“It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”
Philippians 1:15-18 NLT
The work of Jesus Christ and its implications for humanity is a powerful narrative. Paul describes it as having the power to save people from separation from God and even from death itself. It is transformative beyond any other message in history. As such, it is sought after by many types of people. Some will use it as intended, for salvation. Some will use it for subjugation. Paul understood this and revealed that he was not worried about the intent behind how someone used it. He believed so much in its transformative power that he was not concerned that any person who used it could inhibit its work. The gospel of Christ is the genie in a bottle. Once it is let loose, it’s power can’t truly be controlled. In this way, it is better to let it work among the people than to hold it back only for the worthy. In parable form, Jesus taught the same thing. He noted that the tares were to grow amongst the wheat and to be separated at the threshing at a later date. This was functionally true of Jesus own twelve disciples whose intentions revealed themselves to be disjointed in the beginning. The good of allowing the gospel to work from unclean hearts outweighs the bad. Those who try to misuse it will only be harming themselves in the end.
JOSH McGARY. COM 