By Gustav Krös
11/09/2025
In my Just a Minute of last month, I wrote about the pursuit of maturity, which needs to be done within a community of believers, and that you will only excel in it if you contribute to the community with what the Lord has gifted you. I stated that true maturity is only attained in service to the rest of the Body.
It is therefore a fundamental step in the pursuit of maturity to understand what you have been called to contribute to the community of believers to which you belong.
In 1 Timothy 4:13-16, Paul addresses this matter with Timothy when he tells him: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Paul also reminds Timothy of this in 2 Timothy 1:6 when he tells him: “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
We see Paul encouraging Timothy not to neglect his gift, but to develop it and use it in service to the community of believers where he finds himself. This reality is beautifully illustrated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, where he compares the Body of Christ to a human body, with all its different parts. Today, nothing has changed since Paul wrote that comparison to the church in Corinth. We all remain part of the Body of Christ, with a specific calling to fulfil and gifts to use, in order for the Body to fulfil its calling. As Paul states in verse 18: “But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
The question is thus whether you know what role God has called you to fulfil in His Body. The reality is that one can have more than one role to fulfil, as we see Paul stating in 2 Timothy 1:11: “And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.” So, you can have more than one role to fulfil, or you can have more than one spiritual gift, and God can even change these from season to season. The important aspect remains whether we are actually doing and pursuing what God has called us to do.
In relation to this, I once listened to a message from Derek Prince, where he said that once he knew that God had called him to be a teacher of the Word, he committed himself to be the best teacher he could become.
That made a big impact on me, and yet it is such a simple equation to grasp. If I have dedicated my life to God and He calls me to be a teacher, prophet, pastor, or, in the realm of employment, a carpenter, doctor, or lawyer, then I should surely want to fulfil that role to the best of my capability, because I am doing it in service to Him.
It’s as Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” It just makes sense that if each member of the Body excelled in what they were called to do, then the Body would excel in glorifying Christ and fulfilling the purposes of God. But the spiritual battle is real, and the devil is a master at distracting us and getting us involved in things that steal our focus and our time from doing what God has called us to do.
It is exactly as Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:4 when he says: “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” But it feels like the devil excels in getting us entangled in ‘civilian affairs’ and, in the process, we neglect what God has called us to do.
We should therefore be vigilant against the things in our lives that the devil uses to distract us from bringing fulfilment to God’s calling on our lives—those things that are truly worthless and only steal our time and our focus. As David says in Psalm 101:3: “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” And also, Psalm 119:37 says: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”
As we thus pursue spiritual maturity by serving the Body of Christ in relation to our calling and gifts, may it be our focus not to get distracted but to do it to the best of our ability.
Paul summarises this beautifully in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 when he says: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
May we truly honour God in the way that we pursue the calling that He has placed on our lives.
