“这有何妨呢？或是假意，或是真心，无论怎样，基督究竟被传开了。为此我就欢喜，并且还要欢喜。” - 腓 1:18

 What Does It Matter?

"What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." — Philippians 1:18

 Devotion

If you hear that a former pastor is in prison, you get concerned. What happened? Did he do something terrible? The Philippians had heard that Paul was in prison, so Paul reassured them that he was there because of his mission to share the good news about Jesus.

And to that Paul added an encouragement: the gospel was being preached more as a result of his being a prisoner for Christ! That was good news, but there was a flipside: some of those preachers had some very wrong, selfish motivations. For some reason they preached against Paul even as they preached the gospel. Maybe envy drove them to try to turn the spotlight onto themselves. That wasn’t honest or Christlike at all.

But how did Paul respond to that? “What does it matter?” he wrote. Really?! Didn’t it bother him that some were preaching out of selfish ambition? Apparently not. Why? Because Paul was head over heels in love with Jesus and the good news of salvation. So if Christ was being preached and the message rang true, hallelujah!

That jaw-dropping truth is a challenge for us all. Do we love Jesus so much that we can let other concerns drop? Even if we don’t like a certain preacher, are we excited enough about the gospel to rejoice that it is being shared anyway? That’s a tough one. But by grace Paul achieved that mindset. We can too.

 Prayer

Fill us with love for you and for your gospel, Lord. Help us to celebrate wherever and whenever your Word is preached. Amen.

诵读:楚云丨片头: 张妙阳

感谢《普世佳音》制作上传网络

文字校对：李清

图文编排：裕化

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