Questions · Getting started
Updated 2026-07-31 · Sources: 3
The straight answer
Not by itself. Work is older than sin in the Bible (the garden came with a job), and skilled work is spoken of warmly. A man skilled at his work will stand before kings, not obscure men. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Work as for the Lord, not for people, because the reward you are actually working for comes from him.
Two ambitions are ruled out, and they are the two most people mean by the word. The first is climbing over others: the leadership Jesus describes is inverted, where greatness is measured by service rather than by who has to obey you. The second is wearing yourself out to get rich. Proverbs says do not toil to become wealthy, and gives the reason plainly: riches make wings and fly away. James adds the missing sentence to every ambitious plan: you do not know what tomorrow holds.
So the test is not how high you aim but what you are willing to spend to get there, and who pays. Ambition that produces excellent work, serves customers honestly, and leaves your family and conscience intact is good. Ambition that requires cutting corners, cutting people, or cutting sleep indefinitely is the kind Scripture keeps warning about.
Printed in full from the public-domain World English Bible, resolved from a local copy of that text before this page was built. Read them before you take our summary on trust, and see how we read Scripture on money for the ten rules every page here follows.
23And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, 24knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.Colossians 3:23-24 · World English Bible, public domain
The motive that makes ordinary work serious: it is done for the Lord, and it is rewarded by him.
Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won’t serve obscure men.Proverbs 22:29 · World English Bible, public domain
Skill is not vanity. Competence changes the rooms you are invited into.
42Jesus summoned them, and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant. 44Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. 45For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:42-45 · World English Bible, public domain
Jesus inverts the ladder: among his followers, greatness is measured in service.
4Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint. 5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.Proverbs 23:4-5 · World English Bible, public domain
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; the thing you are chasing is described as growing wings.
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.James 4:13-17 · World English Bible, public domain
Ambitious plans are not forbidden; making them as though you controlled tomorrow is.
Work as calling rather than as a means to an end.
The skill half, done deliberately.
What deliberate practice does over a decade.
Why service and profit are not opposites.