Today, I am reading and commenting on  Philippians 1-4.

Paul refers to those who preach the Gospel out of selfish ambition and concludes that he does not care why someone preaches the Gospel, so long as the Gospel gets preached.  We should take a similar attitude towards the pastors of mega-churches today.  Just as Paul says in this passage, some of them preach out of goodwill and love, while others preach out of the desire for self-aggrandizement.   As long as they preach the genuine Gospel, why should I care.  Some of these men who preach in order to gain fame and wealth bring many people to the Lord.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he disciplined his body so that after he had preached to others he would not be disqualified. I fear that some of these preachers will find themselves disqualified after having trained others to win the race.  Nevertheless, the Gospel is being preached.

So, while we should praise God that the Gospel is being preached by those who do so for their own selfish ambition, we should not imitate them.  Instead we should humbly and lovingly value others more than ourselves.  Let us put aside ambition and vanity in order to serve others just as Christ served us.  Let us do that which God gives to do without grumbling or arguing.  Rather, we should rejoice that God thinks us worthy of tasks which others think are demeaning. I will say that I struggle with this, but I strive to rejoice in all God brings to me.  And then Paul gives us the mantra which should be ours: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  If we discipline ourselves to only think about such things we will find it easier to rejoice in the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.