Jehovah's Witnesses are very fond of using Job 27:5 to "prove" themselves different from hypocritical, compromising churchgoers, as well as "unfaithful" JWs -- "Until i die, I will not renounce my integrity". But was Job's integrity like the "faithfulness" of JW's? For Witnesses, "integrity" is bound up with following the dictates of a group of men in New York -- even when your reason, your conscience, and your reading of Scripture tell you something else. For Job, on the other hand, "integrity-keeping" meant following his clear conscience and DEFYING the "orthodox teachings" and counsel of men -- even when those men were the local elders (wise men), his own close friends, and his wife. So loyal was Job to his own God-trained conscience that not only did he challenge the "wisdom of Uz", and reject the unbelief of his own wife: Job actually demanded an audience with God Himself, where he might defend his own righteousness and vindicate his character! Job's accusers ("comforters") surely should have disfellowshipped him -- not just for the sins which they are sure Job has committed, but for the "clear blasphemy" of declaring HIMSELF righteous instead of vindicating God. -- Job 32:1,2
Jehovah's Witnesses are very fond of using Job 27:5 to "prove" themselves different from hypocritical, compromising churchgoers, as well as "unfaithful" JWs -- "Until i die, I will not renounce my integrity". But was Job's integrity like the "faithfulness" of JW's? For Witnesses, "integrity" is bound up with following the dictates of a group of men in New York -- even when your reason, your conscience, and your reading of Scripture tell you something else. For Job, on the other hand, "integrity-keeping" meant following his clear conscience and DEFYING the "orthodox teachings" and counsel of men -- even when those men were the local elders (wise men), his own close friends, and his wife. So loyal was Job to his own God-trained conscience that not only did he challenge the "wisdom of Uz", and reject the unbelief of his own wife: Job actually demanded an audience with God Himself, where he might defend his own righteousness and vindicate his character! Job's accusers ("comforters") surely should have disfellowshipped him -- not just for the sins which they are sure Job has committed, but for the "clear blasphemy" of declaring HIMSELF righteous instead of vindicating God. -- Job 32:1,2
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