musterion
Well-known member
Philippians ch. 1
In Galatians 1, Paul made very clear God's condemnation of all who teach false gospels. Here in Philippians 1, Paul acknowledges that some were preaching Christ "of envy and strife," "of contention, not sincerely" and "in pretense," evidently in order to cause him pain. Yet he says he rejoiced for it just the same since no matter what the motivation, Christ was being preached.
A few points may be drawn from this:
•Paul could not have rejoiced if any gospel other than the Gospel of grace was being preached. That means the death for sin, burial and resurrection for justification was the good news being preached, not the gospel of the Kingdom or anything else.
•Paul does not clarify whether those preaching the Gospel of grace are unsaved or simply badly motivated saved people (hard to imagine lost folks actually preaching it, but who knows). It apparently didn't matter enough to say one way or the other. It wasn't the point.
•The important point (imo) is this: that Paul rejoiced over the Gospel being preached even with bad motivations reinforces Romans 1:16. It is THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS AND EMPTY TOMB ITSELF that is the power of God unto salvation.
•That message may be poorly, ineptly or even insincerely preached but it is still the Word of God and so can still cut deep into the soul DESPITE the preacher... whereas the flashiest, slickest, smoothest, most authoritarian and earnest preacher of an ear-tickling false gospel only damns himself and whoever believes him.
In short, this passage shows us that the real power of sound Godly preaching is not found in any human being today. It is found ONLY in the Gospel of the grace of God itself. This, I also now believe, sheds light on 2 Cor 12:9-10.
In Galatians 1, Paul made very clear God's condemnation of all who teach false gospels. Here in Philippians 1, Paul acknowledges that some were preaching Christ "of envy and strife," "of contention, not sincerely" and "in pretense," evidently in order to cause him pain. Yet he says he rejoiced for it just the same since no matter what the motivation, Christ was being preached.
A few points may be drawn from this:
•Paul could not have rejoiced if any gospel other than the Gospel of grace was being preached. That means the death for sin, burial and resurrection for justification was the good news being preached, not the gospel of the Kingdom or anything else.
•Paul does not clarify whether those preaching the Gospel of grace are unsaved or simply badly motivated saved people (hard to imagine lost folks actually preaching it, but who knows). It apparently didn't matter enough to say one way or the other. It wasn't the point.
•The important point (imo) is this: that Paul rejoiced over the Gospel being preached even with bad motivations reinforces Romans 1:16. It is THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS AND EMPTY TOMB ITSELF that is the power of God unto salvation.
•That message may be poorly, ineptly or even insincerely preached but it is still the Word of God and so can still cut deep into the soul DESPITE the preacher... whereas the flashiest, slickest, smoothest, most authoritarian and earnest preacher of an ear-tickling false gospel only damns himself and whoever believes him.
In short, this passage shows us that the real power of sound Godly preaching is not found in any human being today. It is found ONLY in the Gospel of the grace of God itself. This, I also now believe, sheds light on 2 Cor 12:9-10.
