Chapter 15

A Return to the True God

“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”​—John 13:34, 35.

1, 2. What should be the effects of love among true Christians?

WITH those words, Jesus established a criterion for those claiming to be his true followers. Christian love would have to transcend all racial, tribal, and national divisions. It would require that true Christians should be “no part of the world,” just as Jesus was, and is, “no part of the world.”​—John 17:14, 16; Romans 12:17-21.

² How does the Christian show himself to be “no part of the world”? For example, how should he act with regard to the turbulent politics, revolutions, and wars of our times? The Christian apostle John wrote, in harmony with Jesus’ words above: “Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should have love for one another.” And Jesus himself explained why his disciples did not fight to deliver him, saying: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought . . . But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” Even with Jesus’ life at stake, those attendants did not get involved in settling the controversy according to the warring ways of the world.​—1 John 3:10-12; John 18:36.

3, 4. (a) What did Isaiah prophesy regarding “the final part of the days”? (b) What questions require an answer?

³ Over 700 years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied that people of all nations would gather to Jehovah’s true worship and would learn war no more. He said: “And it must occur in the final part of the days that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, . . . and to it all the nations must stream. And many peoples will certainly go and say: ‘Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.”a​—Isaiah 2:2-4.

⁴ Which of all the religions in the world has been outstanding in meeting these requirements? Who have refused to learn war in spite of prisons, concentration camps, and death sentences?

Christian Love and Neutrality

5. What record of Christian neutrality have Jehovah’s Witnesses established as individuals, and why?

⁵ Jehovah’s Witnesses are known worldwide for their individual conscientious stand of Christian neutrality. They have endured prisons, concentration camps, torture, deportations, and persecution throughout the 20th century because they have refused to sacrifice their love and unity as a worldwide congregation of Christians drawn to God. In Nazi Germany during the years 1933-45, about a thousand Witnesses died and thousands were imprisoned, on account of their refusal to cooperate with Hitler’s war effort. Likewise, under Franco in formerly Fascist Spain, hundreds of young Witnesses went to prison and many spent an average of ten years each in military prisons rather than learn war. To this day in several countries, many young Witnesses of Jehovah languish in prisons because of their stand on Christian neutrality. However, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not interfere with the governments in their military programs. The Witnesses’ unwavering Christian neutrality in political matters has been one of the constants of their beliefs throughout all the conflicts and wars of the 20th century. It stamps them as true followers of Christ and separates them from Christendom’s religions.​—John 17:16; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

6, 7. What have Jehovah’s Witnesses come to understand regarding Christianity?

⁶ By holding to the Bible and to the example of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses demonstrate they are practicing the worship of the true God, Jehovah. They recognize God’s love as reflected in the life and sacrifice of Jesus. They understand that true Christian love results in an indivisible worldwide brotherhood​—above political, racial, and national divisions. In other words, Christianity is more than international; it is supranational, transcending national boundaries, authority, or interests. It views the human race as one family with a common progenitor and with a common Creator, Jehovah God.​—Acts 17:24-28; Colossians 3:9-11.

[Box on page 347]

Christian Neutrality in Pagan Rome

In accordance with the principles of love and peace that Jesus taught, and based on their personal study of God’s Word, early Christians would not participate in wars or in training for them. Jesus had said: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.”​—John 18:36.

At as late a date as 295 C.E., Maximilianus of Theveste, son of a Roman army veteran, was conscripted for military service. When the proconsul asked him his name, he answered: “Now, why do you want to know my name? I have a conscientious objection to military service: I am a Christian. . . . I can’t serve; I can’t sin against my conscience.” The proconsul warned him that he would lose his life if he did not obey. “I won’t serve. You may behead me, but I won’t serve the powers of This World; I will serve my God.”​—An Historian’s Approach to Religion, by Arnold Toynbee.

In modern times, personal study of the Bible has led individual Witnesses of Jehovah worldwide to follow the dictates of conscience in taking a similar stand. In some countries many paid the supreme price, especially in Nazi Germany, where they were shot, hanged, and beheaded during World War II. But their worldwide unity, based on Christian love, has never been broken. No one has ever died in war at the hands of one of the Christian Witnesses of Jehovah. How different world history might have been if every professing Christian had also lived by Christ’s rule of love!​—Romans 13:8-10; 1 Peter 5:8, 9.