Is Your Best Good Enough?

THERE is a proverb that speaks of four things as never being satisfied, as never saying, “Enough.” Sometimes Jehovah’s witnesses, as they listen to congregation servants discuss field service, may think these servants could have been listed as a fifth class that never says, “Enough.” It may seem that they are never satisfied, as they urge better meeting attendance, more home Bible studies and increased door-to-door activity. But this is as it should be. To have servants who say “It is enough” before the work is finished would be disastrous to the congregation. Servants should encourage us to greater activity and urge us to improve our ministry, should keep us from becoming self-satisfied and overconfident. Remember, “let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall.”—1 Cor. 10:12, NW; Prov. 30:15, 16.

But you may say, “I’m doing my best now. How can I do more? Isn’t my best good enough?” It may be, it may not. Is your best the best possible for you? Does your best get better? Your best may be poor because you do not try to improve it. Should you not make an advance toward greater maturity so that your future best will be much better than your present best? Sometimes it is a question of Can we do better? but more often it is a question of Will we do better? Are we getting the most from the abilities we possess, or could our best be better if we applied ourselves more diligently? A doctor may have ability but be mediocre because he failed to apply himself at medical school and during his internship. He may do his best with the knowledge he has, but his patients die because he has not developed to the full the ability he has. His best is not good enough, since he could have made it much better. So it is with the minister engaged in spiritual healing. He has a certain amount of ability. Has he developed it by study, by regular meeting attendance, by participating in the training program for his improvement? Does his best measure up to the fullness of his ability? If through negligence or laziness we do not develop, and because of that our best is poor, it is not good enough.—Matt. 25:15.

To improve your best improve your love. We say we love Jehovah. Do we really love him? Real love is not mere sentimentality, but finds expression in action: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments.” Just as the body without the breath is dead, and faith without works is dead, so also love without works is dead. To show a lively love for Jehovah we must obey his commands, and his commands embrace everything we have, all we are: “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.” In answer to Jewish religionists Jesus quoted this from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. They knew the words well, for they were in the phylacteries or scripture-containing cases they tied on their arm and forehead, and they repeated the words in their morning and evening prayers. But Jesus told the people that it was not the ones merely saying “Master, Master” that would enter the kingdom of heaven, but those that did Jehovah’s will. So their hypocritical and repeated declarations of love for Jehovah were valueless when unsupported by obedience to Jehovah’s commands.—1 John 5:3; Mark 12:29, 30; Matt. 7:21, NW.

WITH WHOLE STRENGTH AND WHOLE MIND

We do not want to be two-faced like the hypocritical Pharisees. Can we say the words they quoted so much and mean them? Do we love Jehovah with our whole strength, whole mind, whole soul and whole heart? Remember, to love means to obey. Do we love him with our whole strength, which means using our physical energies in his service? In witnessing to others about the truth we might exhaust ourselves walking, knocking, talking, doing it at door after door for hour after hour. We would be loving Jehovah with our whole strength, but it would not be enough. It would be commendable physical zeal, as industrious as energetic ants that sluggards are told to consider. (Prov. 6:6) But more than physical strength is needed. Army ants, for example, march in columns, and in unusual circumstances sometimes go in circles, the head of the column swinging around and following the rear members. They march themselves to death, milling in this circle for days until they drop in their tracks. They use up their whole strength, but not very wisely. We should love Jehovah with our strength, showing zeal in his service. But to exhaust ourselves walking and knocking and talking is not enough. We must love with our whole mind also.

Jehovah gives certain commands for our minds. If our minds love Jehovah they will obey these instructions. Joshua was told to read to himself God’s law day and night. The righteous are to meditate in it day and night. Christians are told what to fill their minds with: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things.” Does your mind show it loves Jehovah by obediently considering these things continually and meditating in his Word day and night?—Phil. 4:8, NW; Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2.

Or is your mind cluttered with worldly thinking? Satan is sending out his propaganda to shape men’s minds to his purposes. It pours forth from newspapers and magazines, blares out of radios, flashes from television screens, and even saturates the comic books. Satan is seeking to brainwash all humanity with floods of propaganda, to drown godliness from men’s minds by his torrents of dirty water of demonic expressions. As a result, minds that turn from the old world to rely on Jehovah’s new world need a cleansing “with the bath of water by means of the word.” Has your mind taken this turn for the better? Then you must “quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over.” Does your mind resist Satan’s brainwashing, turning instead to a bath in truth waters that cleanses it of filth and lies? Has it obeyed the command to be made over and transformed, no longer being fashioned and shaped by worldly thinking? Satan and his system hate minds that think for themselves, that do not conform to the mass mind molded by propaganda. If a person thinks deeply he may be called names, such as “egghead.” But neither physical violence nor psychological warfare will cave in the mind that loves Jehovah, for there is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint.” Love enables us to overcome restraining fear and “have freeness of speech in the day of judgment.”—Eph. 5:26; Rom. 12:2; 1 John 4:18, 17, NW; Rev. 16:13, 14.

