In military school they said at 19 you are a 1 year old adult. I liked that because it emphasizes the transition into the next phase of life
Jahrule - That’s the first and only statement of wisdom I have ever heard uttered about the military.
As for watchtower appointing 18 year old babies as elders: Spirituality is not something someone possesses at a young age as it’s a state of mind, not of experience. It’s neither of experience either, but of understanding wisdom. Watchtower mistakes conformity for maturity, because their motive is control. They refer to themselves as slaves and indeed, they both promote and reward their own slaves for doing as they are told. Thus another army quotation: “You are not paid to think. If you need to think we put a stripe on your arm and pay you for it.” (Or don’t pay you for it if you’re a JW).
On the other hand, the fruit of (mature) love, were it promoted and understood, is freedom and joy in service to Jehovah and that is engendered through insight and understanding of the spirit of love. So what exactly is the Spirit? Far be-it from me to own that knowledge, but what I sense within myself is that it is the
living principle upon which the entire creation is founded. It is the only principle that demands one’s life to preserve it, because without it, there cannot be the establishment of the true expression of unity in living together for the benefit of all. Thus the encapsulation of the meaning of the word “love”. Perhaps this is why Jehovah stated that to disregard that principle would result in death because the realisation in the sense of love for all things is the sole principle in which eternity can be tolerated, expanded, and enjoyed by all. It is a positive entanglement that binds everyone to the same principle as a guiding, inwardly experienced desire to live peaceably in a sense of joy and reciprocation of that joy - love in living. One does not need or require instruction for that. It is the soul of our existence - it requires development though.
Maybe then that is the motive of our existence (I don’t claim to know) but what then of the engendering of love within ourselves as the expression of conformity to that principle? We must ask ourselves what the inward price is of our love for righteousness toward all. We are stunted really in our language vocabulary to express this adequately because is an ethereal value toward one another and our creator. An attachment that is both protective and jealous (as Jehovah points out of Himself) - it is after all, right to be jealous of such an attribute to protect both its application and meaning - and needs at all times to be experienced to be of value. Is this not how we feel towards our spouse for example? It is probably wisdom to leave the issue there because at such a point, the expression of love passes into the motivation of the heart and only Jehovah can see into that heartfelt degree of purity within our experience of the gift of life that He has given us. But we know it’s there, do we not? And it is an expression of that, that by degrees is and would be offered to all living people. The Bible points to these “different” forms of love, but it springs from the very same principle. And thus, these are the elements of expressive love that inwardly and outwardly we must develop in recognition of our service and understanding of the attributes of Jehovah and to one another.