Faithful

We are making our way through a letter Paul wrote to Jesus followers in Corinth. Today, Paul redefines success.


1 Corinthians 4
1 So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries. 2 Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. 3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. 5 So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time - before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.


Faithful. I am sure I am not the only one that has fallen prey to the desire to be successful in the eyes of this world. We seem to have this innate desire to evaluate ourselves or to evaluate others or to have ourselves evaluated by others with a predetermined picture of success. The key is who defines success because whoever defines success (in your life) determines what the picture looks like. Just so you know (at least according to Paul), God defines success in terms of faithfulness. Were you faithful in fulfilling the roles that he gave you (as a spouse, parent, student, friend, employer, employee, leader, servant)? Were you faithful in using the gifts that he gave you (to teach, to encourage, to give, to lead, to care, to study, to love, to serve)? The good news is that it isn’t too late to have (true) success. You can start being faithful today.