Luke 4:8
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,
Satan had approached Jesus with a simple alluring temptation: Go forth and prove youre success, I’ll even help you succeed. By coaxing Jesus to demonstrate His divine abilities and finally, to take possession of the kingdoms of the world, Satan was very simply tempting Christ to make success His goal: to prove himself.He wasn’t even tempting Jesus to move outside of His calling. He was simply trying to get Him to become more concerned about proving Who He was and demonstrating His success than serving the Father. In short, Satan was tempting Christ to make success His goal.
At first thought, most people would wonder how that could be considered a temptation. What’s really wrong with making success your goal? But in fact, shrouded as it seemed, in legitimacy, this is the most deadly of all temptations. For the Son of God came not to be a success, but to be a servant. And pursuing success will interfere with being a servant.
John 4:34 My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.
When our focus is fixed on success its easy to forget to be a servant. We forget that the tasks and goals of any eternal value belong to God. And God doesn’t always reveal every aspect of His purpose to us. Without the Big Picture we can succeed at our goals and fail at His purpose. Man’s ideas about success have usually been in conflict with the Father’s purposes.
Matt. 17:1 And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves.
Matt. 17:2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Matt. 17:3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
Matt. 17:4 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here;if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
Matt. 17:5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!
John 16:2
the time is coming when people who murder you will think that they are serving God.
Everyone has their own ideas about success, but only God the Father can approve your service. Service is not justified or validated by success as we might measure it. Jesus served the Father fully and as such, was a complete success by Heavens standards. Yet to this very day, the highest criticism against Him by unbelievers is that He failed and was crucified. The cross is no man’s idea of success.
Matt. 12:18 Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
Even by the standards of his day, the Apostle Paul’s ministry declined into an embarrassing failure, while at the same time, other second generation preachers were ascending to prominence. They sought their opportunities to advance their ministries and form associations to further their success. But Paul remained bound to one cause alone: servanthood to Christ. And for that cause, the growing political climate in the churches swept him aside in favor of those who would vie for their attention. Servants always suffer in ambitious circles, where success is the goal.
2 Cor. 10:12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.
But ultimately it won’t be our successes but our service for which we are rewarded.
Matt. 25:23 His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.
The main difference between success and servanthood as objectives, is that the man pursuing success can only be satisfied and happy when his goals are reached. If He can’t attain his ideal goals then joy is snatched from him. But the servant rejoices to simply do the will of the Father. John the Baptist, whose life and ministry ended early in imprisonment and beheading, said this about his own sense of fulfillment:
John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegrooms voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full.
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
Very few modern ministers could make that statement with any genuine joy. The terrible truth is that today’s ministry culture is heavily weighted with the pressure to produce measurable signs of success. And while bearing fruit is important, our ideals of success don’t take into account any purposes God may have in things not turning out the way we might plan. A church biographer assigned to follow Paul and write ministry reports of his life would have submitted articles that would have been declined by the editorial staff of most Christian periodicals today. He would have been viewed as an overall failure, except for a few high spots in his travels. But from his years of isolation in Arabia, after being rejected by the Church at Jerusalem, to his last years of imprisonment after being rejected again by the believers in Jerusalem, Paul would have been viewed as a fruitless embarrassment. It’s not until the 20/20 hind’s-sight of history reveals the true worth of Pauls service, that he becomes an inspiring figure.
It took great determination for Paul to remain a servant instead of jumping on the success bandwagon. His greatest efforts were made in avoiding the distracting influences of success-minded fellow ministers, and keeping his focus on being a servant.
Phil. 3:2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision (the success followers - my notes);
Phil. 3:3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,
Phil. 3:4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
Phil. 3:5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;
Phil. 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Phil. 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Phil. 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,
Phil. 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
Phil. 3:10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Phil. 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Phil. 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Phil. 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Phil. 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;
Phil. 3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
Phil. 3:17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
Phil. 3:18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
Phil. 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
Phil. 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Stay On The Path!