Lessons from “the Disciple whom Jesus Loved” – Study 2021/02

“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]

There was not much to speak of for the first nine paragraphs, but the Organization just could not stick to the theme they had chosen. They just could not resist the temptation to twist the Apostle John’s course of life for their own ends and spoil the entire 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. However, 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 people there are more important things in life, such as their family life, having sufficient to be comfortable, and being respected. Only a minority strive to be rich and 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 attempt, much less give up such an attempt.
  • No lesson from the Apostle John can be learnt 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 recruiting one person. When they realise the Organization is training them to preach lies they wake up. It is painful to come to the realization that they 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 can be learnt here.
• The Study article would not be complete without a plug for donating your time free of charge to the Organization. It also comes with a plug to continue donating money to support the Organization. Paragraph 11 states: “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.” .
  • The message is, if you cannot preach full-time then you should help financially support those who want to live off of their fellow witnesses. But, again, did the Apostle John do this? In the first century there were no construction projects, no fund for the worldwide work. Furthermore, any disaster relief was given directly by the Christians to their fellow needy Christians. They did not give disaster relief monies to some unaccountable Organization.
  • No lesson from the Apostle John to be learnt from here. The real lesson that can be learnt is the following: 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, sadly, that is an illusion. Many brothers and sisters do these things to look good in front of others and to try to prove themselves righteous. (para. 11). In this they may succeed temporarily, but they do not become good.
  • Finally, this is at least one lesson we all can learn from the Apostle John. The Apostle John 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 can be learnt 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 more important lesson that the congregations can learn.
  • However we should note that the cited encouragement comes from the Apostle Paul! (Hebrews 10:24-25).

In summary, another missed opportunity to impart real beneficial spiritual food to the brotherhood. Instead, we have been served bland spiritual food without any nutrition. Only 1 points out of 6 had anything to do with the Apostle John, and the Bible record of his actions, with 1 point from the Apostle Paul.