What does the Bible say about success?

Assuredly faith will still be necessary, and a judgment by results will be often much mistaken. If we wait for these to authenticate our course to us, we must in the meanwhile walk doubtfully, and not in faith. These words are an assurance rather to those who may be pursuing what to sense seems doubtful enough as to its issue. He affirms it to them. If they have the character here, — if they are with the Holy and the True, holy with the Holy, true with the True, — then precisely because of this assurance, they need not ask, Will this be fulfilled is it being fulfilled to us? Our eyes must be upon the path and the Leader. Success, where it seems fullest, must yet be tested rather by the future than the present — rather by eternity than time; and he who follows it most will be most distracted by other voices than His who speaks here. What tempter lures indeed the servants of Christ like this? For how many does success, rather than the Word of God, sanction their measures, while alluring them into direct opposition to the Word! If even gained in true obedience, how often does the flattery of great achievement unbalance a soul which adversity could only school to more endurance! These things are but common-places of experience; and in view of them, we need not wonder if God has, in general, been sparing in measuring out to His people great success.

And yet finally the success is great indeed, as it is certain to those who conform to the rule laid down as of old to Joshua: "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success." Alas! how much oftener is this thought to be insured by a supple and worldly wisdom than by a close and undeviating adherence to the Word of God!

Then comes the injunction, "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of Man comes at an hour when ye think not" (Luke 12:40). Peter then wants to know the extent of application of the parable, and gets his desire. "And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Of a truth I say to you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has" (Luke 12:42-44). Who is now the faithful and wise steward? is a question I have to ask myself. Am I a faithful servant? Am I a wise steward? It is not a question of success. The Lord never bids me be successful. No. The point is, am I wise, and am I faithful? To be really successful I must be faithful, and wise. Many servants have stopped short of the truth, because they feared that they might spoil their success. The Lord has said, also to us: "After a long time the lord of those servants comes, and reckons with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst to me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said to him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matt. 25:19-21). Carefully observe, it is "Well done, good and faithful servant," not "successful servant." I should like to find that man, the Lord says. Oh, do not look round about to see who the man is. The point for you and me, is — and the Lord exercise our hearts regarding it — Am I that man?

Why do I speak of this? Because if we make success our object, it will become a snare to us. We shall get our eyes upon the results, and by this, test our work untruly. For if that were the test, what about His who said, "I have labored in vain: I have spent My strength for naught!" "Yet surely," was His confidence, "My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God." God, on the other hand, would have us look, in the most careful way possible, at walk and work and life, and as to what comes of it, — the issue of it all, — leave that to be made manifest in the day fast approaching, which shall make every thing manifest. Are you content to leave it to that? Care for souls and love to them is of course another thing. God forbid that I should say one word which should make that a matter of little moment! but beware of what on every side people are doing; and beware of thinking that quantity, with God, will atone for quality.

To be dependent on results as a motive-spring of action and service is a great snare. The fact is we ought to find sufficient attractiveness in Christ alone to enable us to preach for fifty years without seeing a convert—if this were the will of God. On the other hand, since God does send forth His servants with definite results in view, absence of results should be a matter of gravest concern and exercise. It is perfectly true that what Christ values is not success, but faithfulness. “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21, 23). At the same time, be it remembered that the faithful servants were also the succesful ones. Faithfulness and success in the parable go hand in hand.

In present result, judged by any human or earthly standard, this statement would not seem to be verified. When we hear the psalmist himself exclaiming, "Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant, broken down all his hedges, brought his strongholds to ruin, set up the right hand of his adversaries, made all his enemies to rejoice": when we hear him asking, "Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?" (Psa. 89:39-47): and when we hear Christ Himself saying, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain" (Isa. 49:4; see also Matt. 23:37) it is evident that, "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" is not to be taken as an absolute promise to be fulfilled in every sense, and in every case, and at all times. "What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law" (Rom. 3:19). This follows on a number of quotations from the book of Psalms; so that this book would seem to be included in the term "the law." it was Israel to whom "the law" was given, whether in its narrower or wider sense; and we have seen that the name of covenant relation with Israel is the name here used. Now it was part of Jehovah's covenant with Israel, that obedience should be attended with prosperity. "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, in the field, the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy ground, cattle, kine, and the flocks of thy sheep" (see Deut. 28:3-4). The first thirteen verses indeed may be read as an exposition of the words before us, "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

The Lord then exhorts him to the diligent study of this book of the law: "For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Here, then, are the two great principles of spiritual life and activity: 1st, the assured presence of the almighty power of God, so that nothing can stand before His servant; 2nd, the reception of His word, submission to His word, diligent study of His word, taking it as an absolute guide; and having courage to do so, because of the promise and exhortation of God.

Fidelity is of more value than outward and visible success, and wisdom than the most brilliant gift, as 1 Corinthians 13 shows. There may be much of what passes as success where there is little heart-faithfulness to God, little self-denial, little personal communion with the Lord, little separation from the world and its ways, little true submission to the word of God, and little prayer.

Thus it is that while the tendency of a godly walk is always towards prosperity on the earth, and God will assuredly reward His servants abundantly, He cannot be any man's debtor, yet the material may give way to the moral, the natural to the spiritual, and blessings in the kingdom at the present time to blessings in the kingdom in the future, for the righteous may even be called on to die early for the Lord's sake. Let us, therefore, not forget the righteous government of God, while our hearts are at the same time coveting the best things, without desiring that our blessings should take an earthly shape.

It were well for the people of God in every age to remember this principle. How often is it that they are tempted, for the sake of temporal advantage, or even, as they think, from the necessity of daily duties, to give their own things the first place, a superior place to the Lord's things. Whenever this temptation is yielded to, nothing but sorrow can be the result. It may not be now as with the Jew, to whom temporal prosperity was a sign of Jehovah's favour, that there will be no success in worldly things; but there will be certainly trials and afflictions of one kind or another for every believer whose mind is on earthly things. The only path of blessing, whether in the past or in the present, lies in devotedness to the Lord's service. If in our several measures we follow, however feebly, in the Lord's footsteps, and find it our meat to do His will, we shall assuredly find it a path in which we shall walk in the enjoyment of His favour and blessing.

The lesson of the first importance here is that outward calamities do not prove that a man is in the wrong place — of course outward persecution rather tends to prove that he is in the right place. (2 Tim. 3:12.) Nor is outward success a necessary evidence of God's approval. This is certainly a very rudimentary lesson, yet it cannot be too often insisted upon. For there is such a strong tendency in us to judge in that vulgar and childish way, that we are not only likely to submit to the ruling of Job's comforters in judging of the lives of others, but also to be misled by such tests in reference to our own course. How many men, even devout and earnest, have been turned aside from a right course because they thought the calamities falling on them were signs of God's disapproval! This is a mere judging of the outside of things. No man would do anything so stupid in daily life; would he buy a horse without listening to its breathing, or seeing its action, because it was shapely? or an organ without hearing its chords, because it was well veneered? or a bale of goods because it was nicely canvassed?