the rest of the human family. She became the mother of Isaac, and thus an ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise a Christian wife can subject herself to her husband and do so with hope in God, in whose eyes she adorns herself with a “quiet and mild spirit” toward her husband. This may work for not only her own salvation but that of her husband and of others.

35, 36. (a) During the existence of this world, to what are we all obliged to subject ourselves, and to what extent? (b) How is this a safeguard and an advantage?

³⁵ Not all of us who are Christian witnesses of Jehovah are human slaves or wives and thus bound to render subjection in those spheres. But, as long as we are in this old world by God’s permission, we are under political governments. As long as God lets these continue existing, we are bound, “for the Lord’s sake” and according to “the will of God,” to subject ourselves to “every human creation.” Neither Peter nor Paul leaves us in any doubt about it that this subjecting of ourselves to these worldly political institutions is only relative, subject at all times to a Christian conscience instructed in God’s Word. When we render such relative subjection, we avoid rousing indignation on the part of the people subject to the kings, emperors and governors because of our failing to show due honor to their rulers.

³⁶ Not only will our relative subjection please such people, but it will especially please God. It will be a safeguard for us against joining in political conspiracies or rebellions against constituted authorities, even when we are persecuted for being Christian witnesses of Jehovah. It will disarm the enemies of God’s kingdom that we are preaching, for they will have no real fault to find or to prove against us except it be with regard to the law of our God.

37. So what will we all be found doing now everywhere, and where will our subjection to government be total earth-wide?

³⁷ Wherever we live, under whatever form of government of men we live, we shall always be found doing good and glorifying God. In his new world of righteousness after the universal war of God’s great day, we shall have the honor and joy of subjecting ourselves totally to the only government then in full control of the earth, that of God’s kingdom by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Christianity and Comfortable Religion

✔ Writing in the Victoria Colonist, January 28, 1961, clergyman Frank S. Morley lamented the softness of modern-day ministers compared to heroic first-century Christians. “Reading a religious journal the other day,” he wrote, “I came on some advertisements worded to lure ministers to church vacancies. One boasted ‘Furnished manse, oil-heated . . . paved roads, modern schools.’ Another: ‘Beautiful church, excellent manse—10 minutes drive to university.’ So they went, ‘fully furnished manse,’ ‘comfortable, brick, oil-heated manse,’ ‘a comfortable parsonage, oil-heated, new garage, close to high and public schools.’”

Morley called to mind that when Paul received a call to go to Macedonia, “lacking the cautious approach of his successors today, Paul got hold of Barnabas and ‘immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia.’” (Acts 16:10) They suffered mobbings, beatings, imprisonments, deprivations, hardship and yet rejoiced in their ministerial assignments. How different are modern clergymen from first-century Christians!