that of a hireling. No; but he watched as a Christlike undershepherd who loved both the Chief Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd’s sheep. Paul was one really desiring to see others live and enjoy God’s undeserved kindness along with himself. He really loved his neighbor and hence did not neglect his neighbor’s interests so as to become accountable for the blood of his neighbor if shed in God’s execution. He was a real lifesaver for the joy, privilege and good results of it. He appreciated the danger of his imperiled neighbor and felt obligated to do something about it with the means with which God had entrusted him. So he wanted to rescue his neighbor from perishing, if his neighbor would accept Paul’s help.

40. How did Paul set the pattern for us for gaining the happiness that Jesus enjoyed?

⁴⁰ This sets the pattern for us today. If we proceed in this unselfish, self-denying way, at our own cost, in order that we may help others to gain eternal life, we learn to know how true Jesus’ words are that Paul quoted: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” To help the weak, there is refreshing happiness in giving of oneself, giving one’s own strength with which one has been made strong by God. There is no happiness in receiving what would amount to blood money, money that would silence our mouths from giving warning and from giving “all the counsel of God.” There is no happiness in bearing bloodguilt toward anyone, only a self-condemning conscience. Paul wanted happiness. We do, too.

OUR DUTY AND COURSE TODAY

41. Why are we anxious to help others get saved from death and destruction?

⁴¹ We lovers of salvation are eager to share salvation with others. Escaping from death and destruction at God’s hands, we are anxious to have others saved from such a calamity. Like Jehovah God, we as his ministers and watchmen say: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? . . . and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?” (Ezek. 18:23, AS) So, like God, we desire to help the wicked to return from his way and live. We do not enjoy the prospect of being stained with the blood of the perishing, for we know we should be called to account for this as lazy watchmen. We work for Christlike happiness, for this happiness means everlasting life.

42. Why do we live in a day in which we are liable for blood, and what, therefore, dare we not do?

⁴² As in Paul’s day, which was shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea and the dispersal of the Jewish nation, we today live at a time when the blood of our fellow nationals and our fellow creatures is involved. The “war of the great day of God the Almighty” impends, and at the battlefield of Armageddon the judgment of God against all who refuse and oppose the message of God’s kingdom will be executed. As a world community they will settle their blood account with God by their own blood, as Jerusalem did and as Babylon did. (Matt. 23:33-38; Jer. 51:3, 4, 48, 49) If we care to survive the judgment war and live into God’s new world we must keep “clean from the blood of all men.” It is not God’s will that this doomed world be left in ignorance, for which lack of knowledge they will perish. With our Bible knowledge, we dare not leave the people in ignorance, unless they choose to remain in it. We must warn them of Armageddon and of Gog of Magog who leads mankind to fight there against God and Christ. We dare not leave the people able to plead ignorance before God because of our having failed to exert ourselves to give them the message of salvation.

43. How earnest ought we to be about this, and how must we declare, without holding back, “all the counsel of God”?

⁴³ Like Paul, we must be as earnest in warning and enlightening the people as if this were our last advice to the endangered ones. It is coming to that! Like Paul, we are charged by God through Christ to preach the good news of God’s kingdom, but now of God’s kingdom set up in power. (Matt. 24:14) We must do this for a witness and a warning, before the old world’s end comes. We must not hold back from telling “all the counsel of God.” Like Paul, who says to us: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ,” we must do this by preaching publicly and teaching from house to house.—1 Cor. 11:1.

44. If we do this, what shall we be able to say at the time of rendering account, and with what consequences to ourselves?

⁴⁴ If we do so, then what? We shall, at the brink of Armageddon, be able to take up Paul’s words and to say unashamed to all the world: “I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men, for I have not held back from telling you all the counsel of God.” Thus we shall not die with any bloodguilt. With clean hands and heads and records we shall be ushered into God’s innocent new world of life and happiness for evermore.

Seeking to Do the Divine Will on Earth

JEHOVAH God is perfect in wisdom and justice, almighty in power and wholly unselfish. Since that is so, it is sheer folly to presume to oppose his divine will. All wise persons therefore will be in the frame of mind of the apostle Paul when he wrote: “Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with every good thing to do his will, performing in us through Jesus Christ that which is well-pleasing in his sight.”—Heb. 13:20, 21.a

That the divine will cannot be successfully opposed can be clearly seen from the pages of history as recorded in God’s Word, the Bible. Repeatedly it tells of mighty rulers being made to know that Jehovah God is supreme. In particular does it tell of God manifesting his supremacy in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Jehovah did this, first of all, by causing Nebuchadnezzar to dream about a great image, to forget the dream and then to have Daniel tell Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar was also made to bow to the divine will at the time he had the three Hebrew youths cast into a crucible. And in a most decisive manner did Jehovah make Nebuchadnezzar bow to the divine will by causing that proud pagan monarch to become insane, to eat grass like an ox, for “seven times,” after which Nebuchadnezzar regained his reason and acknowledged the supremacy of the divine will in human affairs.

Concerning those who appreciate these truths Daniel wrote: “He [the dictatorial ruling power] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant; but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And those among the people who are wise shall make many understand, though they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, for some days. When they fall, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery; and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end.”—Dan. 11:32-35, RS.

As Christian witnesses of Jehovah we do indeed know our God. He is the Most High, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, whose name alone is Jehovah. The more we study his Word privately and with others in the Christian congregation, the more we engage in the ministry of making known his name and kingdom, and the more we commune with him in prayer, the better we shall get to know him and the more fully we shall be able to do the divine will on earth. Then we shall be able to stand so firm that the agents of Satan will not succeed in seducing us with flattery. Then also, we shall be taking faithful action and not be like those that violate the covenant by compromising.

Who are those that “join themselves to them with flattery”? Those who associate with the