The Watchtower Study, «Article 37», Week of November 7 to 13, 2022, We can trust our brothers, Answers.

 The Watchtower Study, «Article 37», 7-13 November 2022, We can trust our brothers, Answers.

“Love […] believes all things, hopes all things” (1 COR. 13:4, 7).

1. Why is it no wonder that people in this world don't know whom to trust?

This should not surprise us. The Bible foretold that “in the last days” people would be disloyal, slanderous, and treacherous. It would reflect the personality of the god of this system, who does not deserve any trust.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Well, as Jehovah's Witnesses, it doesn't surprise us because the Bible predicted that in the last days people would be disloyal, slanderous, treacherous, it logically lists what people would be like and over and over again people feel cheated by what the big ones do. companies, politicians, religious leaders and they feel that the same thing happens to them with friends, even with family members, then we know that Satan controls this world and they cannot trust anyone.

Also second Corinthians 4:4 warns us that it is Satan who influences by blinding people and then that they do not see the need to do what is right.

2. (a) Whom can we trust completely? 

True Christians know that we can put all our trust in Jehovah. We are convinced that he loves us and that he will never abandon his friends as mentioned in Psalm 9:10.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

We know that we can completely trust Jehovah in Jesus and in his word, here in Psalms 9:10 it is mentioned that Jehovah loves us and that he will never abandon us as his friends, in First Peter 3:18 it is mentioned that Jesus he gave his life for us his valuable life and through him we can reach the father and in second Timothy 3:16 there it is mentioned that the entire scripture is inspired by God, then it is mentioned that we can trust both in Jesus in Jehovah and in his word.

The reference to Jeremiah 17:7 and 8 is very beautiful because it likens those who trust in Jehovah to a tree that extends its roots and that no matter the adversities that have heat or water or whatever, that is how those of us who trust in Jehovah because we know that we can trust him.

2. b) What question might someone ask?

We are sure that we can trust Jehovah, Jesus and the Bible. But perhaps someone wonders if we can always trust the brothers of the congregation?. Yes, the answer is yes, and in the course of the study we will see why.

OPTIONAL ANSWER

For example, we Christians can say I trust Jehovah in Jesus in the Bible, but what can we say about the brothers of the congregation, because we will see during the course of the meeting how important it will be to know this topic. 

WE NEED OUR BROTHERS

3. What great honor do we have? (Mark 10:29, 30).

The great honor of being part of the worldwide family of your servants. and thanks to that, we enjoy many blessings.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

We have the great honor of having a spiritual family of trustworthy brothers and sisters who share our same goal to strive to love Jehovah and respect his standards and that is a beautiful gift that God has given us.

Something that we uniquely enjoy being in the organization, which is very beautiful, as the text of Mark says that although many brothers have been rejected by their own blood family because of Jehovah and by being in the organization, they will surely find a beautiful spiritual family. and that we share the same objective which is to please Jehovah.

Yes, it would be a great honor to be part of Jehovah's worldwide family and how it is mentioned in Mark that Jesus said that if we lose family or friends or are in persecution Jehovah will bless us and we will obtain 100 times more.

ILLUSTRATION

We can see brothers who, due to the way they dress, are from different cultures and yet they are very happy taking pictures together during the celebration of the Regional Assembly "Love never fails", perhaps they are meeting for the first time, but it is clearly seen that there is no mistrust in them, that shows the love and trust we have for each other in global brotherhood, and the effort we make to apply Bible principles to imitate Jehovah and Jesus.

Something that we uniquely enjoy being in the organization, which is very beautiful, as the text of Mark says that although many brothers have been rejected by their own blood family because of Jehovah and by being in the organization, they will surely find a beautiful spiritual family. and that we share the same objective which is to please Jehovah. 

A happy group of brothers and sisters from different cultures take a selfie at an assembly.

All over the planet we have trustworthy brothers and sisters who, like us, love Jehovah. (See paragraph 3).

4. Why do we need brothers?

Satan and his evil world. Very soon, he and all those under his control will attack God's servants. At that time we will be very grateful to have the brothers by our side.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

And it also encourages us to stay active in our service to Jehovah and be strong in a spiritual sense and how sad it would be not to have the support of the congregation to face our enemies, so be grateful to have all the little brothers who support us.

Ephesians 4:26 where it says not to let the sun go down while you are still angry, the Bible assumes that we are going to get angry, the idea is to correct our anger as soon as possible and we are going to do that if we really love our brothers.

