Our Holy (and Humble) Ambition

This past Sunday we focused on trusting God with everything as we looked at part 1 of “Worry and Anxiety: A Question of Trust” in Matthew 6:25-34. It is so easy for us to trust anything and everything except God. But Jesus in His great love for us exposes our false securities and shows us why we are not to worry: because God is in control, He gives and sustains life; and He cares for His own.

Worry doesn’t fit with faith. It doesn’t do us any good, it actually harms us; and Jesus wants to rescue us from ourselves. He wants us to make the choice of contentment over anxiety. We pick up where we left off, seeing trust as the God-ordained loss or lack) of control. Where we “roll” everything to Him (Prov. 16:3 and elsewhere), entrusting to Him what we cannot and should not try to control. He knows everything, can do anything and is the One we look to make sense out of life. Basically, God’s grace brings contentment rather than anxiety.

Now, by way of contrast, we see in 6:31 The world’s ignorant (and misguided) ambition. Jesus says that the Gentiles eagerly seek the things that perish like food, drink and clothing. The Greek word for Gentiles is ta ethnes, or literally “the nations”; which commonly designates non-Jews or Gentiles; but the emphasis here is, as Michael Wilkins puts it, on “those who operate outside of God’s values”. They are all wrapped up in this pursuit because they do not have an internal spiritual compass as we do, the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct. They are left to their own devices and are at the mercy of their own vices. Misguided ambition leads to anxiety.

The reason we don’t need to live like that is because God knows our needs and meets them (Matt. 6:32). Jesus taught those who came to listen to Him, He felt compassion for the crowds, who came thronging but not fully yielding. Like before He fed the 5000 (Mark 6:30-44), when He says to His disciples, “you give them something to eat”. They could not; they didn't have the resources. I will Jesus says, watch Me. He did so to show them His glory and power; to teach them that they should look to Him and be satisfied. But most only saw a free lunch, and went on in ignorance.

Jesus does not condemn people for going after false "gods", they condemn themselves. He is full of mercy and compassion. Matt. 9:36 Jesus saw the crowds and felt compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Unbelievers have limited options. They seek earthly treasure which becomes their master, and an evil one at that. It plays the tyrant in their lives. They who have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for that which is false can only do one thing: worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever (Rom. 1:21-23). With regard to Matthew 6:31 Jamieson, Faucett and Brown say, “knowing nothing definitely beyond this present life to kindle their aspirations and engage their supreme attention, the heathen naturally pursue present objects as their chief, their only good. To what an elevation above these does Jesus here lift His disciples!”

Jesus' response to the misguided should lead us to follow suit and look on them with compassion, pity, and mercy, not judgment. We ought to respond with humility, thankful that God has opened our eyes to greater realities; and wanting the same for them. But sometimes we imitate those who “operate outside of God’s values”. Although God has called us to be different, set apart to Him, in but not of the world, we sometimes live lives almost indistinguishable from the world. Sadder than those who don’t know better.

Matthew 6:33-34 is Jesus’ great summary statement, showing what ought to be the Church’s holy (and humble) ambition. By the “church” I mean the true church of Jesus Christ, comprised of all those who are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith in Christ alone. We have a different motivation, ambition and Master. We desire, because of and by the grace of God, to be a counter culture for God’s glory and others good. 1 Thess. 4:11-12 says "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, so that you may behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need". 2 Cor. 5:9 says "we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him". Jesus wants us to show the world true treasure in our words and life; show them another option – a good one with a good Master. Give them Jesus, give them heaven!

Why should we live like this? Because it leads to freedom, joy, peace; to God’s glory and our's and other's good. You can’t force, dictate or legislate morality or service or devotion or right motives. It comes from a heart wooed by the Love that will not let us go. Jesus said, as Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (John 3:14-15). If I be lifted up I will draw all men to Myself (John 12:32, see also 6:40, 44, 47). Eph. 2 tells us that we (the true church of Jesus Christ) were dead in our sins, unable to do anything of value spiritually. But God, being rich in mercy, with the great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ and has seated us in the heavenly places in Christ. We live and move and have our being here on earth but there are greater spiritual realities in play, that no one can see, but God tells us are present. And we believe. By faith we walk in that knowledge. By faith we press on towards the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).

(BTW, if you are reading these words and don’t yet know Jesus Christ in this way, you can, by simply acknowledging who He is and believing that He died, was buried, came back to life and is coming back someday for those who love Him – there is true and meaningful life in no one else - you can receive the love and forgiveness that has eluded you your whole life until this moment in time).