Living Now for God’s New World
ONLY the Almighty God could set before righteous men and women the certain hope of everlasting life in the new world. God’s promised new world will not be like this world that is filled with uncertainty, wickedness, disappointment, pain and suffering. Since the new world is at hand, this world is limited, its days are numbered. But the days of the new world, which Jehovah God is creating, will be numberless. To enjoy it one will need to live forever; but to live everlastingly in God’s new world, one must begin living for the new world now.
How is this done? Begin by finding out what God wants you to do. Many persons shy away from informing themselves as to exactly what God wants them to do. That is no way to live for God’s new world. Those who would live now for the new world must begin to inform themselves of God’s requirements for life and then take action to live in harmony with those requirements.
One who lives now for the new world will make a clean break from this world by not using it as a model for his conduct: “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 perfect will of God.” (Rom. 12:2) To live for the new world, one cannot be like this world. But since this world opposes one’s changing and going in the opposite direction, a vigorous personal effort is needed.
To live for the new world we have to prove for ourselves “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” So we need to know what kind of person God wants us to be. True Christians should be images of Jehovah God and copies of Jesus Christ. This requires one to make his mind over, for he cannot be running in the way of the world that is doomed and at the same time according to God’s will and New World standards. We cannot live for the desires of men, but rather we must live for the will of God. We must do as Peter says in the fourth chapter of his first letter: “Arm yourselves with the same mental disposition [of Christ]; because the person that has suffered in the flesh has desisted from sins, to the end that he may live the remainder of his time in the flesh, no more for the desires of men, but for God’s will.”—1 Pet. 4:1, 2.
Here Peter shows that man’s real purpose in living is for the doing of God’s will, in contrast to the will of men and of nations. Peter shows, too, that if we are living according to the will of God, we will suffer. Today there is a lot of suffering in the world, but most of it is on account of unrighteousness. Because of wicked lives many persons are suffering. But Peter says that those who make their minds over and who live for the new world have desisted from sins and now they must arm themselves with the mind of Christ. That means taking in knowledge of what Jesus Christ taught and then living by those principles, which are actually New World standards.
It is bad enough that one has indulged himself and served sin in the past, not to speak of continuing to do so in the future until stopped at Armageddon. So Peter continues in the next two verses: “For the time that has passed by is sufficient for you to have worked out the will of the nations when you proceeded in deeds of loose conduct, lusts, excesses with wine, revelries, drinking matches, and illegal idolatries. Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you.”—1 Pet. 4:3, 4.
Those who want to live for God’s new world cannot afford to fear what men of this world will think about them and do to them. Popularity with the world has never yet brought life and never can bring it; rather it brings enmity with God. (Jas. 4:4) When you abandon the course of this world and walk in New World pathways, the old world will range up against you in ridicule and hostility. Because you do not run with the world, worldlings may speak abusively of you. Yet this course of New World living is the right one and wins the friendship of God.
Live for the new world now by redeeming the time, buying it out at the cost of nonessential things. Those who do not buy out the time to live by the divine will but who continue to ‘live the remainder of their time for the desires of men’ are not living for the new world and will not have divine protection to survive the war of Armageddon into the righteous new world.
Make time, then, to study God’s Word. Do this in association with those who believe the New World promises and who live for the new world now; namely, the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. Take advantage of the opportunity to have a home Bible study, at no cost to yourself. Jehovah’s witnesses in your community are willing to help you make progress in New World living.
Now is the time of all times to keep steady, clearheaded, walking in the advancing light of the new world. Keep on the watch lest the complete end, at Armageddon, overtake you unawares. It comes as a snare upon this world, as Jesus Christ warned: “But pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then.”—Luke 21:34-36.
Members of this generation who long to gain the prize of life in the new world must awake to the will of God, breaking off with this old world before its disastrous end. All professing Christians and persons of goodwill must now prove whether they are living for this doomed world or are living for the righteous new world of endless success. The time past in the lives of Christians is enough for them to have done the will of the nations, going in the way of the worldly majority. The new world is at hand. Turn the attention and hopes of as many as you can to the new world. Live for it now and make sure of everlasting life in it after this world’s end.