Sep 10 2019 Philippians 1: 12-30

Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

Paul is writing a letter to the Philippians. He’s explaining that through his imprisonment, God’s good message has been brought throughout the known world through the whole imperial guard. By virtue of his captivity, his captors are being exposed to God’s love. This, it seems, is good news to Paul, as that is a population that would otherwise not likely hear or see God’s love in action.

He continues on, explaining that people proclaim of Jesus’ love for a variety of reasons both good and bad. While some proclaim out of love or goodwill, others proclaim from envy or rivalry, or selfish ambition. Some even talk about Christ, in Paul’s estimation, simply to increase his suffering.

What’s intriguing to me about this rant of Paul’s, is his conclusion. After explaining that people have lots of different motives for sharing God’s good news, Paul says it doesn’t matter. He says that regardless of motive, Christ is proclaimed in every way. And, he says, in that he rejoices.

Wow. That seems so distant from our current climate. Christians on both sides of the political and socio-economic aisle, from varying countries and denominations, and beliefs are certain that their message is the true message, and the other guys? They’re wrong, and damaging. There’s this sense of superiority and exclusiveness in many Christians’ outlook, with well-intentioned Christians discounting the spread of the Gospel from Christians who don’t agree with their world view.

I’m struck by a few poignant examples. I just concluded watching the Netflix show, The Family, about the Christian political organization, that founded and runs the national prayer breakfast. The show is troubling, in its uncovering of a political and religious network with motives that veer between God’s love, and the world’s power. Or there’s the huge influence fundamental Christians on soldiers and police, through the predominance of fundamental Christians filling many of the chaplain positions.

So what about Paul’s conclusion, that it doesn’t matter the motive? That it’s good news and we should rejoice if Jesus’ message of love is shared? To me the challenge is when some Christians truncate Christ’s message of love, explaining that God loves some, but not all. Or that Jesus’ way of love should be used to oppose or discount other ways to God – through Mohammed or any other prophet. 

But people in Paul’s time were using Christ’s message for the purpose of increasing Paul’s suffering in prison, and with even that distorted motive, he rejoiced because Christ’s message was being spread – regardless of motive. 

This morning, I’m thinking about how we mortals think we have to be the curators of God’s good news, that it has to be spread precisely as we see fit, otherwise it’s dangerous and shouldn’t be spread at all. That says a lot about our lack of faith in God’s impact. If someone hears the message of the unbounded love of God, even if it’s cloaked in discrimination, can’t God take that spark of good news and turn it in to a flame of holy love? Maybe God doesn’t need us to decide exactly how the message is spread. Like Paul, we should rejoice when God’s message of love is shared, regardless of the motive. God can work with that. After all, if we presume to know the right message, aren’t we making the same mistake as those we discount?