Pragmatic Success & Spiritual Failure

Have you ever thought that you could appear spiritually successful but be displeasing to God? The book of Judges speaks to this end and is echoed by the apostle Paul in both I Corinthians 3 and Galatians 6. Sometimes sowing to our religious flesh can outwardly look the same as sowing to the Spirit.

Dale Davis writes appropriately regarding this challenge in his commentary on Judges.

"The picture Judges 1 gives us is of an Israel in substantial control of Canann, a people clearly successful though certainly disobedient. Pragmatic success and spiritual failure – a strange but possible combination.

For one thing, it tells us that it is possible for the believer’s life to display the marks of success and yet be a failure in the eyes of God. Christian success (whether personal or in the form of a glossy evangelical enterprise) is not necessarily the same as pleasing God."