Philippians 1:15,18

It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives…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.

It would be nice to live in a perfect world where everyone agreed. We could then get on with living our Christian lives with the confidence that what other people said was a mirror image of our own thoughts. But the reality is, people disagree on almost every subject and Christian faith attracts the complete spectrum of reactions. There are people who love every word we speak, and others who hate it with a passion. And, as Paul observed, people speak in a whole variety of ways. Some are loving and gracious, others are bitter and divisive. Yet, amid all the confusion, Paul recognised that what really matters is the name of Jesus being preached. Of course, he would have much rather everyone spoke of Christ in the same way as he did, but in the real world we have to continue with our witness despite the confusions that can come.

I am really grateful that throughout the world a lot of attention is still given to Christmas and Easter. There is often very little understanding of what these events signify. It’s a noisy and confusing world so we need to understand that there will be many people trying to resist our message. However, just like Paul, we need to grasp every opportunity to speak up for Jesus and to declare the good news that He came to bring.

Question

How do you react when people speak about Jesus in a way that you dislike?

Prayer

Loving Father, help me to do everything I can to help people to hear about Jesus. Amen