As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, I’ve spent quite a bit of time lately pondering on our notions of favour and success and how they relate to the gospel of Jesus (see previous posts here, here, here and here).
I don’t think I’ve yet reached a settled place in my thinking. There are two extremes you can go to, both of which you can find some scriptural support for (though perhaps only at the risk of taking verses and passages out of context):
– Believing that God wants us to be successful in all that we do
– Believing that we should eschew all forms of earthly success
If you major on the former, you risk veering off into the health, wealth and prosperity camp. If you wholeheartedly embrace the latter, you might end up in asceticism.
I suspect the godly way, as usually seems to be the case, lies somewhere between these two extremes. The kinds of questions I’m wrestling with are these: Does God want us to be successful in this life? How can we know this from scripture? If He does, what definition of success does He desire for us?
I have a strong conviction that the vast majority of Christians in the Western world are far more influenced by individualistic, consumeristic thinking than we care to admit. I include myself very much in that majority. As I’ve pointed out in some other recent posts (here and here), Jesus’ message and the values he embodied were radically antithetical to our present day culture. And Jesus wasn’t afraid to confront his would-be followers with stark choices (for example, see Matthew 6:24 and Matthew 16:24-26).
If I’m honest, I think my basic problem is this: I want to embrace Jesus’ kingdom and all that it entails, but at the same time I want to hang onto the comfort, ease and relative wealth (relative, that is, to most of the world’s population) to which we in the West assume it is normal and good to aspire. I want the benefits of being a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven while continuing to enjoy the perks of our materialistic culture. I want the best of both worlds; I want to have my cake and eat it. I fear that if Jesus came into my house in the flesh, he might say the same to me as he did to the rich young ruler: “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
What do you think? Where do you come down on the questions I set out above?
