1 Maccabees 13:31-35: in context

The chapter sets two men side by side. Tryphon deceives and murders the young king Antiochus, seizes the crown for himself, and brings calamity on the land, grasping power through treachery and leaving ruin behind. Simon, by contrast, sets about a different work: he builds up the strongholds of Judea, walls them with towers and gates and bars, stores food in them, and secures relief for his people from the king. One man grasped and destroyed; the other built up and provided.

The contrast between Tryphon and Simon is a contrast between two kinds of ambition. Tryphon's ambition was grasping and destructive: he deceived, murdered, and seized power for himself, and his rise brought calamity on the land. He built nothing; he took, and destroyed, and left ruin. Simon's work was the opposite: constructive and protective. He built up the strongholds, fortified the cities, stored provisions, secured the good of his people. His labor was to build and protect, not to grasp and destroy. The one tore down for his own advancement; the other built up for the good of others. This contrast holds a question about the kind of work we give ourselves to. There is a grasping, self-serving way of living that, like Tryphon's, takes and destroys, advancing itself at others' expense, leaving ruin in its wake. And there is a constructive, self-giving way that, like Simon's, builds up, protects, provides, and labors for the good of others. The wise woman, the proverb says, builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands. We can spend ourselves tearing down, grasping, taking, in ways that leave ruin; or we can spend ourselves building up, strengthening, providing, in ways that leave others better and safer than we found them. The constructive work of building up is honorable labor, and it is the work God's people are called to. Let us rise up and build, Nehemiah said, and the people strengthened their hands for the good work. Whether in a family, a community, a church, or any sphere, there is a choice between the grasping that destroys and the building that strengthens and provides. This calls us to be builders rather than destroyers. Will we, like Tryphon, grasp and take and leave ruin, advancing ourselves at others' cost? Or will we, like Simon, build up, protect, and provide, spending ourselves for the good of others? The honorable work is the constructive one: to build up rather than tear down, to strengthen and provide rather than grasp and destroy, laboring for the good of others rather than the advancement of ourselves.

Do I spend myself in grasping, self-serving ways that take and destroy, advancing myself at others' expense and leaving ruin behind, or in constructive, self-giving work that builds up, protects, and provides for the good of others, and can the contrast between Tryphon who grasped and destroyed and Simon who built up and provided call me to be a builder rather than a destroyer in every sphere God has placed me?