Lighthouse Keeper

It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 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. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. (Philippians 1: 15-18 NLT)

I love this run of Scripture. Imagine if everyone in the body of Christ took this view of preachers. Instead, we waste energy and stir up discontent by finger pointing and accusing others of having impure motives. 

The apostle Paul says “I don’t care—as long as Christ is being preached”. He even “rejoices” at the thought of it.

Let’s be honest, there is a fair amount of performance in modern preaching (especially in Pentecostal churches) and I love it. I see no issue with using good and proven communication techniques to make the Gospel more digestible for the sheep. If you can engage and educate and lift up Jesus all at the same time, you’re OK with me. Jesus says to “feed my sheep, feed my lambs” (John 21:15-17) and if a little bit of sugar in the water helps the medicine go down then great. 

We can get a bit snobby about certain well-known preachers and think that just because people are enjoying the message they are in some way being bewitched (Galatians 3) or given junk food. It’s not true. 

CS Lewis said “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

When we rejoice in the message of the Gospel as Paul does we realise it’s not our place to assess the sincerity of the vessel. Chill out and celebrate the Word as Paul did.