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Is Yours a Living Faith?The Watchtower—1977 | August 15
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people of all the nations.’—Matt. 24:14; 28:19, 20.
Do you obediently share in this kingdom-preaching and disciple-making activity? The Scriptures assure us that this too has angelic backing and will be completed to God’s satisfaction. (Rev. 14:6) As noted above, ancient Israel succumbed to lack of faith and of zeal for fulfilling God’s command to exterminate the Canaanites. Likewise today Christians must beware of cooling off in their zeal for the work Jesus commissioned his followers to do.
And similar to God’s mandate that Israel ‘conclude no covenant’ with the Canaanites, Christians have the command: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. . . . ‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing.’” (2 Cor. 6:14-17) Have you shown that your faith is truly alive, by separating from all worldly uncleanness?
Faithless disobedience to God on the part of ancient Israel led to rebuke and weeping at Bochim. Similar unfaithfulness today can lead to an even more serious type of weeping. How so?
Earth-wide fulfillment of a “sign” that Jesus gave indicates that since the year 1914 we have been living during Christ’s ‘presence and the conclusion of the [present] system of things.’ (Matt. 24:3–25:46) It was concerning the present generation, therefore, that Jesus said in one of his parables: “That is how it will be in the conclusion of the system of things: the angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous and will cast them into the fiery furnace. There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be.”—Matt. 13:49, 50; 24:3, 34.
According to the Scriptures, that “fiery furnace” symbolizes the “everlasting destruction” of the wicked at the time for bringing “vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess. 1:6-10) On the other hand, survival into a new order of righteousness is the happy prospect for those who do obey the good news, those persons whose faith in God and Jesus Christ shines forth in Bible-based works that they perform from day to day. (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-5) Is yours such a living faith?
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Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1977 | August 15
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Questions From Readers
● James 4:5 seems to contain a quotation from the Bible, but which verse was James quoting, and what was his point?
James 4:5 reads: “Or does it seem to you that the scripture says to no purpose: ‘It is with a tendency to envy that the spirit which has taken up residence within us keeps longing’?”
Actually there is no single Bible verse that the disciple James can definitely be said to be quoting. Perhaps he was simply giving a summary, as it were, of a basic idea found in a number of verses.
Because no specific verse in the Hebrew Scriptures matches James’ wording, certain commentators have suggested that he was quoting from some apocryphal or lost writings. However, the inspired writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures consistently used the expression
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