The Idolatry of Success

Luke 16:10-11 NKJV
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

I often read from the devotional book, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In today’s reading (November 1), Bonhoeffer says that the idolatry of success intoxicates the mind and emotions, often compromising truth to maintain the stupor, and dull the voice of conscience which seeks to illuminate one’s deep inner hypocrisy and depravity.

Bonhoeffer recorded these thoughts during the rise of Nazism. The Third Reich reached its zenith in the early years of World War II. Many Germans were deluded by the Reich's success. The national church was largely silent. The Confessing Church, of which Bonhoeffer was a part, stood boldly for the authority of scripture and its teachings.

In the 1930s and into the early part of the war, Hitler appeared to be successful. Germans felt better about themselves. They were intoxicated, Bonhoeffer says, on success. But in order to maintain the stupor, the inner voice of conscience had to be suppressed. Hypocrisy must be denied. Depravity had to be legitimized.

The Third Reich, in the name of nationalistic success, committed the most horrific crimes of the modern era.

Any time one raises the specter of the Third Reich, one is in danger hyperbole. You may rightly accuse me of a bad example. I accept that. But before you dismiss my line of reasoning, hear my point. Success, for its own sake, is a corrupting goal. Success endorses "end justifies any means" thinking. Compromise is inevitable. Compromise of character, principle and truth invites a core of depravity to an enterprise. That core of depravity will corrupt even the noblest of goals.

As I ponder this reality, I am reminded of the prayer of the Psalmist:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

God being my Helper, I will maintain my resolve to live with humble, honest integrity before Him. I resolve to live a conscientious life of examination by the Word of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to my heart and mind. I am ill-equipped to examine myself. Jeremiah said:

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked;

Who can know it?"

Jeremiah 19:7

I am fully capable of conning myself. But the Holy Spirit will never be satisfied with my pride, excuses, or self-justification. As I wait in God's Presence, saturating my soul daily in His Word, He insists upon examining, cleansing, and filling me. I will live in the joy and assurance of that reality, by His grace.

While the success model is intoxicating, the faithfulness model is the one God uses. The word Jesus used is "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21). I don't hold the scales that measure success or failure. God does. God calls me to be faithful, not to be a success.