Philippians 1:12-18
What Has Happened to Me
12Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel.
13As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
14And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.
15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
16The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
17The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.
18What then is the issue? Just this: that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,
Berean Standard Bible
They are worried about him and he knows it, so he opens this part of the letter by answering a question they have not asked out loud.
Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel.
He does not tell them his situation is fine. He does not promise that God is about to end it. He tells them it has worked. Whatever this is, it has pushed forward the one thing he cares about, and he is writing that down from custody.
Then he gives them two reasons, and the first one is the guard. It has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that he is in chains for Christ. He is the man who cannot go anywhere, and the reason he is in chains has gone through an entire detachment and out past it.
The second reason is the Christians on the outside. Their leader has been arrested, which ought to have made them careful, and instead most of them have grown bolder about speaking. Their confidence was in the Lord, and it was his chains that stirred it.
Then the letter goes somewhere uncomfortable. Some of the men preaching Christ where he is, he says, are doing it out of envy and rivalry.
The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.
Somebody looked at an imprisonment and saw an opening in it. They want it to cost him more than it already does, he knows exactly what they are up to, and he sets it down in a letter to the church that supports him.
What then is the issue? Just this: that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached.
He defends nothing, names nobody, and does not ask Philippi to take a side. He puts one question to a situation built to wound him, and the question has nothing to do with him at all: is Christ being preached. The answer is yes, so he says he is glad, and he leaves the rest of it lying where it fell.
How We Know
Verse 15 and verse 17 are not flattering to the movement Paul belongs to, and what they are evidence for is narrow: a letter that reported trouble inside its own side instead of managing it. He reports that some of the people preaching Christ where he is are doing it out of envy and rivalry, aiming to make his imprisonment harder.
That is a costly thing to write to a church that supports him. It concedes division and bad motives among his own colleagues, and it gives an opponent something to use.
Verse 18 leaves it unresolved. He names nobody, takes no side, and asks Philippi for nothing. The envy, the rivalry, the selfish ambition and the attempt to add to the distress of his chains are all still standing at the end of it.
Questions
1 Think of the last thing that happened to you that you did not choose. What was the first question you asked about it?
AnswerMost of ours are about ourselves: whether it was fair, who caused it, what it says about me. Paul's first move is to tell them what his imprisonment has done to the gospel, before he says one word about what it has done to him.
2 Paul says his circumstances have served to advance the gospel. What is he not saying?
AnswerThat they are fine, or that God is about to end them. He says they have worked. He is still in chains while he writes it.
3 What does Paul say his chains have done inside the palace guard?
AnswerMade it clear throughout the whole guard, and to everyone else, that he is in chains for Christ. He is the one who cannot go anywhere, and it has travelled through the whole detachment and out past it. The Christians outside got bolder as well rather than quieter.
4 Some of those preachers wanted his imprisonment to hurt more. What is the one question he asks about them?
AnswerWhether Christ is being preached. Not whether it is fair, not what it costs him, not who ought to take his side. The answer is yes, so he says he rejoices and leaves the rest of it where it is.
What This Means for Us
Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice. That is the whole ground of it, and it is not Paul's composure. What he found when he looked at a situation built to hurt him was that God was getting his Son named in it anyway, by people who meant him harm, and that turned out to be enough to be glad about.
He is not pretending it does not hurt. He says outright that they mean to add to the distress of his chains, and then declines to make that the main thing, because the main thing is being carried by somebody other than him and somebody other than them.
So take whatever is bothering you tonight, the one with a person attached to it. The question is not whether you can rise above it. It is whether God is still getting his own work done in the middle of it, and whether you can be glad about that while the other thing stays exactly as true as it was.
Prayer
Father, we spend our strength on whether things are fair. Teach us to ask a better question when we are wronged. Thank you that your work goes forward even through people whose motives are bad, and even through the ones we would not have chosen. Amen.