Ambition

by N/A | Category: For Young Believers | Dec 1951

II. Ambition emerges again in the writings of Paul, "wherefore also we make it our aim (Greek, are ambitious, R.V. marg.),whether at home or absent to be well-pleasing unto Him" (2 Corinthians 5.9). Then he gives the reason for this ambition, "For we must all be made manifest before the judgement-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (verse 10). It is the habit of the sinner to hide from himself the thought of the day of judgement and to live as though there were no judgement at all. Many hope and vainly try to persuade themselves that such a day will never overtake them. But the believer in Christ who knows that His God is a God of judgement, and that He has given all judgement unto the Son because He is Son of Man, should not so cheat himself into forgetting, that the day will come ere long, when he will have to give an account of himself to Christ as to his deeds done by means of the body. The judgement-seat of Christ is not a judgement of punishments, but of rewards. No believer in Christ will there be punished and suffer in his own person for wrongs he has done. All his punishment Christ his Saviour and Substitute bore. But his deeds will either be rewarded or destroyed by fire, as 1 Corinthians 3.18-15 clearly shows. In that day it may be found that there has been much truth in the lines :

"Deeds of merit, as we thought them,

He will tell us were but sin;

Little things we had forgotten,

He will tell us were for Him."

Then will be justly assessed how much of what we did was for our own honour and comfort, and how much actually was, for the Lord. Herein comes the weight of those ,forceful words of Paul,

"We are ambitious .... to be well-pleasing unto Him."

This was the consuming desire of Paul's life. For Him, he says elsewhere, he had suffered the loss of all things, which were to him as offal, something fit for the dunghill. Was not his experience that of David's, of which David sang sweetly to the sweet strains of his harp?

"Who is like unto the LORD our God,

That hath His seat on high,

That humbleth Himself to behold

The things that are in heaven and in the earth

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,

And lifteth up the needy from the dunghill;

That He may set him with princes,

Even with the princes of His people" (Psalm 113. 5-8).

He has lifted many up even in this life and given them princely places amongst His people, but when we think of what He will yet do for those that have been ambitious to please Him in this lowly, earthly life, when from His judgement-seat Christ will reward His faithful servants, words fail us. We can only look up and look on to that day, with mingled emotions of hopes and fears that something may be found amongst all the endeavours of our hearts that Christ will pick up as worthy of mention and reward.

Think of how the Lord in Hebrews 11. picks out of the lives of men and women acts of faith that were well-pleasing to Him. In some such way will He select what has been for Him in the lives of those who have been ambitious to please Him.

III

"We exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more; and that ye study (Greek, "be ambitious," R. V. marg.) to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing" (1 Thessalonians 4.10-12).

How pithy and proper are Paul's exhortations here - be ambitious to be quiet, do your own business, work with your hands. Young people, generally speaking, to-day, are far removed from what they were several decades ago. They are loud and noisy, and it ill becomes a young Christian to follow their example. Sometimes in visiting homes in which there is a radio set, one has heard remnants of some of the plays that are sent out by the B.B.C., and of all the clap-trap noise and nonsense of loud human voices, that beats all one might listen to. If young believers train themselves to listen to this they will be liable to be impressed by it and in some measure follow suit.

The Christian is to lead "a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity" (1 Timothy 2.2), and women are to adorn the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3.4). This is of great value in God's sight. But some are so talkative; you always hear them before you see them, and this is not simply true of young folks; some of the older people giggle and chatter as though this were Christianity and the cream of happiness, Paul says :

"Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.

But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion aver a man,

but to be in quietness" (1 Timothy 2.11, 12).

James gives a wise word when he says, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1.19).

That man is wise who is a good listener to others and does not slip into the useless habit of small talk. Some are poor listeners; indeed so much is this the case, that if you speak to them they do not seem to hear, their mind is so much engaged concocting what they shall say next. " Be ambitious to be quiet."

N/A | Dec 1951
For Young Believers