electricity went off, practically everything stopped. Soon this will happen, not to just one city, but city after city after city will break down​—the entire system of things will die! Under such circumstances, what is it vital that we exercise?

²⁷ Many hundreds of Jehovah’s witnesses in Nicaragua and in nearby countries demonstrated their intense love, as Awake! reported: “At once efforts were under way to care for these Witnesses [affected by the earthquake] and their families. The genuine love that exists among God’s people certainly manifested itself. By Saturday afternoon a Witness arrived with a truck and 300 gallons of water from a congregation sixteen miles away. . . . Then at 10 p.m. the first two truckloads of supplies arrived from Jehovah’s witnesses in Liberia, Costa Rica. A short time later, two more trucks arrived from Witnesses in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Thus food, clothing, medicines, water and gasoline were on hand within twenty-four hours or so after the disaster!”

28. (a) What can we learn from that Managuan experience? (b) In what other ways have Jehovah’s witnesses been receiving training in showing love for one another?

²⁸ We can learn from that experience. When great troubles and disasters are everywhere occurring, what we need most, above all things, is intense love for one another. And when we think about it, have we not, as Jehovah’s witnesses, been receiving training to face such circumstances? Regularly we meet together in assemblies, large and small, where we receive fine instruction and encouragement to love one another. Also, we have had cafeterias for feeding one another, and we have hospitably provided accommodations for fellow Christians in our homes. Really, what fine training in love and care for one another! But we must continue to express this marvelous quality of love with which God endowed humans, but which has been so distorted and perverted by about 6,000 years of sin and imperfection. It is vital that we continue to cultivate intense love for one another now, because the end of all things has drawn close.

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

“Have intense love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”​—1 Pet. 4:8.

1, 2. (a) What wrongs do we all commit, and why might we even commit them with greater frequency? (b) What will help us to overcome problems that occur?

HAVE you ever spoken sharply to someone, and immediately wished you had not? Or have you ever acted unkindly in some other way, and then felt sorry about it? No doubt all of us have. And as the pressures and hardships on us increase as the end of this system of things draws closer, the times when we hurt or offend one another may grow more frequent. So what should we do when problems occur?

² In seeking an answer it is helpful to take a closer look at what is said at 1 Peter 4:7, 8. There it mentions that, since the end of all things has drawn close, we should “be sound in mind,” “vigilant with a view to prayers,” but especially we should “have intense love for one another.” Now notice the reason given as to why this love is so important. The account says: “Because