Contemplative Bible Reading

Philippians 1:17-18 (New Living Translation)

17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.

Motives matter. What is in the heart is often more important to God than what our limited physical bodies are able to accomplish. Here, however, we have a case where the motives don’t matter—at least don’t appear to matter as much.

Just tell people about Christ.

That is all. Imperfectly, with bad grammar, with slurred speech, walking one walk while talk a different talk. There are many ways to say the wrong thing about saying the right thing.

Some persons preach Christ from all the wrong reasons and all the wrong ways. “Doesn’t matter,” writes Paul. Rejoice as Christ is preached.