We all face disappointments, trials, apparent failures, sufferings, or persecutions in our lives.  The natural world has taught us to thank God when things turn out favorably for us and to be discouraged when they do not.  However, Paul in this passage gives a different principle for evaluating circumstances in our lives. 

Explanation

The passage shows that Paul himself evaluated the circumstances surrounding his life based on how they were affecting evangelism.  However hard his conditions were on him physically and emotionally, he rejoiced in them if they were being used to spread the gospel.  Paul speaks of two such events that were hard on him personally but advantageous to the gospel.  The first was his imprisonment.  This imprisonment had not only allowed Paul to share the gospel with the “whole imperial guard” but had also emboldened the faith of his companions, making them “much more bold to speak the word without fear” (1:13-14).  Instead of discouraging them, his imprisonment for the gospel had encouraged them to share the gospel more boldly. 

The second event that was hard on Paul but had served to advance of the gospel was the rise of preachers who were preaching the gospel primarily to afflict Paul.  He does not give too many details about what exactly these individuals were doing, but simply says that they were proclaiming “Christ out of rivalry, . . . thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment” (1:17).  However, these individuals had accomplished the very opposite of what they had set out to do.  Instead of dampening Paul’s spirits they had brought him great joy by preaching the gospel.  As he himself writes, “Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (1:18).         

Application

How do you evaluate adverse circumstances in your life?  Do you evaluate them in light of the inconveniences and discomforts, or pain and heartaches they cause?  Will you make a commitment to ask God to give you the strength to look at them in light of the cross?  However deep they hurt, however much they take away, will you make a commitment to ask God to use them for the extension of his Kingdom? 

If Paul can rejoice in his enemies when they preach the gospel how much more should we be willing to rejoice in the ministry of our fellow believers whom we do not agree with on every point of theology.  We might not agree with what they believe about the end times, the Calvinism-Armenianism debate, or who wrote the book of Hebrews, but we should be willing to rejoice in them when they share the gospel.  It appears that the apostle Paul would have much rather had enemies who shared the gospel than friends who did not.  May God give us a similar heart!