What is the reward of success?

An interesting FB conversation.

This is one of those exchanges that make FB worth it. An idea is proposed, discussed, and the conversation yields benefits for all involved. Granted this is a rare occurrence, given peoples' increasing lack of ability to express ideas or examine them, but it is an endeavor worth pursuing.

My FB friend asked, "what is the reward of success?"

I asked him to define success. 

Elijah: 

Great qualifier, Rich! I would say it would be discharging the full trust of one’s responsibilities. What would you say?

Me: 

In terms of a task, yes, success is completing a duty according to assigned parameters.
In terms of a person's life, success involves a level of achievement, or attaining status.
In terms of the Kingdom, the obedience to and the pleasure of the King is the only possible measure. Our life is not our own...

Elijah: 

Well said! The question was birthed in the context of considering the parable of the talents/minas. In both contexts, those who are judged as good and faithful, being pleasing to their Master, are rewarded with increased responsibility. Elsewhere, those who are faithful with little are entrusted with much, being given more responsibility. I've been working through concepts of rest, success, excess, gain, prosperity, legacy, inheritance, and so on and the juxtaposition of a worldly mentality of cessation of work and responsibility being the goal of success against the kingdom reality pointing to the reverse. Success does not lead to one earning the right to sit on a porch sipping suds and golfing in the afternoon...but leads to being rewarded with increased responsibility that grows in ascending magnitudes of complexity: calling forth thriving within money is transformed into calling forth thriving within multiple cities.

This both fascinates and excites me. It is decidedly contradictory to a worldly mindset.

What are your thoughts on this?

-------------------

Introduction

This is an incredibly broad and deep subject, one which theologians have been debating for centuries. As such, will will only be able to skim the surface.

One one hand it is true that our salvation comes to us without regard to merit:

Ep. 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

It is also true that we don't serve Him with an eye towards keeping in His good graces. Despite the fact that works don't commend us to God, we are very clearly called to obedience, service, worship, faithfulness, and holiness. There is work we are called to do: 

Ep. 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

James writes,

Ja. 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

So there is some combination of knowing our status and position on one hand, and doing what God what us to do on the other. 

We are sure the reader already understands these things. However, we often find ourselves pulled between competing ideas: That we are at rest in Christ, yet every effort must be expended to enter that rest (He. 4:11); the world tries to impose its version of success and that can lure us from our dependence on God; and, our own self-doubt bears down on our perceived worth. 

But there is a way of living that constitutes what God would consider a successful life.

Your Best Life Now

Joel Osteen has been roundly condemned, mostly in conservative circles, for his book, "Your best life now." We understand why people would take issue with it, for it seems at times to take biblical principles to extreme conclusions. 

But properly understood, the concept of a best life is sound. There is a life we can live that is best. It may not look or feel like it is the best, but if God is at the center of it, it will be the best.

Bible Words

Our first task is to see if there's a biblical use of the word "success." This is an elusive target, because the Bible doesn't have the same concept of success as do we. And, the translators translate a variety of words as "success" or "prosper," even though the words being translated mean different things.

But worse, those translations are often conceptually incomplete, misleading, or even plain wrong.

One such word is the Hebrew word tsalach, make prosperous, bring to successful issue... 

That word is found in Ge. 39:2:

The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

Another word is the Greek word hupsoó, to lift or raise up, to exalt, uplift... It's used here:

Ac. 13:17 The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country...

But the same word is used here: 

Ja. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

We find it interesting how the translators have a propensity to "interpret" words, when the use of the plain meaning does no violence to our understanding.

Another Greek word is euodoó, to help on the road, i.e. (passively) succeed in reaching; figuratively, to succeed in business affairs -- (have a) prosper(-ous journey). 

That word is found here:

3Jn. 2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

So while there is an idea of success in the world, more frequently we find that success is actually to be borne up by God. This is certainly true, that we depend upon God to sustain us (He. 1:3). In Him we live, move and have our being.

Many Factors

A successful Christian life is defined by a variety of factors, some of which come to bear more in some lives than in others. While we are to help the poor, for example, some Christians are gifted for, say, healing ministry for example. We should understand that our successful life will likely look different than someone else's successful life, depending on how Holy Spirit has gifted us.

Here are some of those factors.

Service to Widows and Orphans

Ja. 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Worship Him

Jn. 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Discovering and Doing His Will 

Ro. 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

A life Pleasing to God

Ep. 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light Ep. 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.

Ro. 14:17-18 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Much will be Demanded

Lk. 12:47-18 That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

He Equips us to Please Him

He. 13:20-21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Fear and Trembling

Ph. 2:12-13 ...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Mt. 9:13 But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

but to live justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

Mi. 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Conclusion

What constitutes a successful Christian life? We think this passage encapsulates it:

2Pe. 1:3-11 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is short-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 

10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.