New Members Tend to Make Mistakes [Opposers Dismythed]

A couple of incidents in Hollywood and the sports world in 2018 regarding a couple of our brothers and sisters that does not reflect well on the organization got me to thinking about the need to help some to consider those incidents from a different perspective.

The people in question were both raised in the truth and one was baptized at a young age and the other was not. Both spent decades away from the truth and have recently returned. In so doing, they display the typical affectations of those who are new in the truth, including: strict adherence to rules and unattractive displays as sin works itself out under the adherence to those precepts. If you know a person claiming to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who demonstrates similar unattractive traits, please look at these two aspects of new members and I think you will gain a new understanding.

Strict Adherence to Rules

It is true that Jehovah’s Witnesses are very strict in regard to health, (2 Corinthians 11:1) neutrality (Matthew 26:52), avoiding false religion, (1 Corinthians 15:33) sexual immorality and blood. (Acts 15:29) That is because the Scriptures make it clear that Christians are not to practice things that contradict a godly life. However, when a new member is not accustomed to how these things are understood, they can tend to be rather zealous in their application and this can come into conflict with things that they have not considered under those rules. But in actuality, these things are not always as cut and dried as they believe them to be, and because of their inconsistency in application, the resulting conflict in choices can reflect badly on their religion.

So if one makes a choice to avoid entering a church, while choosing to depict a cop in a production of some kind, this can come into conflict. In depicting a fictional character, you are going to more likely be depicting a character who is not a Witness. Certainly, playing a cop means your character will carry a gun and be called upon to use it. Being a cop is incompatible with being a Witness. But if you can get past that hurdle, and accept that you are playing a role, then anything else that character does should equally be about playing a role, so long as they are not flat out depicting immorality, such as a sex scene. So entering a church to play out that role would not be in conflict with that decision unless the character enacts false worship. But if you are willing to do one thing and not the other, it is inconsistent. And this is the quagmire that a new member can find theirself in. If you are not willing to enter a church simply to play a role, then you should not be playing that role.

The fact is, there are circumstances in which it is okay to enter a non-Witness place of worship as long as worship services are not in progress, and playing a role is one of them. Certainly, if it sears one’s conscience to do so, then they should not, but again, such a person should seek consistency in their decision-making.

Now, if you are someone on the outside looking in on such a situation with one of our members, then recognize that this conflict is due to that inconsistency in applying what they are learning. Understand that they are trying to be the best Christian they know how and it is not easy for them. They are conflicted in that their old life is clashing with their new one and they have not yet learned how to cleanly navigate the new situation.

Think of it like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car. At first the person is not very good at it, trying to recall every rule and often doing the opposite of good driving, but eventually they become familiar with driving and are no longer concerned with rules so that it is second nature, and can drive a defensive driving course with little difficulty. It just takes time. New drivers make poor choices that lead to wrecks, while longtime drivers often become safer drivers, more adept at making good choices. Such is the case with those who become Christians.

Bad Behavior

Because the new member is trying to adhere to a strict set of rules, they may find themselves frustrated and unfamiliar with how to conduct themselves. Knowing that they are not supposed to get wrathful, they may, in trying to avoid such displays, be led right into doing exactly that. The result to them will be feelings of guilt and embarrassment. Paul put it this way:

“Really, I would not have come to know sin had it not been for the Law. For example, I would not have known covetousness if the Law had not said: ‘You must not covet.’ But sin, finding the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked out in me covetousness of every sort, for apart from law sin was dead. In fact, I was once alive apart from law. But when the commandment arrived, sin came to life again, but I died. And the commandment that was to lead to life, this I found led to death. For sin, finding the opportunity afforded by the commandment, seduced me and killed me through it. … 
“For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate. However, if I do what I do not wish, I agree that the Law is fine. But now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that resides in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I wish, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. If, then, I do what I do not wish, I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me. 
“I find, then, this law in my case: When I wish to do what is right, what is bad is present with me. I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I see in my body another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my body. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law, but with my flesh to sin’s law.”—Romans 7:7-25

In other words, because one has a rule on mind, they end up doing exactly what they are trying to avoid for the very reason that they are trying to avoid it. The behavior is thus “induced” by the rule. But Paul shows us that there is an answer to this: “Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

You see, Jesus freed us from the commandment. No more are we to think about the commandment. Instead, we are to think about how to apply the law of the Christ: love. If that is what preoccupies our minds, then it becomes easy to deal with people fairly. Out of love we will not be interested in choosing sides, publicizing another’s fault in social media and gossip, using harsh words or threats, worshipping anyone but Jehovah God, infringing upon the sexual autonomy of another, our mate or ourselves, or violate the sanctity of Christ’s blood.

Again, if you see one of our members behaving in any of those ways, understand that they have not yet learned how to free themselves from rules and as a result end up enticed by those rules. And again, remember that this is no doubt a source of guilt and embarrassment for them. On behalf of those with more experience, we ask that you be patient with such ones. They are doing the best they know how. With time and patience they will learn how to love from the heart and let go of strict, self-imposed rules.

But if you yourself are a new member and know that you have been doing things like these, you should know that Jehovah understands, which is why he included Paul’s words above in the Bible. Just keep striving to understand what it means to love and rules will no longer be necessary because you ill fulfill them as you learn to view all people with love. As the apostle also said:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.—1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Indeed, when love is properly applied, it will never fail you in any of those ways, but adhering to rules often will. So rely upon Jehovah and respect others the way you would want to be respected. (Matthew 7:12) Be convinced in your own mind and love Jehovah and your neighbor from the heart, then everything will fall into place. (Matthew 22:36-40)


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