Whenever you read or hear the word success, what comes to mind? If I were a betting man, I would think it would be a sure wager that the answer would not be knowing and doing the will of God, even though we live in a “Christian” nation founded upon Judeo-Christian values. Most believers today will probably associate success with gold rather than God whenever they hear that word – success! Naturally, bringing God into any discussion falls under the forbidden category of religion like politics; it is highly controversial because it is treated as a personal, private matter. Christianity is personal, for sure, but far from being private (e.g., Mt 5:16)!
Today, E Pluribus Unum
(out of many, one) should perhaps read, E pluribus Plures (out of many,
many), sowing division rather than connecting! Today reminds me of a similar spirit that lasted 300+
years during a dark period of Israel’s history, which never really goes away on an individual basis (Jdg 17:6b),
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was
right in his own eyes (emphasis mine, cf.
Deut 12:8; Prov 12:15; 14:12; 16:2; Eccl 11:9).
With this year of our 250th
national birthday, North American culture continues to be saturated with
ego-driven mania (meism = magnified ego) and materialism. It is
not too difficult to understand a secular success consciousness when the
majority of its citizens are obsessing over possessions (the lust of the flesh),
pleasure (lust of the eyes), and power (the pride of life). This is the thinking
and the way of the evil secular world-system, yes (cf. 1 Jn 2:15-17)?
The 3-Ps above are the objectives
of secular success. They are not evil per se but amoral; it becomes evil when
people allow it to negate God’s will in the matter. Christians begin to
backslide whenever they aspire to have one or all of these 3-Ps even if it
means being out of the will of God in the pursuit thereof!
Money is not a root of
all sorts of evil (cf. Deut 8:18), for we need it to live or use in the service
of the Lord in some way, etc. But the love of money, however, is
the problem; gold has replaced God (cf. Mt 6:24)! People are led astray
into thinking that all their problems will go away if they only had more money.
The ugly truth about the love of money is that it creates more problems than it resolves! With that
said, ask yourself, “Who in the world is buying into that notion that it is
better not to be dependent upon the Lord!?” The world system headed up by
Lucifer, a.k.a., Satan.
For the love of money (philarguria, lit., an affection or fondness for
silver, which, btw, is a character trait of false teachers: 1 Pet 5:2; 2 Pet
2:1-3, 15) is a root of all sorts of evils,
and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith [fallen into false teaching (2 Tim 2:17-18) or become
spiritually unfruitful (Lk 8:14)] and
pierced themselves with many griefs [1
Tim 6:10, emphasis mine].
Make sure that your way of
life is free from the love of money,
being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert
you, nor will I ever forsake you’ (Heb 13:5,
emphasis mine).
What we have in Hebrews 13:5 is
one of the most emphatic promises in Scripture and one of the most neglected
promises of God available to all believers! You don’t see this in English
translations of Heb 13:5, but there are five negations in the Greek to
emphasize the impossibility of Jesus Christ ever abandoning us. It is a
five-times-never-going-to-happen or “never, no, never, no, never forsake you,”
and the very reason we can be content in every situation because God is in us and with us (cf.
Jn 10:28; Rom 8:35-39; Psa 23:4; to be crystal clear: cf. Rom 8:9, if you are
not born from above, these verses do not apply)!
There is an immeasurable
difference between secular success and Scriptural success, as different as
temporal is from eternal! Selah.
Some errant religions have an
answer to circumvent all of the financial struggles or woes by promoting a “you
can do something about those inequalities in your life,” via a misleading “prosperity
gospel” doctrine that dresses materialism in religious clothing as a signature
of spirituality! All you have to do is “sow a seed in faith!” It’s insidious
and ungodly and will cause you to wander from God’s will for your life by
embracing the wrong priority (cf. Mt 6:33) and failing to put Jesus first (Col
1:18)! Avoid these false teachers! It is a no-brainer why the prime directive
for believers is Mk 12:30-31.
I have touched upon biblical
success elsewhere in M-G, but take a few moments to look over these Bible
references that reveal what the opposite of biblical success looks like
from the eyes of our Creator: Gen 6:5; 7:23; Jdg 17:6; Prov 21:2; Jn 3:3, 18; Rev
20:15.
No one can be a “biblical success” apart from personally
experiencing God’s redemptive plan of salvation; this is the bedrock truth to a
glorious future! Without the Holy Spirit living within a repentant heart (Rom 8:9),
biblical success in the eyes of God is absolutely impossible to achieve
(cf. Jn 15:5; Php 4:13). Sadly, the truth of biblical success is so simple that
some people are surprised and diverted by its simplicity, but in reality, its profundity
runs very deep. Here it is again, but expanded a little, word-wise – “for your
life,”
Biblical success is knowing and doing the will of God for
your life.
This view of biblical success integrates
nicely with the prime directive of Scripture mentioned in Mark 12:30-31,
(Mar 12:30) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR
HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR
STRENGTH.’
(Mar 12:31) “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Let’s expand our working model of biblical success just a little
further!
Biblical success is knowing
and doing God’s will for our lives because we love Yahweh with the totality of our
being and love our neighbor as ourselves.
This is the template of biblical success; it is not difficult to
understand, yes? A monetary value cannot be placed upon priceless! I truly
believe if you buy into this, you will seek me out in glory and thank me for
how it revolutionized your life! Loving (agapao) Yahweh with the
totality of our being (intellect, emotions, and volition or thinking, feeling, and
doing, or with our thinker, feeler, and chooser and loving (agapao) our
neighbors as ourselves are the motivators behind being a biblical
success in the eyes of our Creator.
Of course, the critics from the world-system will say our position on
success is lame and a pitiful excuse of why we cannot make it in this world! We
are deemed as “weak and pathetic losers.” For us, the pathway to Christlikeness
is the only way to fly! What a more glorious goal this is than gaining the
whole world and leaving it all behind at death for a dark eternity! They can
have this world, for there is a better one waiting for us who believe,
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Php 1:21).
You and I should not care what the darkness has to say about success
anyway, for those of the darkness are rushing towards the sum of all fears – the
lake of fire for all eternity! As Christians heavenbound, we should view
success through the eyes of the Creator rather than the creature.
A biblical view of success is derived from a love (agape) given
to us by the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation (Rom 5:5). Therefore, knowing
and doing God’s will for life is a supernatural thing. It is a love that goes
horizontal (Mk 12:31) only after it goes vertical (cf. Mk 12:30; cf. Col 1:18)!
Success without love (agape) is not biblical and therefore unsuccessful
in the eyes of Yahweh (cf. 1 Cor 13:2)! <><
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