 When we think of what it means to be successful, we often think of meeting certain family, financial, and career milestones. We want to graduate college, get a great job, fund a retirement portfolio, and invest our money in the meantime anywhere we can to maximize our ROI. We usually want to do all the things that are expected of us, and that usually arises from the level of success that we observed in the family we were born into. If we came from parents who had a healthy marriage and kids, substantial wealth, master’s or doctoral degrees, we usually will try to achieve those same things (although few people acknowledge where their aspirations come from). And there’s nothing wrong with any of those aspirations. Education, family, career, these are wholesome and meaningful endeavors. But do they define success from a biblical perspective? Before we get to that, I’d like to mention that there is a difference in the idolization of common life goals and simply being a good steward of the money, resources, and time God has blessed you with. It is clearly sinful to covet what others have and to pursue idols of finance and status. However, doing finance and family the right way by preparing for our futures, being loving parents, husbands, wives, and raising our kids in the faith, are all biblically encouraged. 1st Timothy 5:8 (NASB1995) tells us, “8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Sometimes providing for your family and relatives means putting aside money in case of emergencies, investing your money so that you can have money later on for future provision of not only yourself, but also others around you. In Proverbs 31, we see what an excellent wife looks like, and she cares for her family, she feeds them well, and she even earns a side income by selling property. Therefore, it’s clear that we should try to do all the things that provide for our families, so there’s nothing wrong with Roth IRAs, avoiding debt, and saving for the future. In fact, I would say you are being a bad steward of God’s money if you aren’t attempting to manage your finances with humility and excellence. And if you aren’t trying to provide for your family, Paul tells us in 1st Timothy that we are worse than unbelievers! That is very strong language. But even with so much encouragement to be good stewards of God’s grace in our lives in every area, the question remains: Does handling our finances, family, and career, define success for a Christian? Is this where we find a foundation for being successful in our lives? As Christians, it should go without saying that the most supreme example of success in life is Jesus Christ, our Master and Savior. And what trajectory did His life take? It wasn’t exactly the American dream. We don’t see Christ investing in Roth IRAs, building wealth, raising kids, or getting married. We don’t observe Christ living for the things of this world at all. Now, did He work? Of course, He was a carpenter. And there’s nothing wrong with working diligently (that’s biblical!), nor is there anything wrong with those who get married, have kids, and perform exceptionally well financially. But here’s the key, none of those things make us successful as believers. None of those things are the goal, or the ultimate aspiration, of our lives, nor are they the measuring stick by which we gauge how effective we are in this life. It’s not that those things don’t matter, it’s that those things don’t matter most. 1st John 2:15-17 (NASB1995) tells us, “15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” So, what makes us successful in this life? Not the things in this life, not its pursuits, those are simply passing away. They do not last! But, if we do the will of God, we will live forever. Therefore, only our pursuits that are in alignment with the will of God ultimately matter. Thus, the will of God is a candle that we can hold up to our lives, to illuminate how successful we are being in our earthly vessel. How well did Christ do aligning with the will of God? Perfectly. Thus, He was perfectly successful and eternally exists as the standard of comparison. Of course, every Christian will fall short of that standard, but it is nonetheless what we should pursue in faith. With Christ, He completely fulfilled the perfect will of His Heavenly Father to accomplish the prophesied redemption of His people, and Christ did this by being a willing sacrifice on our behalf; thus, He did this of His own volition, in total obedience to the will of God. When we come to Christ in faith, we begin a journey of relationship with God whereby He provides eternal life to our souls (we receive an unalterable salvific status). And following this initiation into grace, we are called to pursue a life of continual obedience to the will of God. Thus, success for the believer is twofold: (1) initiation into grace through faith in Christ, and (2) a lifelong pursuit of obedience to the will of God. So, the measure of success for a Christian, at its most basic level, is quite simple: obedience. Obedience to the will of God. When you think about it, placing your faith in Christ to begin with is an act of obedience to God’s will. I’m not saying it’s an act in the sense that it is a work, placing your faith in Christ is most certainly not a work, otherwise we would be saved by our works and would have reason to boast, and we know we are not saved by our works. