18. How can we strengthen our brotherly love for our elders? 18 “Remember those who are taking the lead.” (Read Hebrews 13:7, 17.) When we think about the hard work that our elders do for us—all without financial reward—our brotherly love and feelings of appreciation for them are strengthened. Never would we want them to lose their joy or to sigh because of something we do. Rather, by our obedience and submission, we “give them extraordinary consideration in love because of their work.”—1 Thess. 5:13.
I never was a JW, so take this comment for what it's worth.
Even discounting the 'jwspeak' language used (which frequently jars with me and - I'm sure - a lot of 'normal' people) this reads like something you might expect to find in a North Korea press release exhorting the populace not to grumble about rations being reduced again. Shades of '1984'.
My personal experience of elders is limited to two men who admitted to being such in (separate) visits to my door. They were, to be honest, less than impressive - not just because they didn't display much engagement, joy, charisma, etc., but because they weren't very good at doing what they were there for, i.e. selling the org. I can't imagine that many people they spoke to were tempted 'in' by their demeanour.
I watched the ARC proceedings. Apart from the evidence obtained, I found watching the jw hierarchy in action very telling. Here on display were all the 'ranks' from local elders through to GB. It was a fairly pitiful display, I thought. If I came across someone tempted to join the jws, I'd recommend they watch the ARC videos and ask the question 'Are you sure that these are the sort of people to whom you want to submit many aspects of your life?'.
(As a side comment: the ARC sessions reminded me a great deal of my time as a cop, especially on the Fraud Squad, interviewing suspects - and later watching them giving evidence in court disastrously trying to defend or explain their actions. It rarely ended well for them.)
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