Motivations Behind Ministry
“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
Whilst Paul was in prison there were preachers in Rome who were preaching out of envy and rivalry. They wanted to rub salt into Paul’s wounds. We don’t know why the preachers were envious of, and rivalling against Paul, but we do know their intention was to afflict him while he was in prison. How did Paul respond to this? Well in verse 18 he responded, “Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” What an incredible response. Paul’s mind takes him up and above worldly thinking, into the heavens to see the sovereignty of God in using sinners for his glory, using people’s evil intentions for good, and this causes him to rejoice in the Lord. Paul looked through the lens of Genesis 50:20;
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”
Not all of the preachers in Rome wanted to afflict Paul though, some preached the gospel out of good will, they wished to please their Lord and work with Paul under the yoke of the gospel. These people preached out of love. Their intentions were pure and God glorifying, to them the gospel was not a means to success, but the means to salvation.
Those who preached out of envy and rivalry were not practicing what they preached, they preached the love of Christ, yet were motivated to preach out of their own selfish ambition. This behaviour is not uncommon in the world today, some preachers say the right things but their motivations and their actions just do not correspond with their words. There is little that grieves me more than hearing of a preacher’s moral failure. This leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of those who sit under their ministry, and moral failures can easily lead to people falling away from the faith, and they leave the unbelieving spectator thinking, ‘Christianity is just another hopeless religion, and the gospel is impotent, unable to transform lives’. Here is a quote from an unbeliever as he considered the moral failure of a pastor of a megachurch in the United States.
“I am not religious, so it is not my place to dictate to Christians what they should and should not believe. Still, if someone has a faith worth following, I feel that their beliefs should make me feel uncomfortable for not doing so. If they share 90 percent of my lifestyle and values, then there is nothing especially inspiring about them. Instead of making me want to become more like them, it looks very much as if they want to become more like me.”
Too many people have dismissed Christianity and turned from the gospel because of the sinners who share it, because of those who speak of belonging to another world yet who look just like the rest of this world. But this is not a sufficient reason to turn away from Christianity. If somebody who calls themselves a Christian has hurt you, it doesn’t mean Christianity is false, because hurting others is the antithesis of true Christianity, therefore the person who hurt you didn’t do so in the name of true Christianity. The gospel is not made true, because of the actions of the people who wield it. It is true, because Christ died and was raised from the dead, that is objective fact, and the gospel is objective. Did Jesus sin? If he sinned, the gospel is false, but if Jesus really lived a sinless life, died and rose again on the third day, then Christianity is true. Jesus is alive, and you should be following him.
When a preacher doesn’t practice what he preaches, please don’t let that lead you to think that what he says is false, if what he says is in the Bible, then it is true. Those who preach are painfully imperfect, but the gospel is gloriously perfect. Don’t put your faith in the preacher, put it in Christ. And brothers and sisters, we have a tremendous task ahead of us in sharing the gospel, let us not be obstacles people have to get over to believe it, and this begins with checking our heart. Let us fix our gaze on Christ, so that we might be more like him, following in the footsteps of those who proclaim the gospel out of love.
