To have his favor, we must worship him as the only true God. But we cannot worship him in the right way unless we listen to what he says. Just as we need food every day, so we need to learn about Jehovah every day. This keeps us close to him. The Bible says: ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on all the words that come from Jehovah’s mouth.’​—Matt. 4:4.

We also need to take in knowledge about someone besides God. Who is that? Jesus Christ. This is because God sent Jesus to take away sin. He can take away the harm that Adam did when Adam sinned against God. Jesus can help us to get back into a good relationship with God. And that is not possible in any other way.

That is why the Bible says: “There is no salvation in anyone else.” We have to learn about Jesus if we want to live forever. And if we really do have faith in him, we will be able to live forever. When he brings good conditions to all the earth, he will help us to live forever and be happy. It is a sure thing. That is why the Bible says: “He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life.”​—Acts 4:12; John 3:36.

Now, what does it mean to ‘exercise faith’ in Jesus? It means that we really believe that we cannot stay alive without him. We believe that God gives us everlasting life through Jesus. Do you believe that?

‘Exercising faith’ in Jesus means something else too. It means that we believe him so much that we do what he says. We do not do just some things and not others. We do all the things he says. And we do them because we really want to. Is that what you want to do?

One of the things that the Great Teacher tells us to do is to talk to other people about God and his kingdom. He did it himself to show us how. So, if we have really learned from Jesus, that is something that we will do. Do you do that?

But that is not all that counts. Every day we should do the things that the Bible says are right. We must be careful not to do bad things. We should show that we truly love one another.

If we do these things, it shows that we have really been listening to the Great Teacher.

Questions From Readers

● Since the Bible speaks about the prophet Samuel as offering sacrifices, does this mean that he was a priest?​—U.S.A.

No, the Scriptures clearly show that Samuel was not a priest of the line of Aaron. Samuel’s father Elkanah resided at Ramah in the mountainous region of Ephraim and is therefore called an Ephraimite. But genealogically Elkanah was a Levite of the nonpriestly family that descended from Kohath. (1 Sam. 1:1, 19; 1 Chron. 6:27, 33, 34) As a nonpriestly Kohathite Levite, Samuel was not authorized to officiate at the sanctuary altar, and there is no record that he ever did so. Regarding Levites who were not of the family of Aaron, God’s law stated: “To the utensils of the holy place and to the altar they must not come near that they may not die.” (Num. 18:3) However, being Jehovah’s representative and prophet, Samuel could, in compliance with divine direction, offer up sacrifices at places other than the sanctuary, as was done by Gideon of the tribe of Manasseh and, later, by the prophet Elijah.​—Judg. 6:15, 25-28; 1 Ki. 18:36-38.