Genuine Love Identifies Christ’s Disciples

JESUS CHRIST stated that others would be able to identify his followers as his disciples by their having love among themselves. (John 13:35) We should expect this to be the case also today. Based on their own observations, increasing numbers of people everywhere have been convinced that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses indeed display such love among themselves.

Some have been amazed to see the changes in attitude and action made even by persons who are just studying with Jehovah’s witnesses. A man who in 1970 was serving a prison sentence in California relates: “At the start of my sentence in the prison camp I began taking part in an Afro-American group. I had become anti-white and antireligion. But at the camp I had a chance to see how two men tried to live their life according to God’s will.

“These two men, one white and the other black, had agreed to study with one of Jehovah’s witnesses. I observed these two men very closely, because we worked and ate together as well as lived in the same dormitory. Being antireligion, I often made fun of them. Periodically I would talk with them about God, and they would tell me about Jehovah. Their faith was strong. It had to be under the circumstances, for just about everyone made fun of them and lied about them. But they continued showing love and kindness toward each other as well as those who would mock them.”

What this man observed made a deep impression upon him and eventually, after his release from confinement, contributed to his studying with Jehovah’s witnesses. Today he, too, is striving to live in harmony with God’s will.

A youth in the Philippines had a similar experience. His mother became one of Jehovah’s witnesses but he had no particular interest in the Bible. He comments: “My mother would take me to the Kingdom Hall, although I was not really interested. At the Kingdom Hall I saw how the young Witnesses acted. They were kind and friendly. There was no hypocrisy in them. They tried to live as true Christians. I started associating with them and this caused me to make great changes. I disbanded the group of vandals that I had organized and stopped smoking. Soon my mother did not need to ask me to accompany her to the Kingdom Hall. I did it voluntarily.”

As to what he has experienced since then, he says: “I have found life more meaningful. There is so much to live for at the present and in the future. In the past I found my life to be filled with frustrations. It was all a waste.”

If you have never been to a Kingdom Hall, why not consider this your invitation to come? See for yourself whether genuine love is in evidence among Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.