He is patient with us even when we sin against him and every day we ask forgiveness for our sins, so he forgives millions of sins that we do against him every day, so how much less should we forgive our brothers who are as well as imperfect as they.

Because today as never before with these times that we have had to live in, we need each other enormously, we need brothers to stimulate us, tell us consoling words, lend us their shoulder to cry on or when we are spiritually very affected, the wise words are always there with the Bible in hand making us see that Jehovah loves us that Jehovah supports us that we can fully trust them, so it would be very sad if we did not have this type of support in this harsh system that we have had to live with, however Jehovah loves us so much that He did not provide them, as we could see when reading Mark, the first ones listed in the texts are brothers and sisters, whether we have been lost but at the same time we have recovered them, so if it is so important for Jehovah, it must also be for us.

And in the future we're going to need each other even more because we're expecting the attack of Satan and his evil world, so that's when we're going to be more grateful than ever to be a part of this global family.

And something to highlight is that this system makes us think that we are not or that we do not need someone that we are not so indispensable to other people, however Jehovah helps us to understand in Romans 15:1 that those of us who are weak or those who are strong can help the weak and that makes us understand that we are going to need each other from today until the time comes when the enemies are going to attack us and we are united that is what is going to help us. 

5. Why is it difficult for some to trust the brothers?

Perhaps they confided in a private matter to a fellow Christian and then he told others about it. Or maybe someone made them a promise and didn't keep it. Or maybe a brother said or did something that hurt them.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

Also some brother made us a promise and did not keep it, it may also be that some brother has said something that hurt us and bothered us so what is it that will help us to overlook these failures of our brothers because how are we going to learn later it is the love we feel for Jehovah and the love we feel for the brothers, so we should see rather their good qualities of the brothers and not be sorry for what they have done or said to us. 

LOVE HELPS US TO TRUST OTHERS MORE

6. How does love help us to trust our brothers more? (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians mentions many characteristics of love that will help us trust others more or regain lost trust. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Verse 4 says that "love is patient and kind." Jehovah is patient with us if we sin against him. So we too must be patient with our brothers and verse 5 adds that love is "not easily irritated" and that it "keeps no account of injury."

Ephesians 4:26 where it says not to let the sun go down while you are still angry, the Bible assumes that we are going to get angry, the idea is to correct our anger as soon as possible and we are going to do that if we really love our brothers.

He is patient with us even when we sin against him and every day we ask forgiveness for our sins, so he forgives millions of sins that we do against him every day, so how much less should we forgive our brothers who are as well as imperfect as they.

Yes because trust is based precisely on love, specifically in verse 4 it says that love is patient and kind Jehovah is patient with us with our imperfection even though we even sin against him, so we must imitate him to also be patient with our brothers when, for example, they behave in an inappropriate way or say things that annoy or hurt us, then we must strive to be patient with them just as Jehovah is with us.

In the description that is made here about love, without a doubt, it is very significant and it is easy to say it, but in practice it is where we are going to make sense of it, for that reason, following the example of Jehovah, we could truly think at an individual level if really we keep a record of the damage that another person has caused us if we get angry easily and quickly and things like that will make us think if we are reflecting these qualities or we should work on it.

Something without a doubt that is true is that there will always be something that someone can say or do to us that if it is going to bother us, then Ecclesiastes 7:9 also recommends us not to get angry easily because then that would be silly. to really have this unity with our brothers, this love and this trust, and then the most advisable thing is that we try to solve things as soon as possible.

7. How do the principles found at Matthew 7:1-5 help us to trust our brothers more?

Instead of focusing on their flaws, we should strive to focus on their beautiful qualities and try to see their potential for good.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

It is also very interesting what the paragraph at the end mentions that Jehovah does not ask us to trust the brothers blindly but what he expects is that we trust them because they have shown that they deserve that we trust them.

It is true that as the note says in some congregations there have ever been brothers because they have shown that they are not trustworthy and that they also tried to take advantage of others but that is not the general rule in the congregations in most congregations and we can say for example in ours we can trust all our brothers because we all seek the same goal to serve Jehovah.

These biblical principles help us not to focus on the defects of our brothers but rather to strive to see their beautiful qualities and try to see their potential to do good, then we want to be like Jehovah to see how good they can be and never take a record of your sins.

We have to think that if we look for defects we are going to find them because even the best brother in the world is going to have his defects, so that is why we must focus on the qualities. Even the paragraph says in the potential, that is, in what it can become , because that is Jehovah if he were to look at our defects because none of us would be up to the task, however he always looks at the best and at what we can become.

