Preaching Good Things Poorly

Scripture

Phil. 1:15   Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. ¹⁶ These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; ¹⁷ the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. 

Observation

Paul had encouraged his readers by proclaiming his gratitude for the spreading of the gospel, even though he found himself in chains. He had also praised those in Rome who were emboldened by his imprisonment. However, it appears that emboldenment had also raised up a group of preachers who did not fit his paradigm of those who were the same on the inside as the outside. While preaching Christ, they were not “in” Christ. This is the main difference between those who preached out of love, and those who did not. 

Commentators speculate on the motives of those who preached from envy and rivaly. First of all, they were not participating in the mission of Christ, but had taken this ministry upon their own shoulders for their own purposes. Since Paul was in prison, there was a vacuum in leadership. Their own ambition set them to take the place of Paul and, in their own minds, receive the attention that he had received. Others thought that if they could stir up the people by preaching, it might force the authorities to put Paul to death. It was a game of manipulation. 

Ultimately, Paul refused to allow his circumstances to get him down. He continually looked for the good in the bad. Therefore, even if they were preaching poorly, Paul affirmed that they were still preaching good things. In that, he could rejoice. 

Application

There are times when people will distort the message of the gospel and yet, God still seems to use them. On numerous occasions I have simply scratched my head and wondered at the crazy preacher, or the one with a shady lifestyle and the fact that people still came to Christ. This is a testimony to the power of the gospel — and that is what Paul understood intimately. 

In the previous section Paul had talked about being in prison, not just “for” Christ, but “in” Christ. There will be those who will preach good things poorly because they simply think that they are called to do things “for” Christ. That’s an easy trap for all of us to fall into. We can think of God as our employer and our response as a good worker, trying to complete the tasks that we have been assigned. God hasn’t called us to be an employee, he has provided the pathway for our adoption into the family. Called to take on the family business, we preach the good news of Jesus because his news, is our news. This is the family story and because it is our story, we know the details so intimately that we want all the world to know. 

Sometimes someone comes along and appears to hijack our story. They enter the scene and try to sidle up next to our friends and loved ones. From time to time they can be overheard telling our story as if it were their very own and in that moment something wells up inside of us, because we feel that it is not their story to tell. They don’t have personal ownership of that story and therefore they tell good things, but not having the emotional connection, the story is not told well. 

At this moment we may be right there with the readers of this letter — frustrated. That’s the point Paul wanted to make, because later he would talk to them about avoiding selfish ambition. None of us are to be captured by our own ambition, and certainly not when it comes to the sharing of the gospel message. But Paul leaves us with another lesson; even when someone shares your story without being “in” the story — rejoice, because the story is being told. Find a reason to rejoice, even when good things are preached poorly. 

Prayer

Lord, I want to be in you. Amen.