Lessons from “the Disciple whom Jesus Loved”

“Let us continue loving one another, because love is from God.” 1 John 4:7

 [Study 2 from ws 1/21 p.8, March 8 – March 14, 2021]

All was good for the first nine paragraphs, but the Organization just could not stick to the theme and resist the temptation to twist the Apostle John’s course of life for their own ends and spoil the Watchtower study article.

All was good for the first nine paragraphs, but the Organization just could not stick to the theme and resist the temptation to twist the Apostle John’s course of life for their own ends and spoil the Watchtower study article.

We find the usual culprit statements such as:

• “Satan’s system would have you spend all your time and energy on yourself, trying to make money or to make a name for yourself.” (para. 10) Really? I am sure Satan would like us to do that, but out of the hundreds of non-Witnesses I know and some of whom I work with, only a few individuals spend all their time and energy on themselves, trying to make as much money as possible or trying to make a name for themselves. For most there are more important things in life, such as their family life, having sufficient to be comfortable, as opposed to being rich and being respected, rather than famous. Furthermore, Did the apostle John really give up an attempt to make lots of money or a name for himself? There is no evidence that he made such an attempt, much less give up such an attempt. No lesson from the Apostle John to be learned from here.
• “Some are even able to preach and teach full-time.” (para. 10) Translation: Some are able to spend their lives preaching for the Organization, often without getting one recruit, until they realize the Organization is training them to preach lies. They then realize they have wasted 1,000’s of hours for no benefit to God, themselves or the ones to who they spoke. Again, is there evidence that John gave up secular work and just preached for the rest of his life? The scriptures do not indicate this. No lesson from the Apostle John to be learned from here.
• The Study article would not be complete without a plug for donating time free of charge and also donating money to support the Organization: “faithful publishers support God’s organization in any way they can. For instance, some are able to provide disaster relief, others can work on construction projects, and everyone has the opportunity to donate funds to the worldwide work.” (para. 11). The message is, if you cannot preach full-time then you should help financially support those who want to live off of you. But, again, did the Apostle John do this. In the first century, there were no construction projects, no worldwide work fund, and any disaster relief was given directly to the needy Christians by their fellow Christians, not via some unaccountable Organization. No lesson from the Apostle John to be learned from here. The lesson that can be learned is, do not be fooled into parting with your time and money by an Organization that does not follow the example of first-century Christians.
• “They do these things because they love God and their fellow man.” No, that is an illusion. Many do these things to look good in front of others and to try to prove themselves righteous. (para. 11). Finally, this is at least one lesson we all can learn from the Apostle John. He did love God and Christ and his fellow man.
• “Each week, we prove that we love our brothers and sisters by attending congregation meetings and participating in them. Although we may be tired, we are present at those meetings. Although we may be nervous, we comment.” Is that really true? Or is it not the case that most attend because they believe that attending will mean God will allow them through Armageddon? As for participating or commenting, our congregation rarely, if ever, has more than 25% of the audience attempt to participate. (para. 11). No lesson from the Apostle John to be learned from here. There is no evidence of formal meetings, nor the format of any such gatherings during the first century found in the scriptures.
• “And although we all have problems of our own, we encourage others before or after the meeting.” True, we all like encouragement, but very few try to encourage anyone at all, even the elders. Months go by without some elders speaking to me and we do not have a big congregation. (para. 11). Given the reality, that the congregations which are truly loving and warm, and encouraging are rare, then this is one lesson we all can learn from the Apostle John.

In summary, another missed opportunity to impart real beneficial spiritual food to the brotherhood. Instead, we were served bland spiritual food without any nutrition. Only 2 points out of 6 had anything to do with the Apostle John and the Bible record of his actions.

Tadua

Articles by Tadua.