The Bible warns that in the congregation there might be some people who are not trustworthy on rare occasions there may be false brothers who try to deceive others by saying twisted things in cases like this we do not trust those people or listen to them. 

8. What can you do to increase your trust in others?

Get to know them well. Talk to them at meetings. Spend time together in the preaching work. Be patient with them and give them a chance to prove themselves trustworthy.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Yes, as the beginning of the paragraph says, trust does not arise overnight, that is why we must talk with them and how it is mentioned here in the meetings in the preaching what is where one more knows each other, it says that we are not going to tell personal things but with the passage of time that one gets to know them is when confidence grows and that is when one already trusts them to express the most personal things.

If something very important is not allowing our own judgment to cloud our vision towards our brothers, in a speech that was given in Gilead the brother commented that in times of war there are many soldiers who die from friendly fire, this means who are hit by the fire of the troops themselves, in a spiritual sense we do get to blur our spiritual vision towards our brothers by concentrating on their imperfections instead of their qualities this can confuse us about who our true enemy is and our enemy is not Satan our brothers, for the same reason it is very important to ask Jehovah in prayer to help us keep focused on the qualities and not on their defects.

Luke 16:10 | Yes, as the paragraph said, when we spend more time with a person is when we begin to know them, then we could see what Luke 16:10 says when, for example, we see what this brother is like, how he spends his time, what kind of entertainment he uses, perhaps if he is faithful in the little, then we are going to know what is faithful in the great and if we see that maybe he has attitudes that are not entirely how a Christian should be, then perhaps later in more important things he also has that lack.

LET US LEARN FROM THOSE WHO DID NOT LOSE THEIR TRUST IN OTHERS

9. (a) What did Hannah do despite the sins of those who represented Jehovah?

Although Eli was still the high priest, she did not stop going to worship Jehovah in the tabernacle.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

What Ana did was something that showed that she trusted Jehovah a lot, she continued to go to worship him no matter that those who led at this time were in corruption, she did not allow her worship to be affected because it is Jehovah with whom she is showing love and She has to go, what I like the most is that not only did she leave her son, it was what she had asked Jehovah and that shows that I also trust Jehovah's organization.

It strikes me a lot in the case of Ana that she was not failing Jehovah, on the contrary, the reason why she cried in her prayers had to do with the fact that she wanted to please her husband by having a child and on top of that she could have said well why does she scold me if what I want is maybe to have a better relationship with Jehovah, the Bible later says that even she did not take this situation into account because every year she kept going to the tabernacle to take a garment to his son and he was probably still in contact with Eli as well.

9. b) What do you learn from Ana's example? (See drawing).

Personally, I learn that if a brother who has authority in the congregation commits a sin, that should not influence our relationship with Jehovah, because just as Ana continued to go to the tabernacle to worship Jehovah, we must also continue to worship Jehovah and attend to our meetings. And not allowing the mistakes of others to stumble us, that is why we do well to put the matter in the hands of Jehovah, since Jehovah in his due time will correct that behavior and reward us with many blessings.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

Well, I learn from her great love for Jehovah because although Eli spoke harshly to her, she fulfilled what she had promised Jehovah to take the child, this teaches me that sometimes there may be brothers who can speak harshly to me, but we do not know For what they are going through, however, I should not feel offended and continue to trust in Jehovah.

Something that I also learn is that the behavior of the brothers should not be conditioned to my worship of Jehovah, that is totally independent because seeing the example of Ana, Jehovah did what was necessary to adjust what was happening, however, Ana left things in hands of Jehovah so we must not allow the behavior of our brothers to condition my worship of Jehovah.

ILLUSTRATION

In the image on the left we see Ana praying with anguish and how the high priest Eli judges her thinking that she is drunk. In the image on the right we see Ana leaving her little son in charge of Eli. In both images it is reflected that although Eli was the representative of Jehovah, he treated Ana harshly, she continued to trust in Jehovah and did not stop going to worship him in the tabernacle or fulfilling his vows.

Series of images: 1. Eli looks suspiciously at Ana while she prays. 2. Ana takes her little son, Samuel, from her to Elí.

Although Eli treated Hannah harshly at first, she continued to trust Jehovah and did not stop going to the tabernacle. (See paragraph 9).