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB1995) tells us, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” To be saved, we are simply receiving a gift (grace) through faith in Christ, and that faith in Christ, that trust in Him, is what we are commanded by God to do to inherit His grace. 1st John 3:23 (NASB1995) tells us, “23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” Therefore, we are even following the Father in obedience at the moment of salvation by placing our faith in His Son. Where is the source of such obedient faith? You can read that article here: The Source of Obedient Faith. The Obedient Life: Christ says in John 14:15 (NASB1995), “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” So, if we desire to have a life as believers that is honoring to God (assuming we have already followed the initial command to believe in the Son), then we must pursue the Savior in obedience. And if we do obey Him, then it shows that we really do love Him. If we do not obey Him, then how can we say we love Him? Now, it is not that we keep His commandments, and therefore we love Him. We need not get these important words backwards. Notice the order in which Christ speaks: He mentions love first. It is clearly out of a love for Jesus that we obey Him. The love fuels the obedience. So, if we want to have a successful life in terms of obedience, we simply need to love Jesus. The rest will fall into place. John Piper recently pointed out in a sermon what the nature of Christ’s commandments are in the Gospel of John, and they aren’t a list of moral, sacrificial, and ceremonial prescriptions as we might find throughout the Old Testament. We observe Christ commanding us to follow Him, to rise from the dead, to believe in Him, to abide in Him, to abide in His love, and to receive the Holy Spirit [1]. Piper’s summary point was that to really love Christ is to treasure Him [1]. Truly, if Jesus is the One in whom we are actively seeking deep satisfaction from, then we are loving Him, and we are thus obeying Him. You could think of the Christian life in this manner: from faith to faith, from love to love, from obedience to obedience. The faith fuels the love which fuels the obedience, and the obedience fuels our faith and love because we grow closer in intimacy with our Lord and Savior. And even when we may not have the emotions about God that we hope to have (sometimes we are in a bad place, often times, we struggle dearly), we still should pursue Christ in faith. Why? Because we are commanded to. We are called to cherish and love Him! Simply put, if we savor the Savior, we will be successful in God’s eyes, and we will be effective in building His Kingdom on this side of Heaven. One final beautiful depiction can be found in the Gospel of Matthew, when Christ answers the question about the great commandment. Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB1995) says, “36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”” In Christ’s response to the question about obedience (the commandments), we see Christ weaving a beautiful thread from the Father’s commandments in the Old Testament to the Son’s commandments in the New Testament. They all boil down to loving God! I am currently working through The Screwtape Letters with my Sunday school class, and there is one quote that has stuck out to me boldly as of late, “Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” [2] From the demons’ perspectives, there is nothing worse to their cause than obedient believers who are in dark places. Obedient believers who still cherish and love the Son, who cherish and love God, despite every earthly reason, pitfall, or struggle, that might give them cause to reject Him. Nothing could be more striking in demonstration of this level of obedience, than when Christ Himself sat in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked for the cup to be lifted from Him. Or Job, when his wife told him to curse God and die. And yet… and yet! They still obeyed. While obedience is the measure of success for the Christian, it is only a product of something deeper, and what is deeper in the redeemed heart is a love for Christ that stems from obedient faith. Imagine a large barrel of fermenting red wine. The carbon dioxide gurgles out slowly in the form of bubbles. In this scenario, the volume of bubbles would be the best way to measure the rate of fermentation; but the bubbles are not fermentation, they are a product of it. However, the bubbles are a great way to measure something going on at a deeper chemical level, the process by which yeast converts sugars to alcohol and CO2. It is the same with the believer. The obedience is the product of something going on at a deeper level, our love for God. My prayer for us today is that God will give us the grace to see the Son for who He is, and to cherish Him as He deserves, to love Him! For our obedience will flow as a result of that cherishing of God, may it be the measuring stick by which we see whether we truly love God or not, to see whether we are truly successful in this life, or not. Cite: Faucett, D. (2024). Obedient Faith: Redefining Success for Christians. Science Faith & Reasoning. Retrieved from: https://www.scifr.com/articles/obedient-faith-redefining-success-for-christians References: 1.Piper, J. (2024, July 12). If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/if-anyone-loves-me-he-will-keep-my-word 2.Lewis, C. S. (1995). The Screwtape Letters. Bantam Classics.
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