of holy ambition is found in the passage a t the head of this chap ter. This brief paragraph affords a remarkable insight into the character and ambitions of the one man whom God singled out from among all his contempor aries for honorable mention. I t is a remarkable thumbnail sketch which lays bare the ambition which caused him to become “more honorable than his breth ren.” Its very setting, an oasis in the wilderness of the dead, would indicate the importance which God attached to his attainments. When God troubles to preserve the epitaph of one man out of mil lions and gives it in such concise and meaningful language, we can be certain tha t it will repay de tailed study. Before passing to the subject of his ambition, two lessons from the life of Jabez are worthy of note. There is no need for obscurity to overshadow a life. Only the bare essentials relevant to the di vine purpose are contained in the epitaph of Jabez. No indication is given that he was wealthy, gift ed, or even popular — only that he became more honorable than his brethren, and his contempor aries too, for of him alone does God preserve a record for posteri ty. Church history teaches that God sometimes takes up obscure men or women and uses them to an extraordinary degree while passing by people of much great er gift. Jabez sprang out of ob scurity into agelong prominence because of his secret prayer life. His prayer provides the key to his life. From Jabez we learn tha t dis abilities need not disqualify in the race of life. That Jabez was bom with a tremendous temperamen tal handicap is implicit in the name given him by his mother, which means “sorrowful.” “I bare him with sorrow,” she said. Trag edy which had struck before his birth shadowed his entry into the world. P r e n a t a l influence can greatly affect the nature of a child and this baby did not escape its 19
not,” was God’s m e s s a g e to Baruch (Jer. 45:5). In His mem orable Sermon on the Mount , Christ counseled: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth” (Matt. 6:19). The wrong lies not in the ambition itself but in its inspiring motive. An intensely ambitious man himself, Paul en couraged others to aim high by citing himself as an example. “I press toward the mark for the prize” (Phil. 3:14). “So run, that ye may obtain” (I Cor. 9:24). “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need- eth not to be ashamed” (II Tim. 2:15). Three of Paul’s own un usual ambitions appear — some quite incidentally — in his epis tles : to be “well-pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18) ; “to be quiet,” the quiet of inner repose, not of in ertia (I Thess. 4:11) ; and “to preach the gospel, n o t w h e r e Christ was named” (Rom. 15: 20). All his ambitions found their center in Christ, “tha t in all things he might have the pre eminence” (Col. 1:18). David Brainerd was so con sumed with ambition to glorify Christ by winning souls for His kingdom tha t he wrote in his diary : “I cared not where o r how I lived, or what hardships I en dured so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamt of such things, and when I waked the first thing I thought of was winning souls to Christ.” The supreme am b i t i o n of George Whitefield found expres sion in this tremendous sentence: “If God did not give me souls, I believe I would die.” Here then is the measuring rod for an ambition which is legiti mate for the Christian. Is its su preme objective the glory of God and not the glory of the disciple? Will its fulfillment make the dis ciple more useful in Christ’s serv ice and a greater blessing to his fellow men? T h e o d o r e Monod compressed it into this motto: “All in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God.” One of the great Bible examples
unsubstantial are its rewards and how trivial its achievements when viewed in the light of eternity! The ambition of a Napoleon or a Hitler brought them momentary glory, but with it eternal shame. Such an ambition as this is the antithesis of the spirit of the cross of Christ. An Unworthy Ambition I t is possible to nurse an un worthy ambition in religious as well as in worldly associations. Before their transforming experi ence at Pentecost, two of our Lord’s intimates, James and John, used their doting mother in an endeavor to gain them a prefer ment over their ten brethren. They stooped to petty intrigue to exclude the other claimants to the places of supreme privilege in Christ’s kingdom. Even the Last Supper was not too sacred an oc casion to be marred by their sel fish strife. Nor were the ten free from the same unworthy ambi tion, else why were they so indig nant with James and John for forestalling them? They had yet to learn, and by very bitter ex perience, that the lowliest is the greatest in Christ’s kingdom; but they did master the lesson. The ambition which God sanc tions is fa r otherwise. The true disciple of Christ lives by an en tirely different scale of values. A God-approved ambition must be pure and noble, tinged with self- abnegation and self-sacrifice. The disciple recognizes that he belongs to Christ — body, intellect, emo tions, and will — and therefore any honor which may come to him belongs to his Master. Like his Lord, he cherishes the ambition to give rather than to receive, to serve rather than to be served, to use his time and talents for his Master rather than debase them in pursuit of self-aggrandizement. The Determining Motive I t is the underlying motive which determines the character of ambition and renders it laudable or unworthy. “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them FEBRUARY, 1970
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