10. How did David show that he did not become distrustful despite the betrayals he suffered?

He continued to trust Hushai, a loyal friend who did not join the rebels. And he was not wrong to trust Husai, because this faithful friend even risked his life to help him.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

Yes, David could be seen turning suspicious when his son Absalon took the kingdom from him and also when Ahithophel, who was one of his friends, supported the rebellion instead of supporting David, however he did not, he continued to trust Huasai, for example. a loyal friend who did not join the rebels and this eventually brought him blessings as Hushai became so faithful to David that he even risked his life to help him.

11. How did a servant of Nabal show that he trusted others?

This servant did not run away. Rather, she trusted Abigail to fix the situation because she had a reputation for being a sensible woman. And her confidence paid off. Abigail plucked up her courage and convinced David not to go ahead with her plan to kill all the men in his house.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

He showed that he trusted Abigail because he came to her trusting that she could fix the situation because he knew she had a reputation for being a sensible woman and he showed a lot of trust because his life was in danger he had the opportunity to run away and maybe save his life but instead of that, he went to a reliable person.

Many times things do not depend on us, we do not have the capacity or the possibility of solving them and that we have to trust others and it is important that we know who to trust within the congregation.

12. How did Jesus show that he trusted his disciples despite their failures?

Jesus never lost faith in them. Although he knew their faults, "he loved them to the end." And, after he was resurrected, he even charged his 11 faithful apostles with the great responsibility of directing the work of making disciples and caring for his precious sheep.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Jesus did not question his motives as to why they served him, not even when James and John asked him for a position of honor in the kingdom. We also know that the night he was arrested, everyone abandoned him, so we can imagine how he felt, however he never he lost faith in them and although he knew all their faults he loved them until the end, so he always showed that he trusted them.

And Jesus was not wrong to trust them because all of them were faithful until the end of their lives as we saw the examples of Ana David the servant of Nabal and Abigail and Jesus trusted imperfect human beings, with this example then I can also trust my brothers.

Even after Jesus Christ resurrected, he charged the 11 faithful Apostles with the great responsibility of directing the work of making disciples and learning to care for his precious sheep.

And at the end of the paragraph he uses the phrase his good example encourages us to be the same because this phrase is very important because just like the apostles, the disciples, each one of us, the servants of Jehovah, have failures during our lives, so we hope that others follow trusting in us and we also in them. 

HOW TO RECOVER LOST CONFIDENCE

13. Why might it be difficult for us to trust others?

The reason why it could be difficult for us to trust others is when we find out that something confidential that we have told a brother tells others, since this situation can cause a lot of distrust, since it is not easy to trust again. again on that person. But as experience shows it is possible to regain trust, the sister acted well and asked for help. Which teaches us that when a similar situation happens to us, we should ask for help and not take for granted that all brothers are like that.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Because if we trust them with something very personal they can betray us, here we mention the example of a sister who told an old man something very privately and the next day the old man's wife called her to encourage her, obviously it was because the husband spoke of more and we know that the elders must be very discreet, so that was what hurt the sister and lost her confidence but she did not remain that way but asked for help and acts according to the help she asked for I spoke with another elder and recovered trust in the elderly, that is, not because an elderly man betrayed his trust, he qualified them all the same.

14. What helped a brother regain lost confidence?

He recalled a short but powerful phrase said by a brother whom he greatly respected: "Our enemy is Satan, not our brothers."

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

This brother, who was very upset, remembered a phrase from another brother whom he respected a lot and the phrase is as follows. The brother said our enemy is Satan, not our brothers, so this brother kept thinking about those words and also prayed about the matter and mentions how over time this managed to make the brother make peace with the elders.

And it is that in reality what the devil wants is for us to believe that our brothers are our enemies and thus he knows that we are going to lose their trust but in reality as we have seen he is the one who is our enemy so to keep these words well in mind It will help us, as has already been mentioned, to leave things in the hands of Jehovah, to let time pass and recover lost confidence.

15. Why can it take time to regain trust? Tell the example of Grete.

In the paragraph we have an experience in which we can see that it can take time to regain trust, for example our sister Grete and her mother. They lived in Germany, where the Nazi government had banned our work. They took away responsibilities in the congregation because Grete had an opposing father, this caused great fear to the brothers who were in the lead, so they decided not to give them copies of the Watchtower magazine, since their responsibility was to help make copies of the magazines for the brothers. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

And so much was the fear, that they didn't even greet her when they saw them on the street. How we can see is a situation that any of us could deeply hurt our feelings, but at the end of the experience we can see that over the years they came to the conclusion that Jehovah had forgiven them, so they understood that they also had to do it .

