13 The Noblest Ambition
(2 Corinthians 5:9–10)
Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (5:9–10)
Ambition has always had a bad reputation. The noble Puritan writer Thomas Brooks wrote, “Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases. High seats are never but uneasy, and crowns are always stuffed with thorns” (cited in John Blanchard, Truth for Life [Welwyn: Evangelical Press, 1986], 179). Blind ambition causes people to compromise their convictions, violate their beliefs, and sacrifice their character. Ambition is often associated with words like “unscrupulous,” “self-centered,” “proud,” “driven,” “insensitive,” and “ruthless.” Those negative modifiers reflect the carnage inflicted on family, friends, and principles abandoned in the wake of onrushing ambition. Ambition drives people to seek wealth, prestige, power, social prominence, popular acclaim, and dominance over others.
The English word “ambition” derives from the Latin word ambitio, which comes from a verb that literally means, “to go around.” The word was used by the Romans to refer to politicians who went around canvasing for votes to get themselves elected. It was used to describe those with no convictions, who sought promotion at any cost, doing anything to achieve selfish ends. Thus, to describe someone as ambitious was to comment on his or her character in a decidedly negative way. Expressing that negative connotation of ambition, Stephen Neill said, “I am inclined to think that ambition in any ordinary sense of the term is nearly always sinful in ordinary men. I am certain that in the Christian it is always sinful, and that it is most inexcusable of all in the ordained minister” (cited in J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, rev. ed. [Chicago: Moody, 1980], 14).
It could be argued that ambition is the chief sin for which Jesus Christ died:
Because we children of Adam want to become great,
He became small.
Because we will not stoop,
He humbled Himself.
Because we want to rule,
He came to serve. (Sanders, 16)
The Bible condemns sinful ambition. Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them” (Jer. 45:5).
Despite the word’s normally negative connotation, Paul wrote, also we have as our ambition. There is a type of ambition that is legitimate; the Bible forbids selfish ambition, not ambition to please the Lord. Paul did not use the term in a negative sense but in the positive sense of loving what is noble or honorable. In fact, philotimeomai (have as our ambition) is a compound word from philos (“love”) and timē (“honor”). It was that type of noble ambition that characterized Paul.
Paul used philotimeomai two other times in his writings (the only other times it appears in the New Testament). In Romans 15:20 he wrote, “I aspired [from philotimeomai] to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation;” while in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 he exhorted the Thessalonians, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you.” Though Paul used different Greek words, the same point is made in 1 Timothy 3:1: “If any man aspires [from oreg?] to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires [from epithume?] to do.”
There is a central place in the Christian life for noble ambition, for a passion for what is excellent and honorable. From this passage three aspects of Paul’s ambition emerge: He had sanctified ambition for the highest goal, with the widest devotion, and from the deepest motive.
PAUL HAD AMBITION FOR THE HIGHEST GOAL
to be pleasing to Him. (9c)
The noblest and highest ambition to which anyone can aspire is to be pleasing to God. Paul used the adjective euarestos (pleasing) frequently in his writings. In Romans 12:1–2 and 14:18 he used it to speak of behavior that is acceptable to God. He urged the Ephesians to try “to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph. 5:10). He described the Philippi-ans’ financial support of him as being “well-pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18). In Colossians 3:20 he noted that children’s obedience to their parents “is well-pleasing to the Lord.” Euarestos also appears in Titus 2:9, where it describes slaves who are pleasing to their masters. Godly ambition seeks to please the Lord in all aspects of life (Col. 1:10).
Nowhere is the focus of Paul’s ambition more clearly articulated than in 1 Corinthians 4:3–5:
But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.
One of the many problems besetting the Corinthian church was that of judging others unrighteously. Its various factions (cf. 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4) constantly sat in condemnation on each other. As noted in previous chapters of this volume, even Paul was under relentless, merciless assault from some demonic self-styled false apostles at Corinth. Those false teachers attacked his apostolic credentials, his ministry methods, his character, and even the gospel message he preached.
Unperturbed by the savage onslaught against him, Paul responded, “But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court” (1 Cor. 4:3). Their opinion of him was not important to him, because he did not seek to please men, but God. Paul viewed himself as a servant and steward of God (1 Cor. 4:1; cf. 9:17; Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25; Titus 1:7) and therefore accountable to Him. The apostle was not concerned with earthly, biased evaluations of him (whether positive or negative); no human court, whether an official tribunal or the unofficial court of human opinion, could render the ultimate verdict on him.
