Dr. John MacArthur writes:

Excellence. Not success. Excellence. Not, “How do I stack up with others in my culture?” but “How do I stack up with God?” Not, “Am I better than someone else?” but “Am I the best I can be?” That’s the issue. Always.

Paul is calling Timothy to excellence and calling me to excellence and calling you to excellence. And so we need to look at our lives, don’t we? All you can be is all you can be. And if you try to be more you’ll be a pocket watch hanging in front of Big Ben and nobody will know you’re there and your elevation will be your annihilation. And if you pursue success you’ll compromise. But if you pursue excellence you can’t compromise. Excellence doesn’t have any room for compromise. You can go to the cheap route to success but it will cost you everything to go the route of excellence. You can get your success here and now or you can have excellence reward you for ever and ever and ever.

The choice is yours and it’s yours everyday, every hour of every day. It comes down to that.