Well, just as this sister says that in her biography she realized that over time one of them was serving at Bethel and she realized that Jehovah had forgiven him so she also had to do it, that teaches us that when we can be hurt but if we realize that Jehovah has forgiven us then we are nobody to not do it.

“Our enemy is Satan, not our brothers”

16. Why should we strive to overcome mistrust?

The reason is that if we regain trust in them, we will be happier and we will focus on what we can do so that there is an atmosphere of trust in the congregation.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The paragraph mentions an example of a food that could harm us at some point and although we will be careful with what we eat after that we will not stop eating and it is quite logical and if we meditate on the example of it, Jehovah himself does not He stopped trusting all of us after the error or the sin of Adam and Eve, so we must strive to imitate Jehovah's example and rather focus on what the paragraph says about us and the question what we should ask ourselves would be what can I do or How can I contribute so that there is an atmosphere of trust in the congregation despite the bad experiences instead of promoting closing down and not confirming because that is where Satan wins?

And we must make an effort to remember that we are imperfect, so if we have already gone through an experience like the one we have analyzed in The Watchtower, what we can put into practice is to maintain an environment of trust, just as we already know what food is going to harm us, because we also know what attitudes are the ones that are going to harm us and this is what is going to help us to foster that atmosphere of trust in the congregation.

17. a) Why is trust so important? 

Because thanks to this trust, we feel happy and we are united now. And, in the difficult times ahead, it will serve as our protection.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Yes, because trust promotes love and unity in the congregation, which is a distinctive trait of Jehovah's people, and also because we know that in Satan's world there is no such thing, so it is important that it continues to be a trait that defines us at Jehovah's people.

Yes, it also strikes me that the paragraph mentions that in the difficult times that lie ahead, trust will also protect us.

In addition, thanks to this it will be possible to have good friends as we have already analyzed, now more than ever we require it due to the times in which we find ourselves and that is not enough but also to show them that they can trust us. 

17 b) What will we see in the next article?

In the next article we will see how we can earn that trust.

WHAT WOULD YOU ANSWER?

Why is it so important that we trust the brothers?

It is important because today more than ever, we must be united, since sometimes, brothers help us carry our load. Also because they encourage us to stay active in our service to Jehovah and to be spiritually strong.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

It is something necessary, as we saw, it is a necessity because in a short time we will face Satan and his evil world and he will attack the servants of Jehovah and then we need our brothers to help us also spiritually to be strong and to be able to resist all these attacks of part of Satan.

Mark 10:29, 30 | There he mentioned that if we left brothers, sisters, father or mother, that we in the congregation were going to find a hundredfold, so to speak, of this family, then we have the great honor of belonging to this family of Jehovah, so we really have to trust our brothers and sisters too. be reliable and in this way we can face everything that currently affects us and what is coming in the future.

What examples from the Bible help us continue to trust others?

Hannah when she was praying very distressed, Eli rushed to the conclusion that she was drunk, and even spoke harshly to Hannah Although Eli was still the high priest, she did not stop going to worship Jehovah in the tabernacle. 

In David's example we see that when his son Absalom tried to take the kingdom from him, Ahithophel, who was David's friend, supported the rebellion. But this betrayal did not make David suspicious. He continued to trust Hushai, a loyal friend who did not join the rebels. And he was not wrong to trust Husai, because this faithful friend even risked his life to help him.

Nabal refused when David asked for food for his men. David got so angry that he said he would kill all the men in his house. One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened. Abigail plucked up her courage and convinced David not to go ahead with her plan.

When James and John asked him for a position of honor in the Kingdom, Jesus did not question why they were serving Jehovah or tell them that they would no longer be his apostles. Jesus never lost faith in them. Although he knew their faults, he "loved them to the end." Proof of this after his resurrection, he even entrusted his 11 faithful apostles with the great responsibility of directing the work of making disciples and caring for his precious sheep.

What can you do if a brother betrays your trust?

We must strive to trust the brothers again. It may take time, but the effort will be worth it. Let's think of an example. If we get intoxicated with a food, we will be more careful with what we eat, but that does not mean we will stop eating. Similarly, let's not let a bad experience make us distrust all our brothers, who as we know are imperfect.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Yes brother, because we can regain confidence by striving to see things as Jehovah sees them in the first place, also applying the biblical principles that we have learned today and cultivating a deep love for the brothers and also analyzing the biblical examples that reminded us of the day today and more.