Going beyond that, Paul wrote, “In fact, I do not even examine myself” (1 Cor. 4:3). He was wise enough to know that he was biased in his own favor and thus lacked objectivity. Though he was “conscious of nothing against [himself]” (v. 4; cf. 2 Cor. 1:12), Paul understood that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Therefore he applied to himself the warning he expressed in 1 Co rinthians 10:12: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
Paul’s was not a brash, defiant, self-righteous attitude that refused to submit to scrutiny or judgment. Nor was he arguing that believers should not confront other believers who continue in sin (cf. 1 Cor. 5:12; 6:1–5). He was not talking about a sin issue, for he wrote that he was “conscious of nothing against [himself]” (1 Cor. 4:4). The apostle’s point was that neither he nor the Corinthians were able to judge him properly; that judgment was reserved for a higher court, “because the one who examines [him] is the Lord” (v. 4).
Paul concluded his point by exhorting the Corinthians, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time” (v. 5). The ultimate and accurate verdict on anyone’s life and ministry will be rendered by the Lord, who when He returns “will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (v. 5). In light of that reality believers should “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects” (Col. 1:10; cf. 1 Thess. 4:1). At the end of his life, Paul believed he had some measure of fulfillment of his spiritual ambition (2 Tim. 4:7–8).
PAUL WAS AMBITIOUS WITH THE WIDEST DEVOTION
whether at home or absent, (9b)
Paul’s devotion to his noble ambition knew no limits, as the all-encompassing phrase whether at home or absent indicates. That phrase connects Paul’s thought with the previous passage (cf. 5:6, 8), as does the phrase “therefore also” that begins verse 9. As noted in the discussion of 5:1–8 in chapter 12 of this volume, Paul constantly lived on the brink of death. Describing that ever-present threat, the apostle wrote poignantly,
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. (2 Cor. 4:8–12; cf. 6:9)
Because he constantly stared death in the face, Paul longed, as he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1, to leave his “earthly tent” (his physical body) and receive his “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (his resurrection body). Paul’s first choice was to live until the Rapture, when that transformation would take place. If that was not God’s will for him (as in fact it was not), Paul’s second choice was “to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (5:8). His third choice was “to remain on in the flesh” (Phil. 1:24).
In 2 Corinthians 5:6 Paul spoke of being at home in the body and absent from the Lord; in verse 8 he spoke of being absent from the body and at home with the Lord. Paul’s ambition to please God, imperfectly on earth or perfectly in heaven, remained unchanged. Expressing that same breadth of devotion he affirmed, “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7–8).
Some might assume that Paul’s longing for heaven implied an indifference to his earthly body; that he espoused an antinomian view that it does not matter what one does with the sinful, physical body. Such a view would have been in harmony with the prevailing Greek philosophical dualism of his day (see the discussion in chapter 12 of this volume) that held the body to be the worthless and inconsequential prison of the soul. But Paul knew that he could serve God in his physical body in a way that would produce an eternal reward. Thus, his longing for heaven and his resurrection body made him even more careful about how he lived in this world. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he wrote, “I beat my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” He admonished the Romans, “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). Paul’s ambition to please God in this life or the life to come demonstrates the broad scope of his devotion to the Lord.
PAUL WAS DRIVEN BY THE DEEPEST MOTIVE
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (5:10)
Driving Paul’s noble ambition was the knowledge that there would be a penetrating uncovering of the depths of his heart by the Lord Himself. That will take place in the future when believers must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The strong terms must and all stress the inevitability and comprehensiveness of this event. That knowledge produced in Paul strong motivation to please God in this life.
Phaneroō (appear) means, “to make manifest,” “to make clear,” “to make visible,” or “to reveal.” Commenting on the meaning of phanero?, Philip E. Hughes writes, “To be made manifest means not just to appear, but to be laid bare, stripped of every outward façade of respectability, and openly revealed in the full and true reality of one’s character” (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992], 180). Some have argued that believers’ secret motives and heart attitudes will be made manifest to the holy angels; there is, however, no biblical support for such speculation. Others hold that the disclosure of which Paul writes will be to other believers, a view also without biblical support. Believers will be too preoccupied with the unveiling of their own deeds to pay attention to the revealing of others’. Nor do believers’ hearts need to be made manifest to the omniscient God, who already knows every detail of their lives.
In that day, the full truth about their lives, character, and deeds will be made clear to each believer. Each will discover the real verdict on his or her ministry, service, and motives. All hypocrisy and pretense will be stripped away; all temporal matters with no eternal significance will vanish like wood, hay, and stubble, and only what is to be rewarded as eternally valuable will be left. First Samuel 16:7 declares that “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” “There is no creature hidden from His sight,” the writer of Hebrews adds, “but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). The true assessment of the work God has done in and through believers will be disclosed on that day.
