“The love the Christ has compels us, because this is what we have judged, that . . . he died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised up.”—2 Cor. 5:14, 15.

66. (a) By letting ourselves become slaves of men, whom would we disown, and with what consequence? (b) Why do we Christians not belong to ourselves, and therefore whose slaves should we not become?

⁶⁶ If, in disobedience to God, we let ourselves become “slaves of men,” then we “disown even the owner that bought” us and we bring destruction upon ourselves. (2 Pet. 2:1-3) This we are determined not to do. Rather, when face to face with the choice, we will both remember and act in harmony with the inspired words of the apostle Paul to his fellow Christians: “You do not belong to yourselves, for you were bought with a price. By all means, glorify God in the body of you people. . . . he that was called when a free man is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; stop becoming slaves of men.”—1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 7:22, 23; Gal. 1:10.

The Liberator Comes to Zion

IT WAS something worthy of being written down for an inerasable record and, more than that, to be proclaimed to the farthest parts of the earth. It proved to provide inestimable comfort to the Jews when they were in Babylonian captivity. It was the word spoken by none other than Jehovah God himself: “Say, you people, to the daughter of Zion, ‘Look! Your salvation is coming. Look! The reward he gives is with him, and the wages he pays are before him.’” (Isa. 62:11) Some years after Zion began to be rebuilt in 537 B.C.E., when Babylon had fallen as the Third World Power and could no longer hold the Jews in captivity, Jehovah inspired his prophet Zechariah to say something similar in these words: “Be very joyful, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Look! Your king himself comes to you. He is righteous, yes, saved; humble, and riding upon an ass, even upon a full-grown animal the son of a she-ass.”—Zech. 9:9.

The Jews understood the latter prophecy as applying to the coming of the Messiah and looked forward to its fulfillment. Today, however, there are many Jews included among those who do not have that faith. These descendants of Abraham should give attention to the fact that the Giver of this prophecy overthrew a mighty world power to release their forefathers from captivity. They should give weighty and serious consideration to the promise of their God that Zion would be favored with a visit from the foretold Messiah, the one whom Jehovah would anoint with holy spirit to be the king of the kingdom, to sit forever on “Jehovah’s throne.” It is not too late for them to investigate whether the Messiah has made this visit and been unrecognized by them.