Amtition is defined like this:

“An earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.”

Consider the words that make up that definition. Words like achievement. Distinction. Power. Honor. Fame. Wealth. These aren’t the words that we typically think of when we think of following Jesus. Following Jesus means, in fact, the opposite in many cases:

• “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).
• “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
• Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Phil. 2:3-4).

And the list could go on for quite a long time. But does that mean ambition is incompatible with Christianity? In a sense, yes – at least when it’s defined as it is above. But then again, when you look at the first part of the definition, you find that ambition is very compatiable with Christianity. That’s the “earnest desire” part of what ambition is. Consider these examples:

• Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else (1 Thess. 5:15).
• I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phi. 3:14).
• And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Heb. 11:6). 

This list, too, could go on for quite a long time. There are all kinds of “earnest desires” that are part of what it means to be a Christian. It seems, then, that perhaps the earnestness of ambition is not bad in and of itself, but that the goal or target of that ambition is what corrupts it. To put it another way, the Bible describes a different kind of ambition – one that is not centered on self, but on the glory of God and the good of others. This is what we earnestly seek. This is what we go hard after. This is what we devote ourselves to.

And perhaps one of the best examples of this comes tucked away in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul acknowledges that these believers have excelled in their love and care for one another:

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia (1 Thess. 4:9-10). 

And then he gives them a very specific instruction about their ambition:

Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody (1 Thess. 4:11-12). 

If you look back to the definition of ambition, you see that all those words – achievement, dstinction, power, honor, fame, and wealth – are all loud. These things scream at the world around us – “Look at me! See what I’ve done! Behold what I’ve made of myself!”

And yet Paul’s exhortation about ambition is quite the opposite. We should earnestly strive not for something loud, but something quite. That’s what we should strive toward. That’s what we should seek. It’s a quiet life in service of God and others.

That doesn’t fit the loud definition and representation of ambition we find in modern culture, but it does fit the life of one who had made it their goal to make much of Jesus and work for the good of others. So, Christian, be ambitious today. But be ambitious for quiet – not volume.