some of them even in the fortieth and last year, Paul commented: “Now these things went on befalling them as examples and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the accomplished ends of the systems of things have arrived. Consequently, let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall. No temptation has taken you except what is common to men” and under which men have fallen. (1 Cor. 10:11-13) From the youngest to the oldest of us in the truth, from the average congregation member to the congregation servant or overseer, we all should never trust ourselves but should maintain a strict watch always on how we walk, that we may not fall calamitously. What a calamity it would be to be disfellowshiped from Jehovah’s congregation and suffer eternal destruction!—1 Cor 5:9-13.

UNDOING OF MINISTERS BY BAD MORALS

19. The need of vigilance is emphasized by what increase in the percentage of delinquents in North American congregations?

¹⁹ The need of constant, prayerful vigilance is emphasized by information from the Service Department at the Brooklyn headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. This has to do with those dedicated baptized members belonging to the thousands of congregations in the United States of North America. For each of the five years from March, 1952, to April, 1957, there was an average of 500 members that were disfellowshiped for flagrant misdeeds that cannot be tolerated inside of Jehovah’s congregation. However, during the year from April, 1957, to April, 1958, the number rose sharply above that yearly average of 500, to 1,334 delinquent members, or more than two and a half times as many. We dare not dull the shock of this startling information by arguing that this may, in part, be due to the American congregations’ having at least 18,537 new persons associating themselves with the witnessing activities during those twelve months. That number of new ones is less than one twelfth of the 226,797 that proclaimed the Kingdom good news in America during April of 1958, about 65 percent of which proclaimers are dedicated and baptized. So what are 1,334 delinquents compared with more than 147,000 dedicated, baptized members? Less than 1 percent.

20. Though it be a matter of less than 1 percent, yet what fear-inspiring warning is thereby sounded to all of us?

²⁰ Though 1,334 may be less than 1 percent, this sudden jump to that number definitely discloses that more than twice as many as in previous years have failed to watch themselves and act wisely during the wicked days of 1957-1958. With 3,718 or more congregations functioning in the United States of North America, about one out of every three congregations could be affected by 1,334 disfellowshipings. Hence the fact that so many congregations have been affected and the number of disfellowshipings has more than doubled during 1957-1958 sounds a fear-inspiring warning to all of us to beware that hereafter we be not the ones to fall.

21. How may one misapply James 4:4 to practicing the clean, undefiled form of worship and thus sin?

²¹ The New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses must keep practicing the clean, undefiled form of worship. The Christian disciple James plainly describes this for us: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world. Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 1:27; 4:4) It is a perverted idea for anyone to think that he can keep himself without spot from this world by not engaging in its politics and by maintaining his neutrality toward its conflicts and in this way not be a friend of the world and not be a spiritual adulterer and yet at the same time can commit literal physical adultery or fornication, thus sinning against his own body.

22. How may one take part in fulfilling Matthew 24:14 and yet pervertedly fall into a sin like that of Balaam’s?

²² It is likewise a perverted idea that just as long as one fulfills the prophetic command of Matthew 24:14 and reports much time at witnessing out in the field of service, one can indulge in bodily immorality with those of the opposite sex. Remember that the prophet Balaam was used by Jehovah as a mouthpiece to utter prophecy in a blessing upon the nation of Israel, but that later Balaam was killed for trying to promote sex worship and immorality in Israel at the close of forty years in the wilderness.—Num. 23:4 to 24:25; 25:1-3; 31:1-8, 15, 16; Rev. 2:14.

23. How did Paul show that Christian morality is a joint requirement with preaching?

²³ Personal witnessing to God’s kingdom is indeed a requirement for eternal life, but Christian morality is also a joint requirement. Paul cried out: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!” but just some sentences later he added: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow. . . . Neither let us practice fornication, as some of them [the Israelites] committed fornication, only to fall, twenty-three thousand of them in one day.”—1 Cor. 9:16, 27; 10:8.

24. By committing physical immorality, whose friend does one make himself, and hence what other kind of immorality is it also?

²⁴ Let no one deceive himself: Committing adultery or fornication is a making of oneself a friend of the world. It is therefore a committing of spiritual adultery or fornication also. It certainly is not a making of oneself a friend of God or of his congregation. It is an imitating of this world, using the world as a model. It is a display of the spirit of the world. It is a proof of love of this wicked world, “because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father [Jehovah God], but originates with the world.” (1 John 2:16) Therefore, immorality demonstrates that the fornicator belongs to the world and is a misplaced person inside the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

25. By what two drastic acts did Jehovah illustrate what must be done with such immoral members of the congregation?

²⁵ Jehovah cut off 23,000 fornicators from his congregation, not in a year, but in one day. Fornicators have to be disfellowshiped from his congregation. He even cut off, during the battle near Shiloh, the two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of High Priest Eli, because they would wickedly commit adultery with the women that were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with reproach to Jehovah God.—1 Sam. 2:12, 22-25; 3:13, 14; 4:4-11, 17.

26. (a) What does Paul say to show whether there are other sins for which disfellowshiping is needed? (b) What should be the heart condition and the procedure of one who wakes up to his wrongdoing?

²⁶ There are other sins besides fornication for which disfellowshiping is the need. Paul wrote the congregation: “I am writing you to quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. . . . Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Cor. 5:11, 13) If anyone commits sin deserving of disfellowshiping but wakes up to the baseness of his wrongdoing and how far he has displeased God, what should be his heart condition? A grieved one; he should be painfully grieved and should repent. He should confess his sin not only to God, who already knows of it from observation, but also to God’s visible organization through its local theocratically appointed servants. It is a critical time to seek reconciliation with God and his people through Christ, appealing for mercy. In harmony with this, the Scriptural advice is: “Is there anyone [spiritually] sick among you? Let him call the older men of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, rubbing him with oil in the name of Jehovah. And the prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and Jehovah will raise him up. Also if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Therefore openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed.” (Jas. 5:14-16) This course of self-humiliation and confession of spiritual need assists the sinner to reconciliation with God. It helps him to keep strict watch thereafter on how he walks before God.

Helpers Toward Walking Wisely

1. How must overseers carry out the command of Isaiah 58:1, and how does Matthew 18:15 set a course for them?

SPIRITUAL overseers must watch strictly how the congregations under their charge walk or conduct themselves. It is not enough to carry out the command of Isaiah 58:1 with reference only to Christendom: “Call out full-throated; do not hold back. Raise your voice just like a trumpet, and tell my people their transgression. and the house of Jacob [Israel] their sins.’ The theocratic overseers should not merely call attention to sinfulness in the enemy organization of Christendom. They must be impartial, balanced and just in applying a principle. Hence they must call attention to any transgressions and sins even in the congregations over which they have the oversight. If the overseer observes some offense or receives the report of some offense committed by any member against the congregation, then the overseer has something against the offender; for what affects the congregation affects him. He must investigate the matter and take steps concerning it in the spirit of Matthew 18:15: “Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go lay bare his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”

2. In that case, what does the congregation servant have the right and obligation to do, and what is the primary purpose of such action?

² Accordingly the congregation servant, together with the other members of the congregation service committee, has the right and is under obligation to summon the offender, or apparent offender, in order to come to a factual understanding of what has gone on. He must establish directly the guilt or guiltlessness of the apparent