In meditating on the subject of “success,” I carefully looked up that word and found it to be a very rare word in the Bible. I haven’t been able to find it but in the one passage read in Joshua (ch. 1:8). I suppose it is a word used often in the vocabulary of the present day. There never was a day when that line of things was more pressed upon young people. In order that their lives might be lived in a way to contribute to their own encouragement and the good of society, they must make what the world terms a “success.”
However, if we are to be guided by worldly standards and ideals, we will live a different life from that mapped out for young Christians in the Bible.
When one is referred to in the world, one of the questions generally asked is about his standing or accomplishments. And one of the requisites to a satisfactory answer is to be able to say, “He has made quite a success.”
A man who can write his name at the bottom of a check and perhaps that check tells its story in six or seven figures—that one is, in the eyes of the world, a success. Then here is another who has not accumulated so much in material wealth, but he is a great political leader. The world pays tribute to him too. They, and many more like them, are successful.
However, when we consider success using the Word of God as the measuring stick, how different everything appears. This divine standard never fails to tell the truth, and it is the only standard by which you and I can judge these matters.
If you use a faulty standard, your conclusions will be faulty. Recently I wanted a new pipe for my furnace. I took a measurement of the old pipe and it came out exactly at 10". I ordered the pipe, but when it came it didn’t fit. I thought the clerk had made a mistake. I was positive my measurement was right. Then I checked the yardstick I used to take the measurement and found that it had one inch cut off! I used the wrong standard and thus my conclusions were wrong, though I was absolutely sure I was right. So it is in measuring what is called worldly success. What is the standard you are using to measure such success?
In Matthew’s Gospel where the Lord gives the talents to His servants, He gives to every man according to his several ability. He didn’t give the same to each man. When He came to reckon, He reckoned with them on that ground, too. So He is going to reckon with you on that ground.
You are a steward of what God has entrusted to you. Will you use all this splendid equipment to advance yourself—pushing on, getting to the front, to the top? What about this, “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:22Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2))? How will it be in that day when you give account to the Lord Jesus—when the question is asked how you have used your talents?
One came to the Lord and told Him he had kept what was committed to him laid up in a napkin. He was rebuked. God has given you these to use for Him, and in that day He will require it of you again.
C. H. Brown (excerpted)