It would be interesting to take a poll to see what the general public considers a man’s highest calling to be. What is the greatest honor a man can receive? What is the greatest work he can do? Would it be a president or a king? Some might think that life’s greatest achievement would be to become surpassingly wealthy. Or would it be to be honored in life by the high and mighty and then in death be buried with history’s great heroes? Just what is the best that life can give to us?

         Someone has given the answer that we believe surpasses all others. Life’s greatest honor and highest vocation is expressed in four simple words, “The man of God.” We may express the same truth in other words, but probably none do a better job of setting forth a man’s highest calling.

         “The man of God” is, first of all, the man belonging to God. Sometimes used especially speak of the prophet or the evangelist, the term is really one of much broader significance. It includes all those who have committed themselves into His hands for salvation, strength, substance, and service. The man of God is that one who has committed himself to the will of God whatever it may be. He is one of the instruments of God for doing God’s work in the world. If, in the wisdom of God, he is a doorkeeper instead of an evangelist, that is not a matter of great concern.

         May our values be such that we would rather be “the man of God” than anything else in the world!

 

-Carl Kitzmiller, in Word and Work, Vol. LVII, No. 9, September 1963