Christ is preached

Christ is preached – and I rejoice

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. – Philippians 1.18

Paul had a lot of opponents. Not every preacher liked him. There were already preachers around who were more interested in their own fame and fortune that in doing right. Some of these guys were attacking Paul and his work.

I can understand why not. Paul didn't fit the mould.

Some of the preachers he knew preached out of goodwill and love. What a blessing and encouragement they must have been to Paul.

However not everyone was so kind. Some of the preachers preached Christ even 'from envy and strife...from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains;'

I would assume that Paul would praise God for one group and call God's wrath down on the other, right? That is certainly what most of us would do.

But Paul was different. 'So what' he said, 'Christ is preached and in this is will rejoice - yes I will rejoice.'

It is to tell what was really important to Paul. Of course, in other places he attacks false teachers, but here he only says that it doesn’t really matter what other preachers are saying about him. As long as they are preaching Christ Paul is going to rejoice.

I think we far too often spend so much time picking at the nits of other ministries that we forget to rejoice that Christ is being preached. We attack their worship style or their music or their dress or the way they observe this day or that and we forget that most of them are truly preaching Christ and doing a work for Him. Our pettiness can hurt the cause of Christ.

I am thankful for my brethren who preach Christ on this island. They don’t all do it the way I do. We may differ on the finer points of doctrine. They may pastor churches that I would not choose to attend. Some of them may not even like me and be critical of me. But still, Christ is preached and in that I should be able to rejoice.