reserve their greatest love for God, put him first, obey him first, give him first call on their time and energy and substance, their marriage will not become more driftwood on the matrimonial seas.

This putting of God first by married couples is shown by the apostle Paul, at 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, NW: “Moreover, this I say, brothers, the time left is reduced. Henceforth let those who have wives be as though they had none, and also those who weep be as those who do not weep, and those who rejoice as those who do not rejoice, and those who buy as those not possessing, and those making use of the world as those not using it to the full; for the scene of this world is changing.” Paul is not here saying to withhold the various marital dues and responsibilities, for in this very chapter he admonishes that these should be rendered. (1 Cor. 7:3-5) What he is admonishing is that whole or chief attention should not be given over to personal, selfish matters relating to the flesh, whether these be enjoying a husband or wife, or rejoicing overmuch in pleasure pursuits, or allowing ourselves to be swallowed up in our sorrows and griefs and even drawing an unhealthy satisfaction from self-pity, or seeking to accumulate extensive possessions by unduly entangling ourselves in worldly businesses—all of which excessive caterings to the flesh are characteristic of this old world and are to pass away with it. Hence the Christian should not bury or sink himself too deeply in these things to the neglect of what is eternal, and specially so now that the “time left is reduced”. Nothing should be allowed to so engross the Christian’s time that he has none left for Jehovah’s service. So it is within this qualified view that the married couple lives as though unmarried, always putting Jehovah first.

Only marriages meeting the foregoing divine requirements are truly successful marriages, and they have the opportunity of succeeding gloriously. They may endure on into Jehovah’s new world, wherein earthly married couples will finally carry out the mandate first issued by God in Eden, to “multiply and fill the earth”.—Gen. 1:28, Ro.

James, the Brother of Jesus

JESUS, the Son of God, once stated: “A prophet is not unhonored except in his native territory and in his own house.” That he himself had this experience in regard to his immediate family is apparent from the record made by his preferred disciple John: “His brothers were, in fact, not exercising faith in him.” Matthew and Mark name four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. (Matt. 13:55-57; Mark 6:3; John 7:5, NW) After Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, at least some of his uterine brothers (having the same mother but a different father) did exercise faith in him, for we read that, pending Pentecost, the eleven apostles with one accord “were persisting in prayer, together with some women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers”.—Acts 1:13, 14, NW.