What Is Success?

Paul Aurandt in his book, Destiny tells of the life of Bartholomew Roberts, one of the

great sea captains. He commanded 3 ships-The Fortune, The Good Fortune and the

Royal Fortune. Back in his day the ships musicians were on call to provide music

anytime of the day or night. But his musicians got Sunday off as a day of rest and

religious observance. On his ships, temperance was strictly enforced, and gambling was

forbidden. Any sailor who smuggled a woman on board was hanged. He was one of the

most disciplined sea captains ever, and he ran a truly, tight ship. His discipline was very

effective, and made him the best of what he was. Unfortunately, what he was, was a

pirate. He captured an average of 100 ships a year for one four year period of his

career. He was the most feared man on the sea. All of his religion, morality, discipline,

efficiency, and effectiveness, were for the sake of an evil end.

He was very successful in using good things for evil goals. That is why success is not

an absolute measure of value for the Christian. It is possible to be very successful, and

yet be evil, and displeasing to God. This being the case, we have the paradoxical reality

of a successful failure. That is what Captain Roberts was. Herod and Pilate fall into this

same category. This forces us to seek for a Biblical definition of success. Roberts was

religious, good to his own men, moral, and a hard worker. He had so many good points.

He was just like the Pharisees that Jesus is holding up in this chapter as successful

failures. They were very religious, and did all kinds of right and good things, and they

were very good at it. They had a large following of people who admired them. They were

the people who had fame. Yet Jesus said, with all of these values that made them a

success, by one definition, did not make them successful by his definition. By his

definition they were failures, and not to be followed by Christians.

The first thing we have to get straight in order to be successful according to Jesus is,

I. THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.

This is where the Christian gets confused, and is often torn between his culture and

his Christianity. In our culture the definition of success always revolves around the

trinity of possessions, power, and prestige. There are no poor, weak, and unknown

successful people by our cultural definition of success. The successful man, someone

said, is the one who can make more money than his wife can spend. The successful

woman is one who can find such a man. The problem with the worldly definition is not

that those things are not good. It is just that they are not adequate. They are like

Captain Roberts and his good things. They fall short of the glory of God.

We need to get a new definition of success in our minds so we can distinguish between

the worldly and the Christian understanding. This passage in Matt. 6 makes it clear that

for Jesus success is, very simply, pleasing God. It is not in pleasing man, and getting his

approval, but pleasing God, and getting God's approval. This is the essence of Christian

success. You can do a lot of good things for reasons other than pleasing God. You can

give, pray, and fast, as did the Pharisees, to get fame and man's approval. You can be

very successful in achieving goals, and becoming famous for your religious values, but if

in the process you forget that pleasing God is the number one priority, you become a

successful failure. Or, in other words, a failure in spite of your success. To fail to please

God makes all other achievements ultimately worthless.

If God is not pleased with your religious activity because it is all done to please men,

and win their approval, then all of your religious life is a form of idolatry. If pleasing

God is not the goal of your activity, then pleasing someone else is, and that someone else,

which may be self, the crowd, or whoever, is in the place of God, and that is idolatry.

Success according to Jesus is not measured by the pleasure of the crowd. You cannot

take a vote, and if thousands of people say I am pleased with you, then you must be a

success. Jesus said this was the definition of the Pharisees. Popularity was a key concept

of success in their minds. That is why they made a big production out of their religious

practices. They sounded the trumpet in the synagogues and the streets to call attention

to their giving, and to get the praises of men. They could have used W. S. Gilbert's poem