Well done, My good and successful servant?
In the 1950s, there was a missionary by the name of Jim Elliot. He and his wife, Elisabeth, along with four other men and their families, were trying to reach a small tribe in Ecuador called the Huaorani with the Gospel. On January 8, 1956, Jim Elliot, along with the other 4 men, was killed by the very people they had been trying to share the gospel with for several months. At the time of Jim’s death, he left behind his wife of just 3 years and his only daughter, who was not even a year old at the time.
Looking at this story from a Webster’s definition perspective of success, Jim was very unsuccessful in his missionary journey. I mean, he didn’t see any converts, and the people he was wanting to help murdered him. He wasn’t able to build upon anything, and even his name is not as widely known as some others.
Thinking about this makes me wonder about how we view success as Christians and what it really means to be successful in the Christian life. Now, success in itself isn’t bad, of course, and we are called to do all that we do for the glory of God. It just seems to me that it becomes an issue when what appears to be visible success by the world’s standard becomes the benchmark of Christian living. See, too often our focus goes to what we can see because it gives us something that feels tangible. We then allow our feelings of worldly success and what we think is good to cloud what God is actually looking for. So, with this idea in question, we have to ask ourselves what success then looks like for Christians and how do we then measure that to know if we are growing? Also, if it’s not success that God is looking for, then what is it that He is looking for?
The answer is Faithfulness and more directly Faithfulness to God and the things of God. Faithfulness is our only true indicator that shows we are moving in the right direction. See, even the ability to be faithful itself is a gift from God and is fruit that we produce as Christians. We see this idea of faithfulness all throughout the Bible, but I think a great example is in Matthew 25 with the parable of the talents.
If we look at Matthew chapter 25, we see Jesus talking about a man who left for a trip. He then gave each of His servants a bag of gold to manage for him while he was gone. One of the men had 5 bags and gained five more, another had 2 and gained 2, and the last servant had 1 and did nothing with it. When the man returned, he was pleased with the ones who gained more and said, “Well done, my good and FAITHFUL servant,” and not my successful servant. See, it wasn’t about the amount of the results as much as it was using wisely what was given to each servant. They trusted what He said and did what they knew He wanted.
See all too often we tend to see something big and think that’s a move of God, and then something small, and we say, “Maybe God may one day bless that” and we miss the whole point. See In this life, we may not ever have the success of the world, but if we use the gifts and talents God has given all of us for His glory we will have real success.
So now you may ask, how do I know that I am being faithful? Well, we have to ask ourselves one question: Am I dependent upon God for the results? Our dependence on God means that we are relying on Him, and if we are relying on Him, we are right in His will for us. God Himself is always faithful and could never not be, and even our ability to be faithful is all about our dependence on God. The more dependent we are on Him, the more faithful to Him, and the more fruitful we will be.
That doesn’t mean that it will be big and grandiose, and it might just be a small lunch of five crackers and two sardines. God will use you where He has you with what He gave you for His glory. As the late Charles Stanley always said, “Obey God and leave all the consequences up to Him.”
So now that we can see what God really cares about, let’s go back to the story of Jim Elliot. After he died, his young wife, Elisabeth, kept working as a missionary to the same people who killed her husband, and she witnessed many salvations. She was able to continue the work that he started, and because she stayed faithful to God in the midst of such tragedy, God was glorified. Jim’s life was lived in service to God, and I am sure when He stood before God and heard the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” he knew it was all worth it.
Romans 8:31-39 says:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I will leave you with this quote from Jim Elliot:
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what He cannot lose.”
