“To live is Christ and to die is gain”…
Paul wrote this in one of his letters to the church in Phillipi. In Phillipians 1, he writes a beautiful letter to the church in Phillipi encouraging them to stay strong in their faith. He writes in verse 21 that for him, “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. I love this because when he wrote this, he was experiencing something that I think a lot of have as well. The passage talks about sharing the gospel with others and how we come across people who share the gospel with evil motives and selfish ambitions. I have come across so many of those people who preach the word on Sundays around their “christian” friends and then live a life that doesn’t please the Lord during the week. I often have a bad attitude against those kinds of people and hate to see such hypocracy. But Paul’s response is so opposite of that and is so humbling to me. He says, ” what does it matter” because the gospel is still being preached either way. Does that make sense? Even though he is unable to preach the gospel but hears about others preaching the word with ungodly motives, he doesn’t care because his main purpose was not to be the ONLY ONE to reach people; no, his main goal was to see people being brought to Christ. Isn’t that so powerful? I love that so much. I think that is such a wonderful testimony and it makes me see things so differently. So, maybe the next time, you are judging someone like Paul describes, instead of being bitter, try being open to how the Lord may work in this person’s life. Because in the end, isn’t that all that matters? That is what we are called to do.