12. What choice does every true Christian face?

¹² One’s choice of a life course of action is a personal responsibility, even as Moses indicated: “I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction, and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring.” But how, now, may one choose life? By following the course outlined for a true Christian, “by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him, for he is your life and the length of your days.” We choose life by dedicating ourselves wholly to Jehovah with the expectation of obeying him forever and carrying our load of responsibility.—Deut. 30:19, 20.

13. (a) What decision did Joshua make? (b) In our day, what happens to those who neglect choosing aright?

¹³ Joshua, also, candidly showed the personal choice required for giving exclusive devotion to Jehovah. “Now if it is bad in your eyes to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods that your forefathers who were on the other side of the River served or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling. But as for me and my household, we shall serve Jehovah.” (Josh. 24:15) Every undedicated person has the same freedom to choose. This choice will determine his destiny, whether it will be life or death. In this day of Jehovah’s power, if one refuses to dedicate himself to serve Jehovah his life will permanently end at Armageddon (if not before) as a condemned sinner. In coming to the point where one wishes to serve Jehovah with his whole heart, soul and mind, the question is not, ‘Shall I make a dedication?’ Dedication to do God’s will is the course previously outlined by Christ Jesus. One should therefore ask oneself, Do I have the proper understanding of Jehovah’s will and what he requires in order for me to agree to be a true footstep follower of Christ Jesus, to do Jehovah’s will from now on? In coming to that proper understanding, there is no hesitation on the part of the individual who sincerely wants to serve Jehovah. This positive forward step is outlined by Jehovah. To attain life one must take that step. One who agrees to be a footstep follower of Christ and performs that agreement is truly a Christian. Such dedication the obedient follower of Christ then publicly confesses or symbolizes before others by water baptism.

WHAT DEDICATION MEANS TO YOU

14. (a) What precedes dedication? (b) What follows dedication? (c) What is included in one’s dedication to Jehovah?

¹⁴ Before dedication comes a searching of the soul. One must realize that his dedicating himself must be a ‘turning to Jehovah.’ It means a repenting or turning away from the disobedient, sinful way of life in the old world in which one has lived up to this point. As a sinner, the repentant one sees himself now from Jehovah’s viewpoint. He recognizes Jehovah’s loving provision of Christ Jesus as the Redeemer, Purchaser or Ransomer. He recognizes that through exercising faith in the purchasing or redeeming value of the shed blood of Christ Jesus he can be properly brought into harmony or oneness with the Holy One, Jehovah. Then a change takes place. This is not a miraculous change, but is the start of a new mental attitude that from now on shapes one’s life course as a firm and willing doer of God’s revealed will. In this respect dedication marks a decision that must be carried out. When an individual dedicates his life to Jehovah he expects Jehovah to live up to his promises, and there is no question that Jehovah will do so. Jehovah, too, expects the one whom he receives to carry out his dedication. There is no such thing as a partial dedication; that is, to hold back, or a deciding within one’s own mind to dedicate to Jehovah in any limited manner. Nothing may be permitted to jeopardize the completeness of his dedication. So truly a serious responsibility accompanies this dedication to Jehovah. An individual may not be lulled into the frame of mind that preaching God’s Word is merely discretionary. The ministerial work is an obligatory part of the assignment to work, just as it was in the case of Christ Jesus. The time of his dedication marked the beginning of his ministerial work and never did he digress or permit anything to interfere with his new course of life that he had determined and agreed to perform.

15. To what may dedication be likened?

¹⁵ Since this marked the beginning, it may be likened to the individual’s birthday; that is, the beginning of his new life. Prior to this time only a very small measure of human life was enjoyed, and that was under condemnation because of our being patterned in Adam’s fallen state.

16, 17. (a) How should newly dedicated persons view this important step? (b) What will be the objective of the newly dedicated person?

¹⁶ Just as a child, the individual must be eager to learn and continue learning to grow to maturity. We observe how a child is eager to imitate his parents; and then, too, we see what a driving force a child possesses to reach manhood or womanhood. In fact, he is willing to study eagerly to do so. A child’s mind is alert to acquire knowledge because he does not have a desire to remain in infancy or even in a state of adolescence. So the “newly born” Christian should view his life ahead.

