Scenario: you’ve
been burned by someone who calls him or herself a believer in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps a whole group of professing believers cuts ties with another group of
professing believers. They leave you, or kick you out. They change churches, or
make you change churches. Whatever the case, something has happened and people
you once fellowshipped with have moved on. They haven’t stopped doing church.
They haven’t started preaching a different gospel. They just don’t want you to
have any fellowship in what they are doing. What now?
Let’s take a
quick tour of how our older brother Paul handled such a scenario and see if we
can see how to follow his example. Paul wrote:
“I want you to know, brothers, that what has
happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become
known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my
imprisonment is for Christ.”[1]
Paul’s
number one concern was not for himself, but the “advance” of the gospel. His life’s work was to advance the gospel.
The Church was all about advancing the gospel. Wherever Paul went, the only
thing he could hope for was that the gospel would take hold of a heart that had
never bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, and would experience the converting power
of salvation raising them from the dead,[2] and bringing them into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.[3]
However,
one of the characteristics of Paul’s ministry was that his fearless
proclamation of this gospel meant that he regularly landed himself in jail. In
fact, the Philippians knew that their own church was started by the apostle
Paul, and included him spending some time in prison in their city. To encourage
these believers that he was okay, he assured them that the gospel was advancing
in his present imprisonment just as it had through his earlier imprisonment in
their city.
“And most of the brothers, having become
confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word
without fear.”[4]
Here
is another side of the gospel advancing. It advanced through Paul as he
proclaimed the gospel to the whole imperial guard. It also advanced through “the brothers” who continued to “speak the word without fear.”
This
is of special note in our day when the stories of persecution against believers
is becoming more and more concentrated in a worldwide kind of way. There is
this fascinating side to the good news, that when the word of God comes under
attack the most, and the messengers of the word are imprisoned and martyred,
the effect on the church is not to give up, or quit, but to become “much more bold” in proclaiming the good
news. And so the gospel advances.
“Some
indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.”[5]
Paul
wants the church to understand that, when he speaks of his thanksgiving that the
gospel was advancing, and he included the fact that this was happening both in
his imprisonment, and by the brothers who had witnessed what happened to him, that
this also includes the clash between those brothers on the outside who preached
Christ “from envy and rivalry,”
against Paul, and those brothers who preached Christ “from good will.”
This
connects to us in those life-experiences where the trouble between Christians
and churches is not that we disagree on the gospel, but we have disagreements
caused by attitudes and motivations that don’t fit together. Envy and rivalry
do not know how to fellowship with good will.
Paul
did not want the church to think that, where the gospel was preached by people
of envy and rivalry that this meant the attitude and motivation of the speakers
could nullify the power of the gospel. Obviously, Paul would prefer that all
the brothers had the same good will. However, since there was no unanimous experience
of good will, Paul has to let the people know how he feels about any of the conflicts
that were taking place.
“The latter do it out of love, knowing that
I am put here for the defense of the gospel.”[6]
The
“latter” are those who preach Christ “from good will.” These men who were
preaching Christ from good will, were doing their ministry out of love. They loved
God. They loved the gospel. They loved their Savior. They loved the church.
They loved Paul. They knew that Paul was in prison for “the defense of the gospel,” just as had happened to him in
Philippi. Their love compelled them to take up Paul’s empty place and go about
proclaiming Christ where Paul would have gone proclaiming Christ.
“The
former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to
afflict me in my imprisonment.”[7]
What
Paul identified about these men who were preaching Christ from envy and rivalry
was that they were doing so “out of
selfish ambition,” not out of love. They were not sincere in what they were
doing. Their motive was not to show love to Paul and encourage him in his
imprisonment by showing that they were going to advance the gospel to the
places he had hoped to go. Rather, they were consciously “thinking to afflict me in my
imprisonment.”
Not
only did Paul have to deal with his imprisonment, and his loss of freedom to
advance the gospel out in the open, but he had to also deal with these “brothers” who were trying to afflict
him while he was in prison. These were brothers, they preached the right
gospel, but they wanted him to feel even more suffering in his imprisonment
than the imprisonment was already providing.
“What then?”[8]
There
is the question we all want to have answered. Yes, Paul, what then? We know such
people as you have described. We know people who not only rejoice when we get
in trouble for our own efforts to advance the gospel, but they seek to “afflict” us in our troubles. There are too
many brothers (and sisters, of course) who have the “envy and rivalry” against other brothers and sisters. They express
selfish ambition in relation to God’s work in our lives. They are not sincere
in their ministry, but have a much greater desire to afflict us in our troubles
than to glorify God and bless us with their hope, faith, and love.
So,
what then? What do we do when we cannot denounce someone as a false prophet, or
a super apostle, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing? What do we do when someone we
have helped in ministry now seeks to cause us harm in ministry? What do we do
when brothers and sisters have succeeded at imprisoning us and our ministries,
and now continue to try to do us harm through their own ministries?
“What then? Only that in every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”[9]
Paul’s
example is a huge disappointment to the sark (flesh), and a wonderful encouragement
to our “new self,” which is “created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.”[10]Our sarks would love to hear something that would indicate that God
wants to gratify our sarky desires and give them what they deserve. Our new
selves would like to hear what Paul has to say to make us like Jesus in true
righteousness and holiness.
In
his typical clarity, Paul makes sure we know that what he is about to say has
to do with “in every way,” not just
in some ways, or with some people. He then makes sure that we still understand
that his response to what is going on applies both to those who do their
ministry “in pretense,” and those who
do their ministry “in truth.” It is
clearly okay to admit this much, that we have felt this difference of attitude
towards us. We just have to accept that Paul does not distinguish between the
two when it comes to how he relates to what both the pretentious and truthful
ministries are doing.
The
issue to Paul is that, “in every way…
Christ is proclaimed,” and his response to the proclamation of Christ was, “and in that I rejoice.” In what did
Paul rejoice? That Christ was being proclaimed by both sides in the
differences.
If Paul
rejoiced that the gospel was advancing where he was in prison, and it was
advancing out in the world, whether through good motives or bad, then our
desire should be to see the gospel advance through our ministries wherever we
are (even when it feels like prison), and also in the ministries of those
believers who have planned, intended, or wished harm in our direction. If it is
the true gospel of Jesus Christ advancing, we have reason enough to rejoice.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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