Ambition is a word that is likely to have a sinister sound. We associate with it intrigues and ruthlessness. It is often immersed in the blood of the innocent. Perhaps we would scarcely dare admit even to ourselves our inner aims and motives. "I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels," said Shakespeare,
As Christian men and women, workers in the greatest, grandest cause in this old world, let us be completely honest with ourselves and take stock. Is your ambition an eager, inordinate desire to gain power or distinction? Is your ambition a ready, steadfast purpose to achieve something commendable or right in itself? Or, as the rendering of Conybeare and Howson has it, is it your "ambition to be unambitious"? Do you desire to adorn the doctrine of Christ in all things?
The word ambition never occurs in our English Bible. That is not surprising when we consider that the desire for pre-eminence was so emphatically and repeatedly denounced by our Lord Himself. But its significance is surely there. According to Youngs Analytical Concordance there is only one word in the New Testament which represents ambition; it is found in three passages only, all from the pen of the apostle Paul. The word is philotimeomai, liter ally the "love of honor," and occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:9, Romans 15:20, and 1 Thessalonians 4:11.
Living as we do in days of Laodicean in difference, apparently at times unable to awaken dead souls to love and praise, may not the fault lie within our own hearts? Have we come to the place where we reason as did the disciples of old, "We have left all to follow Thee; what shall we have, therefore?" Do we dare to tell the Lord that He is greatly honored to have the use of our talents and personality; that we could earn so much more in an outside job: that we have forsaken wealth and ease and position to serve His cause and. therefore, in view of all these things, surely we ought to be recognized? We should have a place on the mission board or on the conference committee; the financial return we receive is not commensurate with our worth; a better, bigger position should be ours; and we should be conducted thereto with a blowing of trumpets! Will we be honest, and admit that we covet the house, the car, the budget, the location, even the worker team of a brother laborer? These things ought not so to be! In an attempt to .eradicate such things from our ranks, let us study three texts that should characterize all our lives, for they carry us in the three directions in which life must be lived God- ward, manward, selfward.
Godward Ambition
First, then, we turn to 2 Corinthians 5:9: "We are ambitious to be well-pleasing unto Him." Surely this is the primary ambition of every true Christian. The love of God to us ought so to move our hearts that all our thoughts and energies will be spent to please Him in service. An active faith will cause us to make opportunities to witness for Him and to lead some soul a little nearer to the Saviour. Such an ambition will often cut across your own plans, frustrate your own hopes. But even Christ pleased not Himself. You will have to do many things and say many things that may not be altogether pleasing to yourself. Ease may have to be surrendered, the day's work lengthened, self-interests sacrificed, in order to please God. Sometimes this attitude will be displeasing to others, and this is where we feel the rub most acutely. Very often when we please God we upset others. Many have missed the reality of a Christian experience through trying to please someone, regardless of God's claims.
A wonderful promise is held out to those who seek to please God. The power and reality of prayer will be yours. (1 John 3:22.) Being: continually anxious to please God, you will have the assurance that He hears and answers your prayer and will bless you abundantly. And a further result? That idol, long hidden and nursed in-the recesses of your inmost heart, will be cast out. and Christ will fill its place. New power in your preaching and teaching, a deeper understanding: of the Word, and a mellowed, tender revelation of Christ in you will be manifest. The Holy Ghost will come upon you.
Manward Ambition
There is a manward ambition expressed in Romans 15:20: "/ have been ambitious to preach the gospel." Paul had been seeking to make known the gospel where it had not been known. He had been exposed to all kinds of danger, but was determined to carry on. How should this ambition be manifested in us? By our relationship to those around us, by sacrificial giving for His work at home and abroad, by giving loved ones to this great aim, by sacrificing time for prayer. How self-centered is much of our praying! When last did we pray for the Jew, for the people of India, China, Japan, Russia? The church of Christ at home is rapidly becoming a "missionary church in an unevangelized land." The gospel of character must be supplemented by the gospel of speech. A word in season may bring some soul to Christ.
One great need we have is that we may come to the place where we are willing to work in the cause of God for what we can put into it, not for what we get out of it. This organization is not a medium through which we gather around us equipment and possessions we would never obtain otherwise. It is not a golden opportunity to see the world at the expense of humble, faithful men and women who give their tithes and offerings for the furtherance of the gospel, that souls may be born into the kingdom of heaven. If only we would give twenty-one shillings' worth of sheer, hard consecrated work for every pound we are paid! If only we would put back the word sacrifice into our living! Then would the might of God be manifest in us, and we would lead many to Christ.
Selfward Ambition
The last reference is a striking figure of speech in 1 Thessalonians 4:11: "Be ambitious to be unambitious." Here is the emulation of the Master. Here is the spirit that cuts out all self-seeking, envy, jealousy. Here is ambition sanctified, living in the calm of quiet faith. In these unquiet days the most helpful people are those who, strong in the calm of restful faith, make it their ambition to go about their own business in the spirit of love and self-discipline. This, and not arrogant selfishness, is God's gift to His children.
Be willing to leave the issue with the Lord. How often we mope and fret in discouragement because our best endeavors are misunderstood or our best plans for the work of God seem to miscarry! If only we would do our very best in service, with an eye single to God's glory, and let God be the judge and rewarder of faithful service! A truly consecrated life will not seek for self-advancement, self-comfort, self-appreciation. The life lived courageously and wholeheartedly for God will not pine when position and preferment come to others. Rather, the whole endeavor will be a constant seeking and striving to be unambitious, allowing God to lead, to assess one's value, to come to the place where, content in any state, God's work will fill the first place and have primary consideration in life.
It is evident that there were some tattling people who were disturbing the peace of others in Paul's day. They dreaded nothing so much as being quiet. They delighted in noise, in gossip, in scandal, in whispering. The truth of the Second Advent does not mean that responsibilities can be neglected while the time is spent in shallow, earthly ways. The quiet mind, the industrious spirit, are the marks of the soul really pre pared for this wondrous event. Meddlesome busybodies do not commend the gospel of peace. An envious, jealous spirit, pining after another man's possessions, suggesting, whispering, decrying, does not produce an attractive radiance indicative of the in dwelling Christ. Let us fall on our knees before God, asking pardon for the mistakes of the past and beseeching strength for the future. With Him is mercy and abounding forgiveness.
Words can be converted as well as people. Self-seeking rivalry can be changed into selfless ambition to glorify Christ and win souls for Him. New affections are kindled in the converted. May our ambitions experience true conversion as we aim supremely, keenly, without ceasing, to meet the divine approval, to manifest quiet diligence, to win souls.
