Read: Philippians 1:12-18
What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. (v. 12)
Paul wrote the epistle of Philippians from Rome, where he was under house arrest: awaiting a trial that would determine his fate. To his Christian friends in Philippi, these circumstances were troubling. Why was this happening to Paul? Yet Paul’s perspective on his circumstances never slipped into the quicksand of questioning. Instead, Paul concluded that everything that had recently happened to him had actually opened new doors for the progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Since Paul’s last visit to Philippi a lot of water had gone under the bridge. Paul had visited Jerusalem, where his presence incited a riot among some of the Jews and he was arrested. While in jail a group of religious terrorists hatched a plot to murder him, so he was transferred to another jail in another city where he stayed for two years. Then he was shipped off to Rome for a new trial, and en route his ship went down in a violent storm. Ultimately he arrived in Rome where we find him now enduring yet another period of arrest, chained to a Roman soldier 24/7.
If you had to describe five years like that, what might you have written? Paul says, “Throughout all of this, what matters is that the good news about Jesus advanced and impacted more lives.” Could it be that the painful times of our lives most serve to advance the gospel?
As you pray, ask God to give you patience and courage to persevere through painful times.
About the Author
David Walls is a pastor and writer who has served in ministry for more than 40 years.
