What is Success?
Deut 4: 23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Last week we looked at the definition of wicked and discovered that we are wicked every time we forget God or even take Him and His agenda into our consideration and in particular our lives.

I want to look at the word “success” today. It appears for my fellow Americans that this word holds great stock in our way of thinking, eating, living and breathing. We are a nation of winners. Even our entire market driven system and consumer society all point to the one great goal success. One of our great slogans we created from our Declaration of Independence is “The American Dream.” But does the Bible give such great charge to this word, a word whose idea has invaded the church? Let’s consider a few things.

The most common way we think of the word is as follows:
success - a succeeding fully or in accordance with one’s desires
synonyms arrival, well to do, flying colors, go, prosperity, successfulness
related words accomplishment, achievement, attainment; triumph, victory
antonyms failure; nonsuccess, unsuccessfulness

Interesting, the word is only found 19 times in Old Testament; the word does NOT occur in the New Testament!

When the word is used, the context always indicates that the success is God’s and it is of secondary to faithfulness to Him. When God promises success it is accompanied with the strong command of total allegiance to Him and His ways.(see Joshua 1:7-8 for example) Success is only important as it exalts the truth of who God is.
Rather than be preoccupied with success, the disciple of Christ must concern self with the challenge that precedes it, namely, Forget not your faithfulness to God.

Let’s look at the illustration of success and the challenge of fidelity found in the following passage.

Deuteronomy 8: 11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14  when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness,  in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water;  who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you,  to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth,  that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. (NKJV)

Now I know you might protest as say, “Is this not specific to the nation of Israel?” Indeed, and so is the blessing part too. But don’t miss the salient applications to our present situation. Verse 17 would indict us. Yes, we might give lip service to the God for our gain, but if we examined our life practices do they align with God’s practices as found in the totality of the testimony provided to us in the Bible? Need I say the whole book of Jeremiah was proclaimed to a successful people- a people who forgot God?

Perhaps we are addicted to the idol of Success (as we understand it). Again you might protest this but I would ask you a simple question: Do you have more books and conversation about leadership (the means of success) or theology?

So what might be a more biblical definition to the word success? Jesus summed it up like this:

Matt 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

The Pharisees, contrary to many thoughts, were actually persons other people aspired to be prior to Jesus exposing their reality. Jesus indicates their rigor of life (meticulous rule keepers) which lead to their positions of power and success and in the same breath rebuked them for missing the real goal of godliness (justice, mercy, faith). So what is Jesus end goal from this text? Three simple thoughts.

1) Pursue, proclaim and provide Justice. Justice, (Just as God is) to the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate. Often out of personal sacrifice and not for personal gain. (Need I state the whole “lost leader” principle is not in play here!)

2) Pursue, proclaim and provide Mercy. Mercy, (Grace like God gives) to the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate, even though they may not deserve it.

3) Pursue, proclaim and provide Faith. Learning Who God is and trusting him despite what you see tangibly. Then share that with the widows, orphans, strangers and the unfortunate.

Paul’s letter sums up what should be our goal nicely; not that we strive for success but for fidelity to God.

1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

Scripture’s emphasis is not on accomplishing and acquiring, possessing and achieving. No, it emphasizes believing, bowing and reflecting properly who God is. It replaces the term success, with its latent object for self, with fidelity to God. Now that’s biblical success.

Chris Gilliam © 2009