God.” Away back then, in the twentieth century B.C.E., they were willing to forgo many of the comforts the world offered, because their hearts were set on a permanent city that God would build, a heavenly government under which they could live. If they had kept thinking about the place they had left behind, they could have returned to it. But they did not. “Hence God is not ashamed of them, to be called upon as their God.” (Heb. 11:8-16) Is God just as pleased with the course in life that you have taken?

19. (a) Why is ours a time of great urgency? (b) What may cause some who know these things to lose out on the blessings of God’s new system of things, and what timely warning does Jesus give?

¹⁹ We today live in critical times. These are the “last days” of this wicked system of things. Already over fifty-two years have passed since the Kingdom’s establishment in heaven in 1914. The end of six thousand years of human history is very close. The physical facts that mark our time as the “conclusion of the system of things” are unmistakable. (Matt. 24:3) It is a time of great urgency. Do we believe it? The fact is that some who profess to believe it may lose out on the blessings of God’s new system of things because they are not keeping their minds and hearts fixed on the hope ahead. Instead of finding contentment with “sustenance and covering” along with godly devotion, they are being sucked down into the world’s materialistic whirlpool. Their pursuit of the pleasures of the world is more ardent than their service to God. That is why Jesus warns: “Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.”​—Luke 21:34-36.

20. In what way will we be able to continue to prove ourselves to be fruitful Christians?

²⁰ If our love for God abounds, and we have accurate knowledge of his Word, we will not allow ourselves to be drawn aside to worldly pursuits, but will keep our lives oriented around “the more important things.” In this way we will prove to be fruitful Christians, “filled with righteous fruit, which is through Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise.”​—Phil. 1:9-11.

Servants of God Full Time

1. (a) How many of Jehovah’s witnesses are full-time ministers? (b) What is God’s will for true Christians as shown by Jesus, and how did the early Christians respond to it?

ALL of Jehovah’s witnesses, who are baptized Christians, are full-time ministers. They have dedicated their lives to God to do his will, and, having studied the Bible, they know what that will is. Jesus Christ, as Jehovah’s Chief Witness, set the example for them. (Rev. 3:14) He was a preacher of the good news of the kingdom of God, and he took that message to the people wherever they were. (Mark 1:14, 15; Luke 8:1; 4:15, 16; 5:27) He trained his disciples to share in that work. Before leaving them he commissioned them to be witnesses of him “to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) They did not conclude that only a select few were to do this work, while the others looked on. Even secular historians who ridiculed Christianity testify that early Christians who supported themselves as “labourers, shoemakers, farmers” were, nevertheless, zealous preachers of the gospel.a The book A History of Civilization (by C. Brinton, J. Christopher and R. Wolff) reports: “The Christian was by no means content with the prospects of his own salvation. His acceptance of the will of God was not passive. He was from the first an ardent missionary, anxious to convert and save others.”

2. What evidence is there that that spirit is yet alive?

² That spirit has not died out; it is yet alive among the modern-day Christian witnesses of Jehovah. They take note of Jesus’ prophetic declaration for our day, namely: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) In nearly two hundred lands Jehovah’s witnesses devote upward of 14,000,000 hours each month to this very work that Jesus foretold. And, in addition to their preaching, they also regularly attend and participate in congregation meetings.

3. How is it true that each baptized witness of Jehovah is a full-time minister?

³ Yet the preaching of the “good news” and the attending of meetings, even along with all the personal study and reading that one may do at home, does not fill the day of each one of Jehovah’s witnesses, does it? So how can it be said that they are all full-time ministers? Because every aspect of their lives is affected by their ministry. They may be secularly employed as laborers, farmers, office workers or in some other business, but they are, first of all, ministers of God. It is what they believe and teach as ministers that influences their choice of secular work, and this is what makes them conscientious workers. (Col. 3:22, 23) Their secular work may change, but not the ministry. Whatever they do is with an awareness that they are ministers of God. It influences their training of their children, their conduct when shopping in the market, when attending school, when engaging in recreation or sitting down to a meal. “Whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.” (1 Cor. 10:31) Not only in speech, but also in conduct, they endeavor to ‘let their light shine,’ that others may, as a result of what they observe, glorify God. (Matt. 5:14-16; 1 Pet. 2:12; 2 Cor. 6:3, 4) So their being full-time ministers means that they are ministers of God twenty-four hours a day, every day. Is that the way you think of yourself​—as a full-time minister of God?

4. (a) Are all of us able to do the same things, and to the same extent, to advance the interests of pure worship? (b) What motive in service on our part is well pleasing to God?

⁴ Of course, some may be in position to do more in certain ways to advance the interests of pure worship than others. Not all qualify to be overseers, nor do all excel as public speakers, but each one does make a valuable contribution to the spiritual welfare of the congregation if he does in real earnest what he is able to do. (Rom. 12:6-8) So, too, not all are able to devote the same amount of time to the field ministry, but if we publicly praise the name of God, not grudgingly or under compulsion nor because we are seeking to please men, but because our hearts overflow with gratitude to our loving Father in heaven, this is well pleasing to God.​—2 Cor. 9:7; Heb. 13:20, 21.