The world calls it a virtue. Scripture has another name for most of it
The world admires the ambitious. We vote for them, buy their music, fund their laboratories, and put them on magazine covers. Yet when you open the Bible, ambition turns up again and again in bad company, next to jealousy, pride, greed, and strife. So which is it? Scripture’s answer depends on whom the ambition serves, and that question reaches straight into your own heart.
5But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them…
Jeremiah 45:5 · NASB95The New Testament has two words for ambition
Most of us grew up being told that ambition is healthy. Parents want ambitious children, companies hire ambitious people, and the person with no ambition is pitied. But for most of its history the word has had a bad reputation, and it earned it.
The English word comes from the Latin ambire, to go around. Greek had a word for the honorable drive and another for the sin, and the New Testament uses both.
Latin
The Roman candidate went around the voters soliciting their support, and the word came to cover every means he used to win it: flattery, promises, bribes. To the Latin mind ambition was campaigning for promotion at any cost, and to call a man ambitious was no compliment.
Greek: the noble word
The Greeks had a nobler word, which could describe a passion for what is truly excellent. Paul’s word for his own ambition is its verb, φιλοτιμέομαι (philotimeomai).
Greek: the word for the sin
It began as an honest word for working for wages, then named a candidate’s canvassing for office, and came to mean self-promotion: climbing by stepping on someone else’s neck. This is the word Scripture puts on its lists of sins.
The Puritan 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 missionary bishop Stephen Neill held that in a Christian, ambition is always sinful, and most inexcusable of all in a minister. That goes too far, but not by much: when Scripture names ambition, it is usually to warn against it.
You do not need a Bible to see what ambition does when it is let loose. Turn on the news. The world system is dominated by carnal ambition, pride, and greed, and makes no secret of it: by its own account, self-assertion and ambition are the hallmarks of success.
Politics
The Roman candidate’s walk around the voters is repeated every election season. Today’s candidate says whatever the latest poll requires, faces both ways at once, promises anything to win the seat, then protects the seat at any cost. Power is the prize, and principle is the currency spent to buy it.
The stage
Talent is a gift from God, but the stage has a price, and many who reach it tell us plainly what they paid: marriage, children, conscience, faith, health. Some speak openly of having sold their soul. They reached the top and found it empty.
The laboratory
A leading stem-cell scientist announced the first stem cells drawn from a cloned human embryo, and the data proved to be fabricated. A celebrated blood-testing company was built on promises its machines could not keep, and its founder was convicted of fraud. In both, the ambition to be celebrated outran the truth.
The office
He climbs the ladder by stepping on whoever stands on the rung below, burns out the team, and then burns out himself. Success, prestige, and promotion are the gods of the corporate world, and the sacrifice they demand is his family.
History
Every tyrant who reached for an empire, Hitler and Stalin among them, shared one thing: evil ambition. Millions died to satisfy it.
The Scottish commentator Robert Haldane observed two centuries ago that the most savage animals do not destroy so many of their own kind to satisfy their hunger as man destroys his fellow man to satisfy his ambition, his revenge, and his greed.
John puts the whole world system into one verse, and the world’s ambition is in it: what he calls the boastful pride of life.
16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1 John 2:16 · NASB95
And whatever the world’s ambition wins, the whole world or a piece of it, passes away with the world (1 John 2:17). Such ambition is a terrible master, and it never stops to ask the question Jesus asked: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
The ambition that runs the world did not begin with men
Selfish ambition is not a modern invention. It is older than the human race.
Scripture calls him “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel 28:12), and it was not enough: “I will ascend to heaven… I will make myself like the Most High.” His ambition was to be like God, and it turned an angel into the devil.
The first temptation appealed to the same ambition: “you will be like God.” They reached up to rise, and they fell, and took the whole race down with them.
He followed Jesus for what he could get out of it: John calls him a thief (John 12:6), and Matthew shows him at the priests’ door asking what they would give him for Jesus (Matthew 26:15). Three years beside the King, and all he wanted from the kingdom was his own gain.
It was ambition that got Satan thrown out of heaven, Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden, and Judas into hell. The root is the same in all three: they wanted for themselves what God had not given them. “You shall not covet” is the last of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:17), but it is the one broken first in every sin. Every sin begins as a desire for what God has not given, and the desire conceives and gives birth to the deed (James 1:14-15).
Satan has not changed his approach. When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, his last offer was all the kingdoms of the world and their glory (Matthew 4:8-9). Satan tempts you the same way: what he offers may be the very thing God intends to give you, but he offers it now, by a shortcut around God’s way, and for your own glory rather than God’s.
If anyone should have been free of selfish ambition, it was the twelve men who walked with Jesus. They were not. James and John came to Him with a request: “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory” (Mark 10:37). They even brought their mother to ask for them (Matthew 20:20-21). When the other ten heard, they were indignant, and not out of holiness: they wanted those seats too. The argument over who was the greatest ran all the way to the table of the Last Supper, the night before the cross (Luke 22:24).
