Conducting Ourselves Worthily of the Good News
GOOD news brings with it a challenge. Have guests come? That is good news, but with it comes a challenge: extra work. Has an unemployed artisan found a job? That also is good news, but with it too comes a challenge: to work hard to hold that job. Has a wife presented her husband with a firstborn son? That also is good news, but with it likewise comes a challenge: added responsibility. Yes, good news brings with it a challenge, for it requires that the one hearing it act in a certain way if he would benefit to the full from the good news.
The same is true about hearing the good news contained in God’s Word the Bible. It also brings with it a challenge that must be met to get the full benefit from it, namely, the responsibility of conducting ourselves worthily of this good news: “Only behave in a manner worthy of the good news about the Christ, . . . standing firm in one spirit, with one soul fighting side by side for the faith of the good news.”—Phil. 1:27, 28.a
Conducting ourselves worthily of the good news extends to everything we do, at all times and in relationship to all persons. As we are instructed at 1 Peter 2:12: “Maintain your conduct fine among the nations, that, in the thing in which they are speaking against you as evildoers, they may as a result of your fine works of which they are eyewitnesses glorify God in the day for his inspection.” How important this shows our conduct to be!
For one thing, conducting ourselves worthily of the good news means respecting God’s law regarding the sanctity of blood.—Gen. 9:3-6; Lev. 17:11-13; Acts 15:28, 29.
Conducting ourselves worthily of the good news also includes proper conduct with those of the opposite sex. That means limiting sex relations to one’s properly wedded mate, for “God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” Not only fornication and adultery but all loose conduct is to be avoided, for Jesus showed that even one who keeps on looking passionately at a woman is committing adultery with her in his heart.—Heb. 13:4; Matt. 5:28.
Honesty in business practices is another requirement for all bearing the good news. Could any employer or customer who was defrauded be expected to listen to the good news if among the defrauders were one identified with that message? Therefore, “let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard work, doing with his hands what is good work, that he may have something to distribute to someone in need.” What a contrast between giving freely to someone in need and taking what belongs to another!—Eph. 4:28.
Exercising care in the use of our tongue is also required of us if we would walk worthily of the good news. That means being careful not only to speak the truth, but also to avoid saying anything that might injure another’s reputation or defile him. “Speak injuriously of no one.” “Speak truth each one of you with his neighbor. Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up as the need may be, that it may impart what is favorable to the hearers.”—Titus 3:2; Eph. 4:25, 29.
Conducting ourselves worthily of the good news includes all these requirements and many more. However, they are all summed up for us by Jesus in the two great commandments of life: “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.” “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” If we thus love Jehovah God we will be glad to bear witness to his glorious name at every opportunity and will never do anything that will bring reproach upon his name. And if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we not only will refrain from harming him but will do him all the good we possibly can, the greatest good being telling him about the everlasting good news.—Mark 12:30, 31.
Regarding the religious leaders of his day Jesus said: “They say but do not perform.” If he were on earth today he would say the same about the religious leaders of Christendom. As Christian ministers of Jehovah we must be different. We must be genuine through and through, worshiping Jehovah God “with spirit and truth.” Only by doing so will we be effective as God’s ministers and assure ourselves the reward of everlasting life, and only thus can we be conducting ourselves worthily of the good news.—Matt. 23:3; John 4:24.
[Footnotes]
a For details see The Watchtower, January 15, February 1, 1963.