8. To whose love, in the days of ancient Israel, may the love existing between the two classes in the “one flock” be compared?

⁸ A mutual love has developed and deepened among all the sheeplike ones of the “one flock” under the Greater David, Jesus Christ. This uniting bond of love corresponds with that unbreakable, undying love of the anointed king-elect David of the tribe of Judah toward unselfish lovable Jonathan, the son of the then reigning king Saul. (2 Samuel 1:25-27) Shortly before their final parting from each other, “Jonathan swore again to David because of his love for him; for as he loved his own soul he loved him.” (1 Samuel 20:17) On learning of Jonathan’s death with his father in battle, David was impelled to chant a dirge and to climax it with the words: “I am distressed over you, my brother Jonathan, very pleasant you were to me. More wonderful was your love to me than the love from women.” (2 Samuel 1:26) Their mutual love was a “perfect bond of union.” Only death did them part.

9. By whom were the “other sheep” there pictured, and how will those of the two classes eventually be parted, but with no lessening of mutual love?

⁹ Jonathan foreshadowed the “other sheep” of the present time. Some future day after “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon the surviving Jonathan class will be parted from the remnant of the David class. (Revelation 16:14, 16) This will be only because the beloved remnant will be taken away by death, they being “caught away,” as it were, “in clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” by means of their instantaneous resurrection in the spirit out of death. (1 Thessalonians 4:17) They will continue to love the “other sheep” left behind on earth. In fact, their love then will be more powerfully expressed!

“The Greatest of These Is Love”

10, 11. Why is it that faith and hope are not so great as love, as stated in 1 Corinthians 13:13?

¹⁰ This reminds us of Paul’s words at the close of his magnificent description in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, namely: “Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) How is that so? Well, consider first what is said in Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” Certainly, then, the hope for such things is only for the time that they are not “beheld.” Take Abraham, for instance. He demonstrated faith in Jehovah God and in His ability to raise the dead. So he waited confidently for things that he did not behold before his death. So Jehovah’s Witnesses of today, due to strong faith in Him, hope for things not yet beheld and so wait for them. When, in time, they behold the “things hoped for,” their faith and hope respecting such things end, having been fulfilled. This is indicated by what Paul further says in Romans 8:24, 25, where we read:

¹¹ “For we were saved in this hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for when a man sees a thing, does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we keep on waiting for it with endurance.”

12. In what way have Jehovah’s Witnesses seen the “restoration of all things,” as stated in Acts 3:21, and so in course of time what qualities will cease but what quality will not?

¹² Likewise, since the postwar year of 1919 Jehovah’s Witnesses on earth have seen the “restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of old time.” They have seen Jehovah’s visible organization recovered from the death-dealing blow of World War I and then rebuilt. It is again worshiping Jehovah God, in a spiritual paradise right here at the earth. (Isaiah, chapter 35) Deliverance has been gained from Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. (Revelation 18:1-4) Many of the things foretold in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, have been fulfilled or are undergoing fulfillment. Thus faith and the hope based on such Biblical faith are serving their purpose, and once their purpose has been fully met, they will cease. Ah, yes, but what about love? It has remained and will remain. Whereas the world is in a state of disintegration and the world elements are about to melt due to the intense heat, the “bond of union” based on love from God does not get dissolved. It still holds intact toward God and his approved organization and between the remnant of the “little flock” and the welcome “great crowd” of the “other sheep.” It proves to be “perfect.” Love as the “bond” is a fruit of God’s spirit.

13. Why will love never die?

¹³ God is the personification of love; and since God never dies, love will never die. It is correctly said, “God is love.”

14. What truth can be restated as to the unifying power of love?

¹⁴ As regards the unifying power of love, the inspired truth stated at 1 John 4:8, 16 can be repeated and enlarged upon: “God is love, and he that remains in love remains in union with God and God remains in union with him.”

15. When creating man, by what was God motivated, and why can man appreciate and react properly to that motivating force?

¹⁵ Accordingly, when God produced the first human creature on earth, he was motivated by love to do this. As Genesis 1:27 reports on this: “And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him.” Not that the first man had God’s bodily shape, but that he was gifted with qualities such as God himself has, these mental, spiritual and heart qualities differentiating him from the lower forms of creature life on earth. For this reason this gifted human creature could appreciate the love of his Creator toward him and could react toward that love in a proper way, like a son toward his father. There existed a family tie between them that was made realistic by regular communion with each other in spite of the fact that the Father was invisible to the earthly son, inasmuch as no man can see God and yet keep on living. This fact God stated later on to Moses: “No man may see me and yet live.” (Exodus 33:20) This rule was not changed, for more than fifteen hundred years later the apostle John wrote to fellow Christians: “No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god who is in the bosom position with the Father is the one that has explained him.”​—John 1:18.

16. With what did John and his fellow disciples respond to God’s fatherly love, and how has the “bond of love” proved to be with regard to the anointed remnant and the “other sheep”?