¹⁷ Children are always anxious to escape just a milk diet or that of softened food. They are anxious to eat the solid food that they observe their parents partaking of, because they recognize that solid food belongs to mature people. And so it is with Christians, as counseled by Paul: “But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong. For this reason, now that we have left the elementary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying a foundation again, namely, repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, the teaching on baptisms and the laying on of the hands, the resurrection of the dead and everlasting judgment.”—Heb. 5:14–6:2.

18. What should the dedicated one pursue? What will bring joy to his heart?

¹⁸ The Christian should eagerly pursue knowledge so he might gain spiritual maturity and be better able to carry out his dedication and then help others, and in that manner help them to life. It can be likened to young people growing to manhood or womanhood. When they reach this state of maturity and marry, they bring new children into the world. So it is with mature Christians. By their saying, “Come!” they bring others, and then the new hearers turn from their former course of action, and likewise study and come to the point of dedicating their lives to do Jehovah’s will. Christian maturity is a wonderful, happy condition to live in and to observe.

19. Why is a serious counting of the cost important for one who contemplates dedication?

¹⁹ In weighing the matter of dedication an individual might think, ‘I could not possibly do this ministerial work or share in it; yet I love God and I will serve him. I will give him full recognition in my life, but as for complete dedication, I just cannot do that.’ At first such may be one’s thoughts; but if a person is in that frame of mind, then he should continue studying, taking in accurate knowledge, because more mature thinking will help him to reach the proper decision. This is truly a vital decision. It can be likened to a man who, in looking toward the future, plans to build a house. But even in constructing a home the man must sit down and count the cost, just as Jesus stated: “For example, who of you that wants to build a tower does not first sit down and figure out the expense, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, he might lay its foundation but not have the funds to finish it, and all the onlookers might start to ridicule him, saying: ‘This man started to build but had not the funds to finish.’” In making a dedication it means that the individual should count the cost of taking such a course and holding to it to the finish, and do so soberly and diligently.—Luke 14:28-30.

DEDICATION BRINGS HAPPINESS

20. What are some of Jehovah’s blessings for dedicated servants? And what brings joy?

²⁰ Then why not measure what you forsake alongside what you are promised by Jehovah? (Matt. 19:27-29) Stop and think about it! What good things do you have that you did not receive from Jehovah in the first place, including the power of rendering devotion, praise and willing service? These are the things that you will happily dedicate to Jehovah, even your whole self, to serve him. These are willingly given to Jehovah through the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, for the unspeakable privileges and blessings that are continually bestowed upon God’s dedicated servants. However, bear in mind that this gives the individual the authority to be called by and to speak in Jehovah’s name as one of His witnesses. In this doomed and dying old world, these dedicated servants of God are the happiest people living. In fact, such people expect to survive God’s universal war at Armageddon and confidently expect to live forever in an earthwide paradise of perfection. Much, then, depends upon one’s making a dedication, and then everything depends upon one’s faithfulness to that dedication. Maintaining integrity and faithfully living up to one’s dedication vows brings supreme happiness. Failure to do so brings despair.

21. How extensive must dedication be?

²¹ The full impact and importance of dedication can seemingly be summed up in Jesus’ words: “Thus, you may be sure, none of you that does not say good-bye to all his belongings can be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33) Nothing may be permitted to interfere with dedication. This can include the wife of a man, or the husband of a woman, or a family or anything else of this world that might be held dear. Dedication of oneself to Jehovah must be unequivocal in its scope. The individual is duty-bound to render exclusive devotion to Jehovah.

“Under the Thumb of the Mass”

“The modern man,” says Dr. Albert Schweitzer, “is lost in the mass in a way which is without precedent in history. . . . His diminished concern about his own nature makes him as it were susceptible, to an extent that is almost pathological, to the views which society and its organs of expression have put, ready-made, into circulation. Since, over and above this, society, with its well-constructed organization, has become a power of as yet unknown strength in the spiritual life, man’s want of independence in the face of it has been so serious that he is almost ceasing to claim a spiritual existence of his own. He is like a rubber ball which has lost its elasticity, and preserves indefinitely every impression that is made upon it. He is under the thumb of the mass, and he draws from it the opinions on which he lives, whether the question at issue is national or political or one of his own belief or unbelief.”—The Decay and Restoration of Civilization.