Verse 15-18: “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
Better the team succeed than I. Let’s take 2 quarterbacks on a football team. Both are competing for the starting job. Quarterback A wins the starting job and leads the team to several victories. Unfortunately, he gets hurt and Quarterback B has to take over for him during his time on injured reserve. During A’s injury, B leads the team to even more victories; there even comes the eventual comparison of who is the better quarterback, A or B. It would be humanly understandable if A was jealous of B’s success and accolades, thinking they should be his. However, the right attitude to have…the team attitude…is for A to be happy for B’s success. Once fully healed, A can compete as before with B; the end result is that whomever is quarterbacking the team, the team wins.
Paul had this attitude. He knew there were some that would preach the gospel, hoping for the same accolades Paul had, or even to preach the gospel to “rub it in Paul’s face” since he was in jail. Paul said figuratively, “Who cares? Not I! The gospel of Christ is spread regardless!” We are not in competition with our fellow Christians; after all, we’re not spreading the gospel to see who can get the most converts…we’re doing it because Jesus told us to spread the Word, to spread the Good News. Our reward is at the end of the season, not at the end of the game.
Something to think about.
Combing The Word 