¹⁶ As a spirit-begotten son of God, the apostle John was in a family relationship with Jehovah God and with his Son, “the only-begotten god,” Jesus Christ. John and his fellow Christians responded to God’s fatherly affection with a filial love. That love was a “bond of union” between them and their invisible heavenly Father. It also cemented the spirit-begotten ones together as the spiritual sons of God and as Christian brothers and sisters. As we examine that “bond of union” today we see that it has proved to be “perfect,” for the members of the anointed remnant cleave together inseparably as fellow worshipers and witnesses of Jehovah God. This love keeps them in the family of God and in the Christian brotherhood. Noteworthily, their fellow worshipers at God’s temple, the “great crowd” of Christ’s “other sheep,” display the same unquenchable love that binds Jehovah’s Witnesses of today together so perfectly. Determinedly, may we share the conviction of the apostle Paul that no “creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”​—Romans 8:38, 39.

Clothing Ourselves With Love and Wearing It

1. What is the thing with which to clothe ourselves, and when is the greatest test of it to come?

SINCE love is a “perfect bond of union,” it is the all-important quality with which to clothe ourselves unhypocritically. We must wear it constantly in all sincerity. It is no cloak that disguises one’s real self. For our counsel today the inspired words have been preserved: “Let your love be without hypocrisy. . . . In brotherly love have tender affection for one another.” (Romans 12:9, 10) The greatest test of the genuineness of our love, this “bond of union,” is yet to come​—in the near future.

2. Is love attainable without anything preliminary?

² Now, then, is the opportune time for us to cultivate that love. All the steps that lead up to the attainment of that quality must be taken now. That is why the apostle Paul crowns his recommendation of various things that the dedicated, baptized disciples of Jesus Christ needed to do, by saying: “Besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.” (Colossians 3:14) So what are “these things” besides which we must clothe ourselves with love?

Overcoming Divisive Factors

3. According to Colossians 3:9-13, what are the steps that need to be taken toward the attainment of love?

³ Back there in the days of the apostles Paul and John there were features, or factors, that might have served as grounds for division. But those onetime valid grounds had now to be ignored, devalued as to their importance and weight. The Christians were all one congregation, one corporative unit under the one spiritual Head, Jesus Christ. All fleshly bases for making divisions had to be brushed aside. The unifying spiritual facts had to be kept to the fore. In keeping with this, the apostle Paul proceeded to say: “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all things and in all. Accordingly, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with the tender affections of compassion, kindness, lowliness of mind, mildness, and long-suffering. Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another.”​—Colossians 3:9-13.

4. Why was there need to get along with one another in the first-century congregation, and on what basis might certain things have been ignored?

⁴ With all the above-mentioned differences in national extraction and religious background, social standing, racial and color features, there were difficulties in getting along with one another in the congregation. There was need for understanding and for making allowances with regard to one another. For, though those things may have mattered with fleshly men, they certainly did not matter with God and with his Son Jesus Christ, who died for all mankind at a time when all these differences had grown up and still persisted. Of course, broad-minded men might, out of their own generosity of soul, have overlooked such differences, doing so on general principles. To do so might even have been good policy, no, rather, plain, downright humanity. Yet pure, unselfish love might be lacking.

5. Beyond what things of an ordinary human kind must Jehovah’s Witnesses go when ignoring divisive things, and thus demonstrate that they are in union with whom?

⁵ For that reason we dedicated, baptized followers of the One who gave his perfect human life in behalf of all sorts of men must go beyond mere formality, agreeableness, niceness, mannerliness, humane feeling; we must be motivated by sincere, disinterested love as a fruit of the spirit of Jehovah God. This fruit seeks the benefit and the gain of others. It is glad to make a contribution to the spiritual well-being and happiness of others. It demonstrates that we are in union with God, who is the embodiment of love. There is a drawing power in this love. In line with this 1 John 4:19 states: “We love, because he first loved us.”

6. By what are the members of the “one flock” attracted to one another, and on what is the fruit of God’s spirit not based?

⁶ Consequently, when the varied elements that make up the “one flock” under the “one shepherd” express love toward one another, it draws them tightly together and offsets the divisive influence of the various backgrounds of the members of the “one flock.” They are attracted to one another because of having clothed themselves with the “new personality.” They all have the “one spirit” that emanates from the one divine Source, the God and Life-Giver of all. The heartwarming fruit of his spirit is a love, not based on sex or selfish lustful desire, but based on the heartfelt appreciation of the godlike qualities of the “new personality.” It alone functions as a “perfect bond of union,” preserving harmony and cooperativeness.

United for a Special Work

7. Since 1914 there is need for what on the part of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and this in behalf of what work?

⁷ At this late date in “the conclusion of the system of things” since 1914, there is need for concerted action on the part of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are no part of this system of things. It is incumbent upon them to give a worldwide witness to the most important development in all human history. (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10) The situation must take on the outstanding feature that the apostle Paul mentions as notable in his day. Calling attention to this at Colossians 1:23, he said: “The hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven. Of this good news I Paul became a minister.” And now, all you ministers of the good news today, what about a similar creation-wide preaching of the good news that has been reserved for our own crucial time?