“This is what the love of God means”

Today’s “Daily Text” was on 1 John 5:3 that reads in part: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments”. The comment from the “faithful and discreet slave” (Matthew 24:45-47) gives an example of this. Under the Mosaic Law, Hebrews that were slaves were set free at a certain time. But according to Exodus 21:5,6 such slave could say, “You know what, I don’t want to be set free”. What could possibly compel someone to do that? For love. If his master had been considerate with him, which was law, he could remain under his authority. That is also what compels us to dedicate our lives to Jehovah and live in accordance with that dedication. The apostle Paul wrote under inspiration in his letter to the Christians in Rome: “None of us, in fact, lives with regard to himself only, and no one dies with regard to himself only; for both if we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. Therefore both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah.” BEAUTIFUL WORDS! That type of love does not look for its own interests (1 Corinthians 13:4,5). And so when we deal with others, our love of divine principles as well as love for our neighbor compels us to ‘consider them superior to us’, putting their interest ahead of our own (Philippians 2:2,3).

The rest of the scripture brings another point. The latter part of 1 John 5:3 reads: “And yet, his commandments are not burdensome”. This one circuit overseer brought out an interesting point on this scripture. He mentioned how we Jehovah’s Witnesses are busy people. We have five meetings in two days (Hebrews 10:24,25), which we have to prepare for; we deepen our understanding of the Holy Scriptures with a personal study (Ecclesiastes 7:12), if one has a family, a Family Worship Night is held weekly (Deuteronomy 6:6-9), which one also has to prepare for, we have our daily reading of the Bible (Psalm 1:1-3), we have three new magazines every month to read before we present them to the public (Philippians 4:8), we dedicate a certain amount of hours per week to preach the “good news”, cultivate interest by returning to the householder, and conduct home Bible studies, which we also have to prepare for (Matthew 24:14; 28:19,20), we dedicate time to offer heartfelt prayer to Jehovah to strengthen our faith (Luke 18:1-8), we dedicate time to visit our brothers and those who are ill and elderly (Galatians 6:10; James 1:27), and those who serve as overseers have other responsibilities as well as these mentioned (Acts 20:28).

The brother (mentioned above) said that one may think, “Well we have a lot to do!” And yes, we do. And to some it may seem like it’s too much, that it is ‘burdensome’. But the brother reminded us of what 1 John 5:3 says, that “his commandments are not burdensome”. He then continued, “Do you know what is burdensome? Neglecting such things. If we procrastinate, leave things for the last minute, or simply neglecting our study, preparation, etcetera, we will feel burdened. But if we have a theocratic schedule, which many do, these things bring so much satisfaction! Jehovah never gives us what we cannot accomplish. These activities invigorate our lives. By the end of the day, we probably will feel tired and exhausted, but with a gratification that NOTHING else can give us. A satisfaction that we accomplished something, and something that is worth the effort, for we strengthened our relationship with our Creator, proving the inspired words of the apostle John; and that we have pleased him. And that fact alone is worth the world.