What Does It Matter? Unity in Gospel Sharing

As we near the weekend, I wanted to touch on a something that has been with me the last few days and a topic I’ve written about before. Being Christmas and everyone sharing the story of Jesus is got me thinking about the sharing of His story. It’s a thought centering around my own sharing of the gospel and the sharing I receive from others. More specifically who “should and shouldn’t be sharing”? “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. Yes, and I will rejoice,”Philippians 1:15-18 The best I can come up with is, “what does it matter?” That statement has put me back in my place when I’ve found myself judging a person’s motives, including my own, as to whether they are pure or selfish when preaching Christ. The important issue isn’t their motives but what they are preaching. If they had been preaching a false gospel, Paul would have taken issue with them, but that wasn’t the case. At the end of the day, Paul rejoiced. He rejoiced in the fact that the gospel was being preached. I mean, whether it was by him or someone else didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Christ was preached. This is a hard but important lesson for all of us to learn. We must be united as we share Christ with the world and cheer each other on, don’t worry about who is getting credit. Our names don’t matter. In the end man, we are all going to bow down to the same guy, Jesus. May we all strive to glorify His name.Be Nice. Grace wins.