Your sensitive conscience will help to guide you.

²⁷ Truly there is satisfaction in having and being able to use the God-given faculty of conscience. It is a blessing. When it is kept properly sensitive, balanced by God’s Word, it can assist you in walking wisely before God and men. (2 Cor. 4:2) It can serve as a witness-bearer that you are conducting yourself in a way likely to have Jehovah’s everlasting approval.​—2 Cor. 1:12.

A Highly Favored Family​—Why?

WOULD it not be an honor for a family to have as one of its members a man who could provide the means for bringing lasting relief from sickness, pain, insecurity and violence? Over nineteen centuries ago there was such a family. It was the family into which Jesus, the Messiah or Christ, was born.

Of all the families then in existence, why was this one so highly favored? Was it because of its prominence, wealth or outstanding achievements in the Roman world? We should not expect that to be the case. Because Jehovah God does not judge by outward appearances but examines the heart​—its motivations and desires. (1 Sam. 16:7) A consideration of the Biblical record about the human relatives of the man Jesus can, therefore, aid us in seeing what the Creator looks for in those whom he approves as his servants.

MARY

The Messiah was to come through the royal line of David. And it was a modest and humble woman of the Davidic line, Mary the daughter of Heli,a whom Jehovah chose to be the mother of his Son. When told of this, Mary, with due modesty, replied: “Look! Jehovah’s slave girl!” For her to become pregnant as an engaged virgin could have raised questions in the minds of others about her professed chastity. Nevertheless, she humbly consented to God’s will, saying to the angel Gabriel: “May it take place with me according to your declaration.” (Luke 1:38) Evidently, strong faith in Jehovah God made her confident that willing submission to his will could never lead to harm.

Mary was devoted to true worship. Though, being a woman, she was not obligated by the Mosaic law to be present for the festival of the passover, yet she customarily attended that festival at Jerusalem along with her husband Joseph. (Luke 2:41; Ex. 23:17; 34:23) Her appreciation for spiritual things did not diminish with the passing of years. In fact, she became a loyal disciple of Jesus Christ.