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Because “Yes” Meant Yes

In urging truthfulness, Jesus Christ once said, “Let your word Yes mean Yes.” (Matthew 5:37) By following this counsel, and also by being alert to opportunities to share the Bible’s message with others, Christians may have very rewarding experiences. This is illustrated by the following report from an eastern European land:

While painting some rooms for a certain woman, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses spoke about Jehovah God, His wonderful future purpose for mankind and other Scriptural subjects. But the Witness was unable to arrange for a return visit and wondered what was hindering the woman, since he knew her to be a good-natured and modest person.

The Witness reports: “When I finished my job, she paid me and asked whether I would help her to put the furniture back into the rooms, since she did not have anybody to help her. I promised to return about 9 p.m. to help her.” He returned that night, bringing along a helper, another man who was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It took the two men only ten minutes to put the furniture in place. They then talked briefly to the woman about God’s kingdom and its blessings, and left.

Two years later, this woman again asked the Witness to paint her rooms. In writing down her name and address, he asked whether she had thought about the Biblical things he had told her. She answered: “Yes, and in the meantime I have been baptized.” Asked how this had come about, she replied:

“You really told me many nice things from the Bible and I liked what you said. I did not, however, take it seriously. But when you promised to put the furniture back in place, I thought: If this man keeps his word, then he is truly a servant of God. When you returned, even with a helper, and did not take any money for it, I resolved to occupy myself seriously with the Bible. After two or three days I went to the market. There I met a witness of Jehovah who already had talked to me about the Bible several times. . . . A short time later that woman started a Bible study with me, and eight months thereafter I was baptized.”

So this is how it came about that this woman got baptized in symbol of her dedication to God. Now she, too, was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This came about because a Christian had kept his word. His “Yes” meant Yes.