he phrase “Jesus Loves You!” (with or without the exclamation point) is well known. In fact nearly all people on planet earth have heard it which of course to some extent makes the phrase a cliché. But the fact remains that Jesus does love us. He loves you, and he loves me. It can also be admitted that we all sometimes forget that God and his Son loves us. We forget in the sense that we get so wrapped up in the day-to-day pressures of life that we forget to reflect and exemplify Godly Joy as a fruit of His Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22; 1 John 4:8) Due to pressing problems such as stress on the job, making ends meet, health issues, our sinful nature, etc. we can become discouraged. And of course a large source of turmoil for many of us relates to our awakening to the flaws within the Watchtower Organization and its leadership. It has taken the place of Christ for some Witnesses, and many of us too were enmeshed in this false conviction at one time. We are here reading and commenting together on JWS because of our shared confusion and pain, even resentment.
“The majority judged that [Jesus] was bad because he did not conform to their ideas of how the Sabbath should be kept. But the real reason was that Jesus ignored these ecclesiastics [the Scribes and Pharisees]; and this was a cause of deep anger. They excommunicated both Jesus and the man who was the recipient of his goodness.” (Watchtower 1926, February 15, page 60 paragraphs 11-12)
The logic of this article is sound, and it is well-written despite it being a very old quote. So have you ever thought of this notion before? And what does the fact that he was cast out say to us today as modern-day followers of Christ? That Jesus was “excommunicated” or “disfellowshipped” by the religious leaders of his day is not that shocking- we know that is one of the things the Pharisees did to maintain power and control over their fellow brothers and sisters. For anyone that opposed them, it was their ultimate weapon. But why was he disfellowshipped by these ones?
Recent Comments