Once we are free from the need to showcase our abilities, to climb the ecclesiastical ladder, and to gain power and influence, we are also free to enjoy Jesus and the privilege of serving him. Our fulfillment comes not from our position in our church or organization but from the high privilege of serving our beloved Lord.
Whatever You Do, Glorify
The ambition of any sincere servant of God is to glorify God through his or her life and ministry. Paul said, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Our desire is to do well in ministry so that God is glorified. We want our work to be great so that people will see God’s greatness, not to show off our talents or to be greater than others. But today we are hampered in this pursuit by false values, which present other kinds of ambitions.
False Understandings of Success
There is great freedom in being released from bondage to the world’s standards of success. A sinful spirit of competition and envy and the desire to be better than others can deprive us of that freedom. In a media-saturated age with multiple competitions for measuring who is the “greatest” in numerous fields, it is easy to fall into the trap of measuring our significance using unbiblical criteria. We have lists of the greatest athletes, sexiest men and women, most popular or best actors and actresses, and so on. It’s easy for those who don’t make those lists to feel insignificant and inferior. Ours is a celebrity culture that measures significance based on things like fame, affluence, and the scope of our work.
A false understanding of success is a major cause for many people feeling unfulfilled and unhappy as they serve God. I have seen books and heard talks that claim that everyone can be a leader if they follow the right prescription for leadership. If that were true, then those who are not leaders will be disappointed by their failure to achieve the “success” of being a leader. The biblical view is that leadership is a call, and those gifted with leadership ability will receive that call. One might say that only Peter, James, John, and Judas (for the wrong reasons) were famous out of the twelve apostles. But there is nothing in the Bible that says the others were not following God’s will for their lives. Paul takes great pains to say that all Christians are equally significant whether their gifts give them prominence or not (1 Cor. 12:14–25).
Envy and a competitive spirit were problems among Jesus’s disciples. Once they were arguing about who was the greatest, and Jesus’s response was, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). I am convinced the most Christians who say they believe in the full authority of the Bible do not accept the authority of these words in their own lives. If for some reason they become “last,” they get angry. For instance, what if someone else gets a promotion they think they deserve? Some let this anger fester inside of them until it ruins their joy and transforms them into people controlled by bitterness.
The disciples didn’t immediately learn the lesson Jesus was trying to teach them. A little later, James and John asked for seats at the right and the left of Christ in the kingdom—a request that infuriated the other ten disciples (Mark 10:36–41). Again, this display of unbiblical ambition prompted some profound teaching by Jesus. He showed them that the world’s method is to value those who have great authority over others (Mark 10:42). This is a measure of significance and success among Christians today too. We ask, “How many staff do you have working under you?”