Believers will not be judged for sin at the judgment seat of Christ. Every sin of every believer was judged at the Cross, when God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). At the cross “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). As our substitute, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24); “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12; cf. Eph. 1:7; 4:32; 1 John 2:1–2). Because of His atoning sacrifice on our behalf, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:1, 34). But though salvation is not by works, works are the inevitable result of true salvation. Philip Hughes comments,
It is worth remembering that a passage like this shows that, so far from there being discord, there is an essential agreement between the teaching of Paul and that of James on the subject of faith and works. The justification of the sinner, it is true, is by faith in Christ and not by works of his own; but the hidden root of faith must bring forth the visible fruit of good works. This fruit is expected by Christ, for it brings glory to the Father and is evidence to the world of the dynamic reality of divine grace. And it is especially in the bearing of much fruit that the Father is glorified (Jn. 15:8). (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 183. Italics in original.)
Judgment seat translates bēma, which, in its simplest definition, describes a place reached by steps, or a platform. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses it that way in Nehemiah 8:4. In Greek culture bēma referred to the elevated platform on which victorious athletes received their crowns, much like the medal stand in the modern Olympic games. In the New Testament it was used of the judgment seats of Pilate (Matt. 27:19; John 19:13), Herod (Acts 12:21), and Festus (Acts 25:6, 10, 17). There was also a bēma at Corinth, where un believing Jews unsuccessfully accused Paul before the Roman proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12, 16, 17). A person was brought before a bēma to have his or her deeds examined, in a judicial sense for indictment or exoneration, or for the purpose of recognizing and rewarding some achievement. Writing to the Romans of this same event, Paul described it as “the judgment seat [bēma] of God” (Rom. 14:10). God the Father is the ultimate Judge, but He has “given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Paul Barnett notes,
A parallel passage—“we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Rom. 14:10)—implies an identity of function of Christ and God; God judges and Christ judges. The NT often refers to Christ as God’s appointed judge, appropriate to his role as Son of Man, as in Dan. 7:13, 14, 26–27 (e.g., John 5:22, 27; 9:39; Matt. 25:31–32; Acts 10:42; 17:31; cf. Rev. 20:11–15). (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997], 275 n. 45)
The phrase each one stresses the personal nature of believers’ judgment; it is an individual, not a collective, judgment. Its purpose, as noted above, is not judicial; it is that every believer may be recompensed for his deeds in the body. Recompensed translates a form of the verb komiz?, which means, “to receive back what is due”—whether punishment for a criminal, or reward for one to be honored. When believers stand before the Lord Jesus Christ they will be recompensed for the deeds they have done in the body (cf. Rev. 22:12). Therefore, they cannot disregard their bodies, or treat them with contempt in some antinomian or dualistic fashion. Instead, they are to “present [their] bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is [their] spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). Things done in the body do have potential eternal value (cf. Matt. 6:19–21).
The use of the word bad does not indicate that believers’ judgment is a judgment on sin, since all their sin has already been judged in Christ. The contrast between good and bad is not one between moral good and moral evil. Bad does not translate kakos or ponēros, the words for moral evil, but phaulos, which means “worthless,” or “useless.” Richard C. Trench writes that phaulos “contemplates evil under another aspect, not so much that either of active or passive malignity, but that rather of its good-for-nothingness, the impossibility of any true gain coming forth from it” (Synonyms of the New Testament [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983], 317). Phaulos describes those mundane things that inherently are neither of eternal value nor sinful, such as taking a walk, going shopping, taking a drive in the country, pursuing an advanced degree, moving up the corporate ladder, painting pictures, or writing poetry. Those morally neutral things will be judged when believers stand before the judgment seat of Christ. If they were done with a motive to glorify God, they will be considered good. If they were pursued for selfish interests, they will be considered bad.
The clearest definition of the difference between good and bad (worthless) things is in 1 Corinthians 3:11–15:
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
The only foundation of the Christian life is the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Peter 2:6–8), but believers must build on that foundation, as Peter exhorted:
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. (2 Peter 1:5–10 NKJV)
Believers build for eternity not with “wood, hay, or straw,” but with “gold, silver, [and] precious stones.” The latter are valuable, permanent, and indestructible and will survive the fire of judgment; the former, though not evil, are worthless and combustible. They illustrate things with no lasting, eternal value. The fire, symbolizing judgment, will consume them in that day when “each man’s work will become evident.” Believers will only be rewarded for deeds with motives that please and glorify the Lord. Paul’s longing for heaven did not cause him to act irresponsibly or unfaithfully here on earth; it did just the opposite.