Home » Academics » Prof's Office » Ask Theophilus

Ask Theophilus: What is Success?

Dear Professor Theophilus:

What is success in the eyes of God? The Bible only really mentions success in the Old Testament, and then just to say put your trust in God, obey Him and he will bring you success. But from what I've read, the Bible never really says what success is. The reason I'm asking is that as a human being, with normal human desires, I want to be successful. But I want to be successful in the eyes of God, not in the eyes of the world. How can I be successful in the eyes of God if I don't know what success is to God?

Reply

I'm glad you wrote. You've been patient; I've put off your good question for weeks because of other good questions. Here's how I read you: You're strongly tempted by the world's standards of success; you're willing to change course if God's standards of success are different; but you can't make out what His standards are.

The Old Testament teaches that acts are linked with consequences:

This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.¹

A wicked man earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.²

The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.³

Some people read these passages in a materialistic spirit. As you've already noticed, that's a big mistake. They don't teach what it means to flourish or prosper or thrive; what they really do is invite us to look into the matter. Actually, the Old Testament writers are asking the same question you are. Over the centuries, God prodded them to think more and more deeply about it. What troubled them the most is that God promises success to the faithful — but if success means what the world says it does, then all too often the wicked seem to be the winners and the faithful seem to be the losers. Jeremiah cries,

Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I complain to thee; yet I would plead my case before thee. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?⁴

So what is success really? It's easy to define it: success is living well. Describing it is harder: What is living well?

You know the world's answer already: Living well is getting the stuff that we want. You're not the first person to be tempted. That idea has been around for a long, long time. In 1641, the English thinker Thomas Hobbes put it like this:

Continual success in obtaining those things which a man from time to time desireth, that is to say, continual prospering, is that men call felicity; I mean the felicity of this life. For there is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind, while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense. What kind of felicity God hath ordained to them that devoutly honour him, a man shall no sooner know than enjoy; being joys that now are as incomprehensible as the word of Schoolmen, beatifical vision, is unintelligible.⁵

The same idea was put more crudely and bluntly by an enormously popular nineteenth-century preacher who made a pile of money and paved the way for today's slick peddlers of the gospel of wealth:⁶

I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me, "Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?" "Yes, of course I do." They say, "Isn't that awful! Why don't you preach the gospel instead of preaching about man's making money?" "Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel." That is the reason. ... It is all wrong to be poor, anyhow.

Most people profess to find this view sickening, but in their hearts most have a secret sympathy with it. At least with one part of it. They agree that living well means having the good things in life and not having the bad ones. Whatever way of life gives them that, they call happy or successful. Whatever way doesn't, they call unhappy or unsuccessful.

But how could it not be good to have the good things in life? To answer that question we have to look more deeply into what we mean by "the good things in life."

When you ask most people to list the good things in life, they come up with things like health, beauty, pleasant companions, physical possessions, good reputation, and happy feelings. Some people add knowledge or intelligence. If they're young, they usually add having fun things to do. When you ask people to list the bad things in life, they list the opposites of what they've listed as the good ones — sickness, poverty, misery, and so on.

Now it would be crazy to say that health and beauty and so on are simply bad. They aren't. In themselves, they're good. The problem is that there is an "if" attached to them. You could call them "if-goods." They may be good in themselves, or good up to a point, yet bad for me. They will certainly be bad for me if I use or enjoy them in the wrong ways, at the wrong times, with the wrong persons, or to the wrong degree. Beauty is good, but bad for me if it makes me vain. Health is good, but bad for me if it makes me forget my mortality. A house and car are good, but bad if I pile them up without need and neglect the poor. So it is with companions, if they corrupt me; with knowledge, if I use it to plan crimes; with good reputation, if I use it to cover up my lies. As to fun — well, a life lived for fun turns out not to be very much fun. Paradoxically, to enjoy life, you have to stop living for enjoyment.

We are so mixed up about what is really good and bad. The child thinks medicine worse than being sick; we are all a bit like the child. Even misery is good if it prompts me to reflect on a life ill-spent. Even suffering is good if I use it to become more like Christ.⁷ Jesus scandalized people by saying that the poor are blessed, but living precariously is surely good if it keeps me from trusting wealth instead of God. What we call wealth and comfort themselves can be a form of poverty. "It is a poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."⁸

Do you see where all this leaves us? You can't tell what kind of life is good by asking what the good things are in life — it's the other way around! Only in a good life are the good things really good; only in a good life can they not go sour. So you have to know what a good life is first. You can't start by asking what the good things are in life.

Or can you? So far we've been talking about if-goods (and if-bads). An if-good may be good in itself but bad for me; an if-bad may be bad in itself but good for me. But not all goods are if-goods. There are goods of another kind too; call them always-goods. These are the things that make a good life good; they are the things I need even for the if-goods to be good for me, because otherwise I'll use if-goods wrongly.

Want some examples? How about virtues? The cardinal virtues are courage, justice, temperance and prudence; the spiritual virtues are faith, hope and love. But you have to know what these virtues really are. Take courage; it isn't the same as mere bravery. What I mean by bravery is being able to follow through with my deed even when I'm scared. I might use bravery to rob a bank; that's not good. Courage is bravery plus, and the plus is good judgment about which deeds to carry out in the first place. That's an always-good. Or take love; it isn't the same as liking everyone. Love is a firm and enduring commitment of the will to each person's true good, viewing him as an image of God who made him and Christ who died for him. Liking isn't an always-good. Love is.

In fact, all of the always-goods are wrapped up in love — not only the virtues, but the other always-goods too. Friendship, for example. True friendship is more than fun companionship. We've been talking about a good life; well, true friendship means partnership in that. Mere companions may corrupt you; true friends make you better than you would have been without them. That can't be, without love.

Let's take stock. We began with the world's idea that success means having the good things in life and not having the bad ones. So far here's the verdict on that idea. What the world means by the good things in life is the if-goods. Taken that way, the idea that success means having the good things in life is deeply misleading. But if you mean the always-goods, it's true. That's why, in the world's view, the key to success lies in ambition, but in fact, it lies in love.

I said "so far" because the picture still isn't complete. All of the always-goods are wrapped up in love, but the heart of love is God.

As I never tire of saying, God is goodness Himself, in Person. He is the Good that existed before all creation and Who created all else that is good. Nothing He created was other than good; nothing derives its goodness except from Him; nothing can remain good apart from Him. The highest arch of the virtue of hope is the longing to see Him face to face, to know Him even as He knows us, and to partake in His unimaginable life.⁹ We won't enjoy that bliss fully until Heaven, but we prepare for it by cooperating with the grace that He gives us here. Even the preparation gives us a little of what we are preparing for. We are offered a transfusion from the veins of Christ.

C O F F E E  S H O P

---

How do you measure success?

Join the discussion!

To learn that love, and follow it; to draw ever closer to the Good who makes all good things good — that is the meaning of living well. It isn't something that will earn you God, because it lies in God and comes from God. It isn't something that will bring you success, because it is success. It is the very thing itself.

Peace be with you,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

If you have a question you'd like Professor Theophilus to consider for this column, please send it to asktheo@trueu.org. Please note, all questions selected for "Ask Theophilus" may be edited for clarity and privacy, and become the property of Focus on the Family.