*The following is an excerpt from A Life of Joy: Learning Christian Contentment, published by Free Grace Press, 2026. Pick up your copy here: https://freegracepress.com/products/a-life-of-joy
God is the One who ultimately assesses the quality of our lives. You see, the fear of man, the love of this world, and a wrong perspective on success hinder us from seeing trials rightly and from joyfully submitting to God in all of life.
For example, Paul writes of “assessing preachers,” like Apollos and himself:
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Paul makes it clear that a preacher’s work and, by implication, all Christians’ work will be made clear on that great day. We are not to prematurely assess the quality of a man or woman’s life. Many have died in seeming failure, yet God used what they wrote and did, to affect generations after them. They were faithful, and God hid much of the fruit of their lives from them. Yet their fruit goes forth.
Paul goes on to emphasize this concept in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 concerning stewardship:
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Paul expounds here that he and other pastors are mere stewards of the mysteries of God. They are to be faithful. Yet he does not judge himself, and it’s a very insignificant thing for him to be judged by human courts. He knows that what matters is what God says about his ministry and labor, and what God does with it. He writes that motives will be disclosed at the judgment.
As we read in 2 Timothy 4, Paul died with many abandoning and forsaking him, seemingly feeling alone and discarded. Yet there is a note of triumphant jubilation in Paul’s tone. We read in 2 Timothy 4:16-18:
At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Paul declared that the Lord stood with him and strengthened him and would deliver him from every evil deed, bringing him safely into His heavenly kingdom. He proclaims: to the Lord be the glory! What a statement. Paul entrusted himself to the Lord, who knows all and is faithful.
Fear God, Not Man
One of the greatest hindrances to our joyful submission to God in every part of life is our tendency toward avoidance of hardships and difficulties because we fear people. The reality is that we cannot serve God faithfully if we seek to avoid difficulty by compromising in order to please people or protect our reputation. Galatians 1:10 is clear, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” We cannot serve Christ and serve people. We must be willing to be faithful to Christ, knowing it will lead us into and through hardships. Spurgeon once warned his readers of the danger of platform protection. He wrote to an assembly of pastors in April of 1888, “I care for no man and for no newspaper, but only for God.”[1] Later that year, he wrote in The Sword and the Trowel:
Failure at a crucial moment may mar the entire outcome of a life. A man who has enjoyed special light is made bold to follow in the way of the Lord, and is anointed to guide others therein. He rises into a place of love and esteem among the godly, and this promotes his advancement among men. What then? The temptation comes to be careful of the position he has gained, and to do nothing to endanger it. The man, so lately a faithful man of God, compromises with worldlings, and to quiet his own conscience invents a theory by which such compromises are justified and even commended. He receives the praise of “the judicious”; he has, in truth, gone over to the enemy. The whole force of his former life now tells upon the wrong side…To avoid such an end it becomes us to ever stand fast.[2]
Spurgeon lamented how many compromised to avoid hardship and loss of people’s praise. The only cure for the fear of man is to fear the LORD.
The fear of the LORD is tied to a wise life in the Scriptures. Wisdom is truth righteously and skillfully applied. Solomon writes in Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” To see God as awesome and worthy of our adoration in all of our circumstances in this life will move us to rightly apply the truth to our lives and live for His praise even if it should garnish man’s frown. Faithfulness born of a true faith in Christ leads us to and through hardship and brings us out more joyfully submitted to God in all things. John Gill captures the heart of a truly content Christian in his commentary on Philippians 4:11. He writes:
They are thankful for everything they have, be it little or more, and in every state, whether of adversity or prosperity; and quietly and patiently submit to the will of God, and cheerfully take and bear whatever is assigned them as their portion.[3]
The fuel of contentment drives us to thankfully and joyfully submit to the will of God, bearing whatever we are assigned by His gracious hand, for we trust His unconditional love for us, His people.
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[1] Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973), 160-162. Quote is Spurgeon’s, as recorded by Murray.
[2] Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, 160-162. Quote is Spurgeon’s, as recorded by Murray.
[3] John Gill, Philippians, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, Vol. 9 (Paris, AR: Baptist Standard Bearer, 2016), 159.
