God changes the world through the people who respond to His call with faith throughout human history. In the Bible, we see key figures who lived out their calling from God\u2014such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David. In the New Testament, Jesus, who is the perfect model of following the Father\u2019s call, called His disciples, taught them about the Kingdom of God, and, after His crucifixion and resurrection, gave them the Great Commission. Jesus also called Peter personally, asking him to \u201cfeed my sheep.\u201d Furthermore, Jesus called Paul as an apostle, on the way to Damascus, for the purpose of commissioning him to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. Several decades later, as the Gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire, Paul, while he was imprisoned, wrote a letter to the Christians in Ephesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.\u201d (Ephesians 4:1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The heart of the Good News is that there is one God, the Creator of this world, who calls each of us personally. What is a divine calling? First, God has called us into life itself, creating us in His image\u2014imago Dei<\/em>\u2014and giving us the gift of being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our humanness is a response to God\u2019s calling. Second, God has called us to be Christians, the followers of Jesus Christ, with a new identity as children of God and members of the church, the body of Christ. In the previous chapters of Ephesians, Paul teaches that the call to become a Christian is by God\u2019s grace, not by our own deeds. Furthermore, God has already prepared \u201cgood works\u201d (Ephesians 2:10) for His believers to carry out. Each of us is called to a unique purpose\u2014whether in work, business, enterprise, or ministry, serving and restoring this world as part of God\u2019s redemptive works. Some refer to this as a \u201cspecial calling\u201d or \u201cparticular calling\u201d toward the missio Dei<\/em>, God\u2019s mission in the world. Living out God\u2019s call is transformative, shaping us to become more like Christ as we journey toward our final call of this life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s call has profoundly impacted my own life. I grew up in a pastor\u2019s family, which was quite unique in Japan, where only 1% of the population is Christian. By God\u2019s grace, I experienced a spiritual revival when I was 14 years old, and the following year, in the youth-conference, I received God\u2019s call to enter full-time ministry. However, God first directed me toward a career in business as preparation for future ministry. Then, I truly loved the work. The marketplace fascinated me as a place to build a successful career, earn a good income, and gain recognition. While fully engaged in management consulting firm, God called me again with a clear voice: \u201cMichito, what are you doing? I called you to become a pastor.\u201d That moment was my \u201cburning bush.\u201d I stepped away from my business career and finally moved to Vancouver, Canada, to study theology in preparation for full-time ministry. Yet, God\u2019s calling extended beyond becoming a pastor. He gave me a specific calling to contextualize the Gospel into Japanese culture and society, especially to those in the marketplace. Responding to what I sensed were Macedonian-like calls from Christian business professionals, I started the ministry \u201cKlesis\u201d in 2022 (\u201cklesis<\/em>\u201d means \u2018calling\u2019 in Greek) to encourage business professionals in Japan to discover their calling from God in their workplaces. As Paul said in Romans 8:28, \u201cAnd we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.\u201d God\u2019s calling weaves together all our experiences for the purpose of His mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From today\u2019s scripture, there are two things we can learn about how we can live out our calling. First, Paul encourages us to \u201cbe completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love\u201d (verse 2). Listening to God\u2019s voice and obeying His call is not easy; it\u2019s often more challenging than we expect. In the Klesis fellowship, a Christian entrepreneur honestly shared, \u201cI found that God\u2019s call isn\u2019t glamorous; it\u2019s a difficult path that requires humility and patience.\u201d It can be incredibly challenging to love colleagues and employees in difficult business situations. Without God\u2019s grace and mercy, the guidance of the Holy Spirt, we cannot act rightly in our business. I thank God that these participants have begun the journey to see and understand their \u201ccallings\u201d and to respond faithfully within their business fields. Calling is formed through our real lives rather than discovered like treasure; it brings a transformative process toward Christ-likeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, being completely humble and embracing humility has always been a challenging area in my life. I tend to become a workaholic, overly focused on work\u2014a weakness I inherited from my father\u2019s side of the family. During my pastoral ministry at a local church in Osaka, I struggled to stop myself from overworking under the pressure of responsibilities. In my final year, I worked approximately 340 hours a month, taking only one or two days off. While I was fully committed to God\u2019s calling in ministry, I came to realize that I had completely neglected God\u2019s calling to be a father and husband, as well as to live as a human being in the healthy rhythm of life God has prepared for us. Looking back, I see that my overworking may have caused me to miss opportunities to experience God\u2019s amazing power in the ministry. Being completely humble and embracing humility before God means overcoming selfish desires for recognition, approval, or even the fear of failure. Instead, it means listening to God\u2019s call and faithfully living out His calling in every aspect of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, \u201cmaking every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit\u201d is essential for the community. Paul says, \u201cMake every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace\u201d (verse 3). We are often inclined to focus on \u201cindividual\u201d or \u201cdistinctive\u201d callings for personal purposes. However, as Christians, we must remember that our Caller is the one true Father, God, who desires unity in the Spirit. Pursuing our divine callings should lead to unity and peace within the Christian community. Cultivating humility and patience, in particular, becomes the foundation of this unity. In today\u2019s world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity\u2014exacerbated by generational disparities and ideological differences\u2014Christians have the unique opportunity to demonstrate the unity of the Spirit to the world. We do this through divine peace, by faithfully living out the calling given to us by the one true God for His mission and purpose. Our model for relationships within the community is the Triune God, bound together by the nature of mutual love, mutual self-giving, and mutual indwelling. Where in your life, family, or communities do you need to make an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit? May we seek God\u2019s guidance to live out our calling and maintain the unity of the Spirit in every part of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We reflected on the meaning of living out our calling through Paul\u2019s message in Ephesians. Let us pray to the God who calls us with His grace and mercy, asking Him to give us the strength to live a life worthy of the calling we have received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God changes the world through the people who respond to His call with faith throughout human history. In the B…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.klesis.or.jp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}