Paul and the Force of Ambition in Romans 15

Much of Christian morality portrays ambition as something negative, dark, sinful, and anti-Christ (James 3:16, Philippians 2:3). This is because sinful human corruption plunders the force of ambition and appropriates it for selfish ends. In fact, a large portion of worldliness is tainted by a kind of unrestrained ambition that drives people toward greedy or narcissistic gains (Matthew 6:24, Luke 9:25). But ambition in and of itself is not evil, sinful, dark, or negative. Rather, ambition is very good so long as the motives that keep it contained are kept righteous. Ambition is simply an aspiration to attain something, bigger, better, or higher. It is an enthusiastic motivation to achieve a goal. In our current universe, a world in which there is no ambition is a world that is either stagnant or dead. 

Paul writes of his own ambition as a high good when he says that he has reason to be proud, or enthusiastic, or to find glory in his work for God (Romans 15:17). He then says that he makes it his aspiration to proclaim the gospel everywhere that Christ has not been preached. In doing so, he makes it part of his ambition to broaden and fulfill the messianic prophecy of Isaiah (Romans 15:21, Isaiah 52:15). Paul’s ambition is powerful! It is the harnessing of that ambition that resulted in his participation in the creation of most of the New Testament! It also profoundly accelerated and reinforced the widening advance of early Christendom. He kept that ambition in check by making sure that he did not boast about anything that wasn’t accomplished through Christ. This means that he sought and maintained humility in all that he was doing, and held captive the reality that any good being done through him  was empowered by someone bigger than he was. In other words, he was aligning his ambition with God’s purposes. 

Now notice what kind of good was being done through his ambition. First he was bringing the Gentiles to obedience. Whole people groups, because of Paul’s work, were being snatched from satanic rebellion and conformed to an obedience to the highest possible good rather than to an obedience to evil self-destruction, or to a submission to falsehoods. He was doing this in two very personal and significant ways. He was doing it through the words he spoke and wrote, as well as through his actions and accomplishments (Romans 15:18).  Second, in the midst of his words and his deeds, obedience to God was also brought about by signs and wonders, and most importantly by the power of the Spirit of God that followed him as he actualized his ambitions (Romans 15:19). So not only was Paul bringing about obedience to God, he was also glorifying God in all that he did. But what if Paul had no such ambitions. Well, God would have brought about his plan through someone else. Your ambition (or lack of it) has no bearing on what God will accomplish. It does, however, have bearing on whether or not you willingly participate in the highest good of God’s purposes.

Chances are that you have ambitions right now as you read these words. What are they? Are they worldly? Do they take a back seat to God’s purposes? Can you even align them with God’s purposes? What ambitions do you have for your part in God’s plans? What ambitions do you have for your place in your faith community's work? In what way are you fulfilling the ministry of the Gospel of Christ? Where and how are you doing that? What are the primary motivators for the things that you do in most of your life? Where do all of your ambitions fall in a hierarchy?