How Does God Define Success?

The wisest king and a Florida grocer land in the same place. You get to measure your life the way God does.

You want to know you did it right.

Someday someone will stand up at your funeral and try to sum you up in about four minutes. They'll mention your work, probably. Maybe a title or two. But the stories people tell afterward, in the parking lot and at the kitchen table, won't be about the title. They'll be about how you treated them. What you showed up for. What you gave away. And somewhere in the middle of a normal Tuesday, that thought might slip in and ask you a question you don't have time for. What am I actually being measured by?

These aren't bad things to want, and I want you to hear that first. You want your life to count, and you want to hear that it did. God put that in you. And you want Your Dash (that tiny line between your date of birth and your date of death on your headstone) to be measured by something that lasts longer than the scoreboard.

If you've searched "how does God define success," "biblical definition of success," or "well done good and faithful servant meaning," this post is the one I'd hand you across a table. You're asking the right question. And the answer is better news than the scoreboard ever gave you.

Get the Gist Quick

Chapters nine and ten of Your Purpose & Principle Driven Life 2.0 close the book's first movement. Solomon, after testing wisdom, work, wealth, pleasure, and justice, sets down his pen with one conclusion: fear God and keep His Commandments. Then Jesus finishes the story with a parable about three servants and a Master who measures one thing, Faithfulness with what He entrusted to them. The research on leading others points the same direction. A review of 130 studies found that leaders who serve their people's growth predicted better outcomes than transformational, authentic, or ethical leadership did.1 This post walks the move from Under The Sun to Under The Son and four steps for redefining Success this week.

The whole post, in four bullets:

• Solomon's final verdict was simple. Nothing he gathered followed him to the grave, so he pointed to the only thing that does.

• The Lie told you Success is the size of the pile. God measures what you did with what He put in your hands.

• Under The Son (Jesus), Success sounds like three words. Well done, Faithful. And Faithfulness includes the people you serve.

• Four steps put you on God's scoreboard. Name the one you've been keeping, serve your people's growth, review your week for Faithfulness, and let Purpose carry Your Dash into Eternity.

And now... the rest of the story.

The Lie

Two villains shadow every step of your life. Their names are Deception and Distraction.

Deception whispers one of its oldest Lies here, and my book names it plainly. "This is what Success looks like." The title. The number. The name people recognize. Distraction keeps you so busy climbing toward it that you rarely stop to ask who's keeping score. Together they keep you chasing a finish line that moves every time you get close.

You see, the first thing that's true is that you were made to succeed. Wanting to do well is a good desire, and God doesn't ask you to stop.

The second thing is the one most of the people I work with never say out loud. What if I've been keeping the wrong score? You keep it to yourself, because it's frightening to wonder that after twenty years of effort. It's also the question that opens the door.

And the third thing changes everything. My book puts it this way. Jesus measures Success by a different standard. He doesn't track empire size, plaques on the wall, money in the bank, or name recognition. What He looks for is Faithfulness.

My friend, you're in good company. At the end of all his searching, a king set down his pen and sighed one last time. No more experiments. No more chasing wind. He'd tried wisdom, work, wealth, pleasure, and justice, with a king's budget and a lifetime to spend. And he left us this: nothing he gathered followed him to the grave. We come into the world naked and empty-handed, he wrote, and that's how we leave it (Ecclesiastes 5:15). His name was Solomon, King David's son. His conclusion fit in one sentence. Fear God and keep His Commandments, because this applies to every person (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

I Know the Road

I get it. I really do.

From the outside, my life looked like Success by every measure the world uses. I checked the boxes for life, career, and Christianity. I made it to the top of the American Dream, and in my case that meant the C-Suite. I was keeping score, and I was winning.

I've also spent most of the past twenty years helping companies do the job right without harming people. The fundamentals never changed. Individual character that leads to a healthy culture, centered on Purpose and a few simple Principles. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to apply that same scoreboard to my own life.

So, I know what it feels like to win by the world's measure and wonder if it's the right one. And I know what it's like to trade scoreboards, because I've done it, and I've walked a lot of good men and women through it since. That's what the rest of this post is for.

The Truth

There's good news. There's The Truth, and it's a better scoreboard.

Now, let's turn from The Sun to The Son, Jesus.

Where Solomon ended in vanity, Jesus began with abundance. Where the King could only point to God, The Son brought us to Him. And when Jesus talked about Success, He told a story about a Master who went on a journey and entrusted His wealth to three servants, each according to his ability. Two of them went to work and doubled what they'd been given. The third buried his share in the ground. When the Master returned, He said the same thing to each of the two who'd been faithful.

"Well done, good and Faithful servant! You have been Faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the Joy of your Master!" (Matthew 25:23, ESV)

Notice what the Master praised. Not the amount. The two servants started with different sums, and they heard the same words. The word He repeats is Faithful. It's the whole measure.

Well done. Good. Faithful.

That changes everything about how you keep score. Success in God's economy isn't the size of the pile. It's what you did with what He put in your hands. Your money, yes. Also your time, your gifts, your relationships, your influence, and your opportunities.

If you're reading this without Faith of your own, the pattern still holds, whatever you believe. The people we remember best are rarely the ones who kept the most. They're the ones who did the most good with what they had.

My friend, the Master's words are still available. And they're meant for ordinary people who were faithful with what they were given.

Four Steps for Your Dash

Everything I do with clients runs on four steps. In Your Purpose & Principle Driven Life 2.0 they're written for the whole of life. Here they're written for you and your scoreboard, this week.

