ARE YOU MORE WESTERN THAN GODLY?

Supporting Scripture: Micah 6:6–8; Matthew 6:19–24, 33; Luke 12:15–21; John 14:15

Men, I want to ask you a question that may be more revealing than you initially imagine: Are you more Western than godly?

We live in a culture that has developed remarkably clear measurements of a successful man. How much money does he earn? How much wealth has he accumulated? What has he accomplished professionally? How many people recognize his name, and how much influence does he exercise? Unfortunately, Christians have developed their own versions of these measurements. How large is his ministry? How many people attend his church? How many followers does he have? How many books has he written? How influential is his voice? We seldom stop to ask a rather important question: Who established these measurements of success? Was it God, or have we simply adopted the measurements of the world around us, baptized them in religious language, and assumed that God shares our admiration for them?

A Man Who Had Everything

Ecclesiastes confronts this question in an extraordinary way. The book introduces its speaker as the son of David, king in Jerusalem, traditionally identified with Solomon. And if we understand the Preacher against the background of Solomon's reign, we encounter a man who possessed more of what men spend their lives pursuing than most of us could imagine. Wealth, power, wisdom, recognition, influence, great building projects, extraordinary possessions, and virtually every pleasure that money could purchase were his to enjoy.

In Ecclesiastes 2, the Preacher describes his experiment with pleasure, accomplishment, and wealth. He built houses and planted vineyards, made gardens and parks, accumulated silver and gold, servants, livestock, singers, and treasures. Yet when he surveyed everything his hands had accomplished, he reached a startling conclusion: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Imagine reaching the pinnacle of everything your culture tells you to pursue, looking around at all you have acquired, and discovering that none of it can provide the enduring meaning you expected.

The Hebrew word often translated vanity, hebel, carries the imagery of vapor or breath, describing what is fleeting, elusive, and impossible to hold permanently. The Preacher is not claiming that work, wealth, accomplishment, or enjoyment are inherently evil. In fact, throughout Ecclesiastes, he recognizes the goodness of work, food, marriage, and the ordinary pleasures God gives us. But he repeatedly exposes the futility of making these things the ultimate purpose of our existence. Wealth cannot prevent death, accomplishment cannot guarantee remembrance, wisdom cannot eliminate every injustice, and hard work cannot guarantee that someone else will not inherit and squander what we have accumulated. None of these things can provide what only God can give.

God's Definition of a Successful Man

After examining life's pleasures, frustrations, injustices, uncertainties, and inevitable end, Ecclesiastes arrives at a remarkably simple conclusion: “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Not accumulate a fortune, build an empire, become influential, achieve recognition, or even build an impressive ministry. Fear God and keep His commandments.

The Preacher's conclusion is not an isolated religious thought tacked onto the end of an otherwise pessimistic book. Throughout Ecclesiastes, we are reminded that life is a gift from God, that human beings do not control their circumstances, that our days are numbered, and that God will judge what we do. Indeed, the following verse makes that final point unmistakable: “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). The question, therefore, is not whether other men consider you successful, but what God sees when He examines your life.

Centuries after Solomon, the prophet Micah expresses a remarkably similar truth: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Micah was confronting a people who imagined that elaborate religious offerings might satisfy God while their daily lives remained characterized by injustice and unfaithfulness. God was not impressed by the size of their offerings. He wanted lives characterized by justice, covenant faithfulness, and humble fellowship with Him.

Notice what is absent from both passages. There is no command to become wealthy, famous, powerful, professionally accomplished, or to build a large ministry. These things may accompany a man's life, and some may provide opportunities to serve others and glorify God, but none of them establishes his worth before God.

Jesus Confronts the Same Deception

Jesus addressed this very temptation when He warned, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). He then told the story of a wealthy man whose land produced so abundantly that he decided to tear down his barns and build larger ones. The man imagined that his accumulated wealth would allow him to relax, eat, drink, and enjoy many years of security. But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20). Jesus concludes, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

Consider the implications. By Western measurements, this man was extraordinarily successful. He had productive assets, expanding wealth, financial security, and the prospect of comfortable retirement. Yet Jesus called him a fool. Not because farming, producing wealth, or saving were inherently wrong, but because he had organized his entire life around material abundance while neglecting the God before Whom he would soon stand. He had become rich in the world's measurements and poor toward God.

Is it possible that the very things we celebrate as success are distracting us from the things God actually commands? And is it possible that our obsession with success has become so deeply embedded in our Western Christian culture that we no longer recognize the difference between what God requires and what our culture admires?

A Response of Love

Men, I want you to examine your life today. Not the life you describe to others, not your theological convictions, and not your intentions, but your actual daily life. If someone could observe how you spend your time, money, attention, and energy, what would they conclude matters most to you? Would they see a man who fears God and keeps His commandments? Would your wife recognize a husband who loves her as Christ loved the church? Would your children recognize a father who patiently teaches them the ways of the Lord? Would your employer, employees, customers, or coworkers recognize a man who deals justly, speaks truthfully, and keeps his word? Would your brothers in Christ recognize a man who loves them, serves them, confesses his sins, and walks humbly with God? Or would they see a man who has embraced the world's measurements of success while making room for God wherever his ambitions permit?

Today, identify one area of your life where you have been pursuing the world's definition of success at the expense of faithfulness to God. Perhaps it involves money, professional ambition, recognition, or simply the amount of attention you give to your family. Then make one concrete change. Spend time with your wife or children that you have been withholding because you are too busy. Make right a dishonest or unjust business practice. Abandon an ambition that has become an idol. Serve someone who can do absolutely nothing to advance your reputation. Or confess to the Lord that you have been seeking the admiration of men more diligently than His approval.

I took this step today: ☐

The Source

Men, Ecclesiastes is not calling us to despise the material world or abandon meaningful work. It is calling us to see life as it really is. At sixty-seven, with more years behind me than in front of me, I recognize more clearly than ever that our possessions are temporary, our accomplishments will eventually be forgotten, and the years God has entrusted to us are passing far more quickly than we once imagined. When I was a younger man, it was easy to think in terms of what I might still accomplish, acquire, or become. But age has a way of exposing the temporary nature of things we once considered so important. And whether we are young or old, every one of us will eventually stand before God and give an account of the life He entrusted to us.

But the message of Scripture does not end with the realization that our lives are fleeting. It directs us to Jesus Christ, Who lived in perfect obedience to His Father and did not measure His life by wealth, public approval, political power, or earthly accomplishment. He gave Himself for us, bearing our sins and reconciling us to God, and He calls us to follow Him.

Through Christ, we are forgiven, reconciled to the Father, and called into a life of grateful obedience. We are free to work diligently without worshiping our accomplishments, to possess wealth without making it our master, to serve without demanding recognition, and to love our wives, raise our children, and serve our brothers without imagining that these ordinary acts of faithfulness are somehow less significant than the achievements the world applauds.

One day, the measurements that dominate our Western culture will mean absolutely nothing. Your professional title, bank balance, public recognition, and the size of your ministry will not determine your standing before God. What will matter is your relationship with the Lord and the life you lived before Him.

So ask yourself again: Am I more Western than godly? And remember the Preacher's conclusion: Fear God and keep His commandments. Everything else must find its proper place beneath that calling.

Behold Christ · Repent · Obey in Love