As a congregation, body or group, the anointed, spirit-begotten brothers of Jesus Christ, while on earth, are called his “faithful and discreet slave,” or servant. Their reward for faithfulness is dispensed to them through Jesus Christ, the Head of the Christian congregation. He provided a prophetic illustration of this. Speaking of his return in Kingdom power, he said to his disciples: “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?

In the preceding issue of The Watchtower we have discussed this illustration in which the term “slave” refers to these anointed Christians on earth as a body and the term “domestics” refers to them as individuals. They all assist in seeing that each one of their number is spiritually fed.

Feeding Christ’s “domestics” spiritually was no easy matter for the “faithful and discreet slave,” particularly for a few years after Jesus came invisibly to inspect and reward them. There was much opposition and severe persecution from religious organizations that claimed the sole right to dispense spiritual food to the “flock,” which they said belonged to them. However, these organizations of Christendom had made a wartime record for themselves, an open record of bloodguilt that had a heavy bearing on their claim to be disciples and slaves of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they took advantage of the war hysteria to cause mobbings, arrests, imprisonment and death to members of the small remnant of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. This, along with wartime conditions and restrictions, made it difficult for the small “slave” group to keep a steady flow of Bible information to the individual “domestics.” But they faithfully did so despite hardships.

All this corresponded with what happened to the disciples at the time of Jesus’ death in 33 C.E. Jesus had foretold the situation by quoting from Zechariah’s prophecy, which reads: “Strike the shepherd, and let those of the flock be scattered; and I shall certainly turn my hand back upon those who are insignificant.” After Jesus’ betrayal, the Bible record tells us: “Then all the disciples abandoned him and fled.” The “sheep” were indeed scattered.​—Zech. 13:7; Matt. 26:31, 56.

In parallel fashion, the work of the anointed “slave” class was almost broken up in 1918 C.E., the governing members thereof having been sentenced to many years in the federal penitentiary. The outlook was dark. Faithfulness to their commission was put to the test.

But God ‘turned his hand back upon them.’ That meant a turning back with favor. Those in the federal penitentiary were released and exonerated of all charges. The scattered “sheep” were regathered into an organized body of “domestics” and vigorously continued the spiritual feeding work, expanding their efforts even more strongly in preaching the good news of the Kingdom.