Philippians 1:12-30; Ezekiel 19; Isaiah 48

‘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.” (Philippians 1:18 NKJV)

There’s a lot of bad theology running around. There are a lot of misguided or wrong people claiming to tell others about Jesus Christ. If you’re like me, the natural tendency is to “fix” the other person’s belief so that what they think and believe agrees with me. This verse gives me the freedom to avoid fixing those other guys. Which is a good thing, because too often, they don’t realize that I’m right, and they want to fix what’s wrong with my beliefs. In Paul’s day, so much of Christian preaching was experiential and storytelling based on what they had heard from others. The gospels and many of Paul’s letters hadn’t been written or circulated yet. It was easy for charlatans to twist the gospel to their own purposes. Paul realized his mission was more important than fixing other preachers; he was called to spread the gospel. He rejoiced about the pretenders because even when people preached about Jesus with the wrong motives, they preached about Jesus. 

What’s your mission? I believe my mission is to a) proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and b) to help people grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We all should have a) as part of our mission. I believe that I’m called to help people grow in their faith. That’s why even with these short devotionals, I include the Scripture references for all the chapters I read each day. I believe that if you have to choose between reading the Scriptures or my comments on the Scripture, you should read the Scripture. My belief is that as you read and meditate on God’s word, and I share some of my meditation in these commentaries, the Holy Spirit will work on any parts of your life that need to be fixed. I find that when I’m wrong in my beliefs, the Holy Spirit does a much better job of changing me than any person could. That’s why I rejoice when people tell me that they know Jesus and pray for God to give them His power to grow in His way.

Lord, it really is all about Jesus. Help me to point others to Jesus and let You do Your work in them to make them grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.