There must be freeness of speech of the right kind, not just glib wordiness. Jehovah commands our mind to be able to answer: “Always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.” Has our mind shown love for Jehovah by obeying this command, by absorbing the knowledge necessary to defend our beliefs and give strong reasons for the hope we have concerning the new world? Can we answer, not to our satisfaction, but to the questioner’s satisfaction? Have we applied our mind to the utmost in study so that we can handle the truth effectively, with no cause for shame at being unable to refute opposers? “Do your utmost to present yourself approved to God, a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright.” Does our mind serve up answers approved by God or shameful to us? Does our mind not only contain the words of truth but handle them rightly? A mind that really loves Jehovah will be so trained.—1 Pet. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:15, NW.

Of what good is it to use our whole strength going in the service if our mind cannot direct our tongue to say the right things when we get to the doors? Willingness or an untrained best is not good enough. Willingness to prove the trinity false is not enough, but the knowledge to show it false is also needed. When witnessing we do not want to be always walking from house to house, climbing stairs, knocking on doors, talking to people, and failing to convince. We want to walk, climb, knock, talk and succeed. We must train our mind to direct our tongue to defeat false doctrines, to show trinity false, immortal soul pagan, purgatory nonexistent, and to paint a glorious picture of the new world, to give hope and comfort. Can it do so? Does its best fall short of that? If so, its best is not good enough. Our mind’s best must become better, be improved, be trained by meditation and study and instruction so that the words it directs the tongue to utter will uproot entrenched traditional dogmas and overturn false reasonings and bring thoughts into conformity with Biblical truth. Our mind can do this if it obeys Jehovah’s commands concerning its training, and the mind that loves will obey.—2 Cor. 10:4, 5.

WITH WHOLE SOUL AND WHOLE HEART

One might use the greater part of his strength in Jehovah’s service, and effectively use a mind well trained in handling the word of truth, yet nullify all this by improper conduct from time to time. Such a person would not be loving Jehovah with his whole soul. “Soul” refers to one’s life, one’s conduct at all times. We must love Jehovah with our whole soul or life, not just a part of it. A Christian is never off duty from Christianity; it is a twenty-four-hours-a-day service. We must not only preach and attend meetings and study, but also conform to Jehovah’s moral laws and measure up to his principles in our everyday living. The apostle Paul was aware of this, and said: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” His preaching work would not save him from disapproval if he did not live a morally clean life at all times. There is a battle between the mind educated according to Jehovah’s law and the body of flesh with its inborn sinful tendencies and desires, and Paul browbeat his body to keep it enslaved to the divine law in his mind. The figurative garments that identify us as Jehovah’s witnesses cannot be set aside while we temporarily clothe ourselves with the works of worldly immorality. Our love is not like a clerical garment that can be laid aside while the wearer dons civilian clothes to go on a fleshly spree. That would not be loving Jehovah with our whole soul, with our whole life.—1 Cor. 9:27, NW; Rom. 7:15-25.

Certainly this would seem to cover everything, but it does not. In addition to loving Jehovah with our whole strength and whole mind and whole soul, we must also love him with our whole heart. The heart refers figuratively to feelings or affections, and is called the seat of motive, the source that motivates us to act one way or another. And since love is expressed by action, since it impels us to act and is a strong motive for acting in certain ways, the heart symbolizes the seat of love. So to love Jehovah with the whole heart means to obey him out of motives of love, love for him or for our fellow man. One might use strength and mind and conduct himself daily as Jehovah decrees, but do it all out of selfishness. That would not be acceptable. Service must be from the heart, done out of love and with a spirit of joy and cheerfulness. “Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”—2 Cor. 9:7, NW.

Just as love without works is dead, so works without love are dead. Paul said that if he spoke in tongues of men and angels it would not amount to anything if he did not have love. If he prophesied and had all knowledge and understanding and faith sufficient to transplant mountains but had no love, it would be as nothing. If he gave all his belongings to feed others, spent his body in the service, or handed it over to persecutors for destruction, yet lacked love, he would have no profit at all. Love must motivate our service.—1 Cor. 13:1-3.

Again it is asked, Do we really love Jehovah? With whole strength, whole mind, whole soul, whole heart? Does service have first call on our strength? Are our minds filled with scriptures? If they are in the Bible, why are they not in our minds? Too much material? Perhaps. Too little study? More likely. Does our everyday living reflect our love for Jehovah? And is it from the heart? The requirements are heavy when carefully analyzed, are they not? Even our best is not always good enough, and we must improve. For example, in 1918, when Christ came to the temple, the anointed on earth were trying to do their best, but it was not good enough. Why, the Bible even says that if the tribulation of Armageddon had come then, no flesh would have been saved! But because the anointed were sincerely trying to do the best they knew how, Jehovah extended mercy, corrected them, purged them of wrong ideas, and allowed time for them to improve their service so that it would be acceptable. Their best had to become better before he could accept it.—Matt. 24:22.

So always do your best, and always try to make it better. Appreciate servants that encourage you to do more, to do better, rather than lull you into a false feeling of security by saying you are doing enough now and should be satisfied with that. Be diligent to make your present best better, for there is room for improvement until we become perfect, and full and complete perfection in Jehovah’s sight will not come to earth’s inhabitants until the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign. Then our best will always be good enough.