; 6:9) The prophet Daniel was constant in his faultless walking. At critical moments in his life he did not rely on human wisdom; he turned to God for direction. This, in turn, was because he constantly depended on Jehovah God. Daniel communed with his God even when it was against the law; he prayed regularly, showing constancy in his dependence on his greatest Friend. Daniel was thrown into the pit of lions because of his loyalty to Jehovah, and even the pagan king Darius observed Daniel’s constant reliance on his God: “Your God whom you are serving with constancy, he himself will rescue you.” (Dan. 6:16, 20) By his constancy in faultless walking Daniel came to be greatly beloved of God, and Jehovah’s angel Gabriel told Daniel: “You are someone very desirable.”—Dan. 9:23.

9. What is a vital requirement for walking faultlessly?

⁹ To be constant in faultless walking as were Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Daniel, we must take notice of Jehovah in all that we do, as Proverbs 3:5, 6 states: “Trust in Jehovah with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways take notice of him, and he himself will make your paths straight.” No one can ever be a friend of God who is not willing to follow this counsel. No one, in fact, can really make a dedication to God unless he obeys this injunction to trust in Jehovah and to seek his divine direction so as to walk constantly in straight paths.

10, 11. (a) What can happen if one leaves Jehovah out of the picture? (b) What critical moments entered the life of a man of God, and how did he meet them?

¹⁰ What folly not to take notice of Jehovah in all our ways—especially for the servant of God! Easily disaster can overtake one who leaves Jehovah out of the picture, especially at a critical moment, as it did for a certain prophet. The thirteenth chapter of First Kings tells us about “a man of God that had come out of Judah by the word of Jehovah to Bethel, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make sacrificial smoke.” The man of God, whose name is not mentioned, then spoke a remarkable prophecy concerning the ruin of the altar and of those idolaters who sacrificed upon it. Wicked King Jeroboam