The Gospel Is Free
The imprisonment of the Apostle Paul was a big blow to the early church. Many may have thought it was game over. The great evangelist, the beloved Apostle to the Gentiles, the lynch pin of the early Gentile Church is now in a Roman dungeon awaiting trial. All is lost!
Maybe this has happened to you too. Maybe your minister is called by God to other service, or maybe a spiritual mentor has passed on to glory. You wonder how the work of God can continue without these people who have been so powerfully used by God. But we must always remember Christ is building his church, not us. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 “Remember Jesus Christ…as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!”
Paul had one wish – that the gospel be preached. If imprisonment enabled that, he rejoiced. It meant he became a witness to the imperial guard, others became more bold to proclaim the gospel, and he had time to write letters to churches and individuals, which soon become a bulky part of the New Testament.
So focused was Paul on Christ that he rejoiced that people were preaching the gospel, even if they did it with the wrong motive. If Paul rejoiced at this, how much more ought we to rejoice when we hear of other Christians who from a heart of love to God are telling people about Jesus Christ, even if they are outside our church or denomination? We ought to rejoice along with Paul that the news of Jesus is spreading.
Why could Paul rejoice in this? It was because he had a broad perspective of God. He believed that God was bigger and that God could use people you would never expect. Maybe he saw himself as exhibit A; a man “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), saved by God to be one of the greatest evangelists of the early Church.
We too ought to rejoice when we see the Holy Spirit moving and working powerfully in other places than our own corner of the harvest field. May it never be that we begin to envy other churches when we see what God is doing through them, lest we become those who preach out of envy. Paul here reminds us to focus on one important thing. It’s not about the success of his own ministry or about the number of people he saw being saved by his preaching. It’s that the message of the Lord Jesus Christ be proclaimed, and that wherever that is done and by whomever it is done, we should rejoice!
The advance of the gospel does not solely depend on our efforts. For those unable to share the gospel as freely as they want to, this is a very comforting truth. Thanks be to God that his Word is not bound, and that he is building his Kingdom, through many means. Let us rejoice that we can be a part of this great task of sharing the gospel with this needy world.
“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel… 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 defence 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 pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
Philippians 1:12-14