A World Without Locks
IS IT possible to have a world without locks? Is it possible for people to live securely without having to keep their possessions under lock and key? Is it possible for a person to live a lifetime without ever having to carry around a bunch of keys or even one key?
From the appearance of this present world the answer would seem to be a definite No. Our possessions are not safe in this modern civilization. Even when they are carefully locked up they can still be stolen by a skillful thief. This was pointed out in the Kiplinger magazine Changing Times of December, 1956. It said: “A professional burglar can enter almost any house. Your objective should be to discourage the casual or amateur burglar, to whom a carelessly guarded house is an open invitation. If your place is well protected, amateurs can’t get in, and even the professional burglar may choose an easier job down the street. Or if he does try your house, the difficulties may slow him down enough to tip the scales in favor of the police. Lock up at night and when you’re out.”
The casual or amateur burglar could be a passer-by or even some neighbor living on the same street. It seems that many average people will not hesitate to pick up things that do not belong to them if they think they can get away with it. Tools and equipment are regularly taken from industries by trusted employees, many workers on construction jobs carry off equipment and building materials and many tourists walk away with restaurant silverware and hotel towels. Yet these people do not consider themselves to be thieves.
There are people who borrow things without permission with the full intention of returning them, but it seems that the things they borrow never get back to their owners. Yet they too do not think of themselves as thieves. Such irresponsible and dishonest people make it just as necessary to have locks as does the burglar. It is evident that this world has a civilization that is technologically high but morally low.
If it were possible to have a civilization of high moral quality whose people respected the property of others, would locks then be necessary? In such a civilization would a person have reason to fear for the security of his possessions? Would he ever have to lock every window and door before leaving his house? Would he ever have to carry around a jangling bunch of keys?
A civilization of that kind would be possible if all earth’s inhabitants would respect and obey the principles of God’s Word. If they did, there would be neither thievery nor irresponsible borrowing. The things a person worked for he could keep and enjoy. He would never come home and find them missing. He would never need locks on his windows, on his doors or on anything he has. He could trust all passers-by and all his neighbors.
The time is near at hand when earth’s inhabitants will live by those principles. God has purposed it, and he never fails to carry out his purposes. The prophet Isaiah once said that when God’s “judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”—Isa. 26:9, AS.
The inhabitants of the new world that God has purposed to establish will all have a knowledge of the righteous principles in the Scriptures, and they will live by those principles. That will include exercising love for one another; and when a person does that, how can he steal? Love and dishonesty are incompatible.
But someone will ask how such a world could come about while there are so many people who would never change from being greedy, selfish and thievish. How can a world without locks become a reality as long as even one of such persons exists? The answer is simple. None of them will continue to exist. “Just a little while longer and the wicked one will be no more, and you will certainly give attention to his place and he will not be.” “Jehovah is guarding all those loving him, but all the wicked ones he will annihilate.”—Ps. 37:10; 145:20.
God’s new world will have no place for persons who refuse to live by his high moral standards. They will be swept out of existence at the coming battle of Armageddon, when Jehovah God will execute his adverse judgment upon this present wicked system of things. They “will be no more.” The survivors of that battle will be the people who have transformed their minds and their lives, as admonished by the apostle Paul: “And quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God.”—Rom. 12:2.
The divinely appointed King, Christ Jesus, will rule that new world in righteousness and earth’s inhabitants will live in righteousness. The conditions existing today that breed dishonesty will not exist then. There will be no chance for lawless persons to appear again among mankind to make life insecure for the meek and peaceable. There will never again be the need for people to lock up the things they value.
What a man works for then he will be able to keep and enjoy. He will not even have to die and leave his possessions to someone else. “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain.”—Isa. 65:21-23, AS.
God’s new world is the answer to our questions. It will be a world without locks. Its people will live securely without having to carry keys with them or be concerned about the safety of anything they possess. They will not have to lock up at night, or worry about their unlocked houses being an open invitation for burglary. That new world will be of the very highest moral quality.