Word, God’s loving gift to humankind, come down from heaven to bear witness to the truth, and as the loving Shepherd. All of this God caused to be written so that ‘we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that, because of believing, we may have everlasting life by means of his name’​—provided we prove ourselves his friends by doing what he commands!​—John 20:31; 15:14.

Peace with Others Essential for Happiness

AN INSPIRED poet of ancient times wrote: “Look! How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! . . . It is like the dew of Hermon that is descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there Jehovah commanded the blessing to be, even life to time indefinite.”​—Ps. 133:1-3.

Peace with others is indeed essential for happiness. God sets a high value on peace. In order to have and enjoy such peace we must treat our neighbors in fairness. Those who profess to be Christians should, of all people, seek peace with others by dealing justly and in love.

Jesus Christ, when on earth, spoke to a crowd of the Jews about difficulties between individuals and went on to say: “If, then, you are bringing your gift to the altar and you there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go away; first make your peace with your brother, and then, when you have come back, offer up your gift.”​—Matt. 5:23, 24.

HARMONY WITH EARLIER PRECEPTS

On this occasion Jesus undoubtedly had in mind the law of God at Leviticus 6:2-7, which reads:

“In case a soul sins in that he does behave unfaithfully toward Jehovah and does deceive his associate about something in his charge or a deposit in hand or a robbery or he does defraud his associate, or he does find something lost and is actually deceptive about it and does swear falsely over any of all the things that the man might do to sin by them; then it must occur that in case he sins and indeed becomes guilty, he must return the robbed thing which he has robbed or the extorted thing which he has taken by fraud or the thing in his charge which was put in his charge or the thing lost that he has found, or anything at all over which he might swear falsely, and he must make compensation for it in its full amount, and he will add to it a fifth of it. To the one whose it is he will give it on the day his guilt is proved. And as his guilt offering he will bring to Jehovah a sound ram from the flock according to the estimated value, for a guilt offering, to the priest. And the priest must make an atonement for him before Jehovah, and so it must be forgiven him regarding any of all the things that he might do resulting in guiltiness by it.”

In these cases mentioned in the Law, an Israelite had defrauded his associate in some way, quite seriously. He knew that his associate had something against him. It was not an imagined wrong, but a real one. Now, if the wrongdoer went to the