Step 1. Get Clear

Write down the scoreboard you've actually been keeping. Not the one you'd tell your pastor about. The one that decides whether you had a good week. Money, title, recognition, approval, being needed, being right. Then say it out loud to one person who won't flinch.

You've probably said some version of it to yourself. "If I can just get to the next level, I'll finally feel like I made it." Naming the scoreboard is the first step to trading it. Talent Without Clarity Creates Frustration walks what happens when gifts run without a clear aim.

Step 2. Align with God's Heart

Serve the growth of the people entrusted to you. That's Faithfulness in action, and it's the scoreboard Jesus keeps.

My book tells the story of a young man who opened a grocery store in central Florida in 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression. He insisted on spotless floors, wide aisles, and clerks who smiled. He gave his employees company stock when most bosses clutched every nickel. "If we take care of our people," he said, "Success will take care of itself." His stores grew while others folded. By the time he died, he was a billionaire who drove modest cars and quietly gave away millions. Late in life someone asked what he'd be worth if he hadn't given so much away. He paused. "Probably nothing." If you've shopped in Florida, you know his store. It's Publix. His name was George W. Jenkins.

Jenkins was decades ahead of the research. A review of 130 studies found that leaders who focus on their people's needs and growth, rather than only extracting performance, predicted better outcomes than transformational, authentic, or ethical leadership did.1 Part of the reason was trust. People trusted leaders like that, felt treated fairly by them, and built stronger working relationships with them. I walked the leadership version in Redefining Success God's Way – For Leaders. This week, name one person you lead or love and do one thing that serves their growth, not your numbers.

Step 3. Establish Rhythms of Fitness

Build a weekly Faithfulness review. Fifteen minutes on Sunday evening. Ask the Master's questions instead of the market's. What was I given this week? What did I do with it? Who did I serve?

Scoreboards shape us because we look at them every day. Changing yours takes a rhythm, not a single decision. Redefining Success God's Way goes deeper on making the new definition stick.

Step 4. Live Your Legacy Today

Let Purpose carry you, not just the next goal. A life organized around what it's for tends to be a longer and healthier one. Researchers followed 6,985 American adults over the age of 50 and measured how strongly each one felt a sense of purpose in life.2 Over the years that followed, those with the strongest sense of purpose were less likely to die than those with the weakest. One caveat and then we move on. This tracks people over time rather than assigning them a purpose, so it shows a link, not proof of cause. But it's a link worth living into.

My friend, your Legacy is etched slowly. Faithfully. Often quietly. Every time you choose Faithfulness over the scoreboard, Your Dash gets a line that lasts. This week, write down what you want the people in the parking lot to say about you, and do one thing that makes it true.

What's at Stake

Walk this path, and this is what happens. Someday the room fills up, and someone stands to sum you up in four minutes. They mention your work (briefly). Then they tell a story about how you showed up for them when you didn't have to. Someone in the back row nods, because you did the same for them. Your kids tell a third story at the kitchen table later that night, and it isn't about your title. And Your Dash starts to echo into Eternity.

But there is another possibility. Ignore the path. Let The Lie win. Keep score by the pile, keep climbing toward the finish line that moves, and reach the end with a big stack of things that don't follow you to the grave. Solomon ran that experiment all the way to his last page, so you don't have to. Everything above starts much smaller than that. One sentence, one person, this week.

Going Deeper

This post covers The King's Final Words and Redefining Success, chapters nine and ten of Your Purpose & Principle Driven Life 2.0, which close the book's first movement and turn from what went wrong to how, then, we should live.

Last week covered chapter seven in Why Doesn't Pleasure Satisfy? on Monday and chapter eight in Fighting for Justice Without Becoming the Savior on Tuesday. Next Monday opens Movement Two, Align with God's Heart. This Wednesday takes this week's question into the leader's office with What a Leader Actually Measures.

And if you've been winning by a scoreboard you're no longer sure about, that's a conversation rather than another article. Book a Discovery Call.

FAQ: How God Defines Success

How does God define success?

God measures Success by Faithfulness with what He has entrusted to you. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), two servants with different amounts heard the same praise because they were faithful with what they were given. That includes money, and also time, gifts, relationships, influence, and opportunities.

What does "well done, good and faithful servant" mean?

It's the Master's praise in Jesus' parable of the talents (Matthew 25:21, 23). It means the servant used what he was entrusted with for the Master's Purposes. The praise isn't tied to the size of the result, since servants with different amounts heard the same words. It's tied to Faithfulness.

What does Ecclesiastes 12:13 mean?

At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon concludes that the whole duty of every person is to fear God and keep His Commandments. After testing everything life offers, he found that only a life ordered around God holds its value. Jesus later distilled the Commandments into two, Love God and Love People.

What is the parable of the talents about?

A master entrusts his wealth to three servants according to their ability. Two invest it and double it. The third buries it out of fear. The parable teaches that God entrusts each of us with resources and expects us to use them faithfully for His Purposes.

Is it wrong for Christians to want to be successful?

No. Wanting to do well is a good desire. The question is how you measure it. The world measures the size of the pile. God measures Faithfulness with what you were given, including how you treat the people around you.

Who was George W. Jenkins?

George W. Jenkins founded Publix Super Markets in Florida in 1930. He was known for giving employees company stock, insisting on treating customers well, and giving generously. His story appears in chapter ten of Your Purpose & Principle Driven Life 2.0 as an example of Success measured by Stewardship.