The argument was ugly pride, and Jesus did not let it pass. Yet He did not tell them to stop wanting to be great; He told them how greatness is reached.
43But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Mark 10:43-45 · NASB95
| The world’s ladder | Christ’s way | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Political power play. Who you know, and whom you can use. | Service. Whoever wishes to become great must become a servant. |
| Confidence | Audacious. Asked whether they could drink His cup of suffering, James and John answered “We are able” (Mark 10:38-39). Overstate your abilities and charge ahead. | Humble dependence. The cup comes first, and the seats go to those for whom they are prepared: given, not grabbed (Mark 10:40). |
| Authority | Lord it over people. Dominate, control, pull rank. | Slave of all. Take the towel and wash their feet (John 13:14-15). |
| Outcome | It works in the world, for a while. | “Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). |
Christ Himself is the answer to our ambition to be great. We want to be great, so He became small; we want to rule, so He came to serve. In a real sense He came into the world to rescue us from our own damning ambition.
And in the end the disciples’ ambition was turned, not killed: their love for Christ grew larger than their wish for thrones. John, who once asked for a seat beside Christ in His glory, later wrote a whole Gospel without once naming himself.
When the New Testament names ambition as sin, it uses one pointed word, ἐριθεία (eritheia), and it never puts that word in good company.
“If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”
Paul has just asked the Philippians to be “of the same mind” (Philippians 2:2), and the next verse says how: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” The word the NASB95 renders “selfishness” here is eritheia.
Some in Rome “proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives,” hoping to add to Paul’s pain in prison.
“To those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
Where Scripture names selfish ambition, jealousy is usually close by. James sets the two side by side. Paul lists them together among the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:20), and again among the sins he feared to find at Corinth (2 Corinthians 12:20); in both verses the NASB95 renders eritheia “disputes.” The preachers of Philippians 1 preached “from envy and strife” (Philippians 1:15). Selfish ambition wants to rise, and jealousy resents whoever is already up there. Selfish ambition breeds jealousy, jealousy breeds strife, and the unity of a family, a church, or a company is gone.
The men Paul describes in Philippians 1:15-17 were preaching the true gospel. The message was right and the motive was wrong. Selfish ambition is at its ugliest in the pulpit, where it wears the robe of service.
Scripture will not have a selfishly ambitious man lead the church. An elder is to be gentle, peaceable, and free from the love of money (1 Timothy 3:3), and shepherds are to serve eagerly, not for gain and not lording it over the flock (1 Peter 5:2-3): they are to want the work, not the rank. John writes of one church leader, Diotrephes, who “loves to be first among them” (3 John 9), and the fruit was slander, exclusion, and division. Be wary, too, of the leader who says God has given him a great vision that requires your time and your money. Very often it is personal ambition dressed in spiritual language.
Scripture forbids one ambition and commands another
No. The Bible does not condemn ambition as such; it condemns ambition for yourself. Read the verse at the top of this page again: “Are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them.” The words that matter are “for yourself.” Selfishness is what corrupts ambition. The drive itself is not what God forbids.
Jeremiah 45:5 is a word about the times as much as about the heart. God spoke it to Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, when Babylon was already on its way and He had just said that He was about to tear down what He had built (Jeremiah 45:4). When everything around you is about to be shaken, building a personal empire is simply the wrong project. In a world like ours that word has lost none of its force.
The apostle Paul was an intensely ambitious man. He simply had the right object. He uses the Greek verb for noble ambition, philotimeomai, three times, twice of himself and once as a charge to a church, and not once does it point at self. He also calls it a fine thing to aspire to shepherd God’s people.
“We also have as our ambition… to be pleasing to Him.”
“I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named.”
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands.”
“If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.”
Jesus Himself blessed a consuming ambition: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Lucifer hungered for power, the rich fool for possessions (Luke 12:16-21), and the world hungers for praise; the beatitude blesses the hunger whose object is righteousness.
The Bible has no admiration for the man with no drive at all. Solomon watched people compete and saw envy behind it all, and then he looked at the opposite extreme: “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh” (Ecclesiastes 4:5). Laziness is a slow, comfortable road to self-destruction. Taking the selfishness out of ambition does not mean taking the effort out of life: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (Colossians 3:23).
And a right goal does not sanctify wrong means. Jacob wanted the right thing, the birthright and the blessing of God, and he went after it by manipulation and deceit (Genesis 25:29-34; Genesis 27:18-29). He got what he wanted, and then spent twenty years reaping what he had sown before God broke him (Genesis 32:24-30). Even an ambition for God’s things is dangerous when it reaches for them with the devices of the flesh.
So what does a noble ambition look like, an ambition sanctified to God? Paul spells it out in two verses.
9Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10For 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.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 · NASB95
“To be pleasing to Him.” That phrase separates sanctified ambition from selfish ambition. From his conversion on, Paul sought great things for God and none for himself. To him it was a very small thing to be judged by men (1 Corinthians 4:3-4), and he said that if he were still trying to please men, he would not be a bond-servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10). He had one audience, and one Master.
“Whether at home or absent.” In this body or out of it, on earth or in heaven, the ambition never changes. That is the test of a sanctified ambition: if you will have to abandon all your objectives the moment you arrive in heaven, you have been pursuing an ambition for this life only. What you pursue here should be what you will go on pursuing forever.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” This is what drives it. Every believer will give an account, and what was done for self will burn like wood, hay, and straw (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). What was done to please Him will last. Paul was not driven by the crowd, by his rivals, or by success, but by the day he would stand before his Lord.
A noble ambition aims at pleasing Him, is the same on earth and in heaven, and is driven by the day of account. Career, ministry, family, and study all have their place when they serve it.
The heart is quick to call its own ambition noble
Most people know roughly how driven they are. The harder question is where the drive is pointed. So measure yourself on two scales: how strong the drive is, and whose glory it serves. Answer honestly; nobody sees this but you and God.
No test can read a heart. Only God can do that (Jeremiah 17:10). Use this as a mirror, not a verdict, and ask Him to show you what it cannot: “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).
The drive stays, and what changes is whom it serves
If the self-test made you uncomfortable, good. The cure is not to stop caring or stop working. You do not kill the drive; you change its Master. This is how that happens in practice.
The world calls selfish ambition a personality type, a leadership style, or a healthy drive that needs managing. James calls it the mark of a wisdom that is earthly, natural, and demonic, and tells the one who has it not to lie against the truth (James 3:14-15). Confess it to God as sin, by name (1 John 1:9). You cannot redirect what you still admire.
Before any decision, ask one question: who am I trying to impress? If the honest answer is people, you are serving the wrong master (Galatians 1:10). Begin the day by praying, “Lord, whatever I do today, let it please You,” and end it by asking whether it did.
Keep your goals, but hold them with an open hand. Write them down, write “if the Lord wills” over them, and mean it (James 4:13-15): every goal on that list is surrendered to Christ, to do with as He pleases. When a door closes, thank Him for it instead of forcing it open.
Jealousy is what selfish ambition breeds, and rejoicing starves it. When a colleague, a rival, or another church succeeds, pray for them by name and say something good about them in public. Paul rejoiced even over the preaching of men who were trying to hurt him: “Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice” (Philippians 1:18). “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15).
Jesus told His hearers to take the last place and let the host move them up (Luke 14:10-11). Practice it. Do some service every week that nobody will ever credit to you (Matthew 6:3-4). Let others speak first, and let them have the credit. The church runs on quiet, self-forgetting people who are content in a small sphere and free from selfish ambition. Become one of them.
Selfish ambition pushes toward whatever is biggest and fastest. Resist it. Let the work’s depth drive you rather than its size, and its excellence rather than its success. Burnout seldom comes from hard work. It comes from chasing reach, from personal ambition and unrealistic expectations of what you can achieve, which have taken the place of trust in the sovereignty of God. Hours spent building what the Lord is not building are wasted: “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it… It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep” (Psalm 127:1-2).
Many gifted people never reach maturity because they never learn to slay their pride, their selfish ambition, and their need to be preeminent, and never learn to submit to anyone else’s leadership. Place yourself under godly authority and invite correction (1 Peter 5:5). An ambition that nobody is allowed to question is already out of control: ambition without humility becomes egotism, even megalomania.
Sometimes He does the work Himself: a lost position, a failed plan, a season of suffering. Do not waste it. Through it God burns away pride and selfish ambition and makes you more like His Son. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6). The exalting is His to do, and so is the timing.
Once a week, look at your calendar and your goals and ask what will still stand when your work is tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:13-14). Keep that, and drop what will burn.
Success, the size of your following, fame, esteem, popularity, promotion, money, and possessions are the world’s answers, and none of them is Paul’s. He answers for every believer: “We also have as our ambition… to be pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). That ambition is enough to fill a lifetime, and it is the only one that will still be yours on the other side of death.
The world will keep climbing its ladder, and some will reach the top and find nothing there. You can have something better: a drive as strong as any politician’s, poured out for a Master who sees what no one else sees and rewards what no one else rewards.
It is not wrong to have ambition. It is wrong to have it for yourself.
The English preacher F. B. Meyer spent a lifetime in the pulpit and wrote book after book. Asked near the end of his life to sum it all up in a sentence or two, he answered, “I have only one ambition, to be God’s errand boy.”
That is the heart of a humble servant: willing to give himself to the simplest task, not for his own fulfillment or his own gain, but for the sake of the One who sends him.
