| Philippians 3:7 – “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” |
We hear much about success today.
People work harder.
They are looking for larger homes and bigger bank accounts.
And they want to rise to the top of their profession, with the largest office and their name on the door to go with it.
And yet, few think about the problems success brings.
Saul, the king of Israel, seemed to be the model of humility until the crown went on his head.
Then he decided he could bypass Samuel and make sacrifices on his own.
And he even decided that he could avoid God’s instructions because he “had a better plan.” So he spared the king of the Amalekites and took oxen and sheep and gold and silver.
At the height of his success, God tore the kingdom from his hands and handed it to another.
We read about scandals involving those with household names. And we ask, “How could that be? They have everything a person could want?”
That is the seduction of success.
The more it has, the more it wants.
It is like a man stranded in an ocean. His mouth grows so parched that he resorts to drinking sea water, which ends up killing him through dehydration.
It was something that the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon ruminated about.
He had known princes and heads of great companies, all with great potential, but dashed on the rocks of their own unmaking.
He observed, “Success exposes a man to the pressures of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplishes the work, that he can continue to do so without my help, and that he will be able to make out with other means whenever he wants to cut me out.”
What makes a man a true success? Listen to Paul:
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
He was climbing the ladder of Judaism and on the fast track to becoming a rabbi.
But then, he gave it all away because something more important than this earth and its pecking order called him.
In Christ—even in the suffering for Christ—he found true success.
While the world does not understand it or agree with it, God rewards those whose success is measured in service and faith. By that measure, are you successful?
- Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
