It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18)   Paul says an odd thing here.  How is it that someone can preach Christ out of false motives and a sinful heart, and yet for it to be a cause for rejoicing?  This runs against the grain of our cultural sensibilities. In a world that's become significantly polarized over the last decade, we are accustomed to operating on a one-strike-your-out policy.  Any celebrity, social media personality, or leader that gets one thing wrong is cancelled and banished from polite society.  Increasingly, this has happened in our own world of relationships too.  There has been much estrangement within families over politics, pandemic, and church life these past few years.  We've operated on basis that says: "if you believe x, y, or z, I cannot associate with you lest I become tainted."  It is eerily similar to the Old Testament world of Kosher laws where clean and unclean things were clearly separated.  It was believed that contact with an unclean thing would make you unclean too.  So it goes with our polarized world and cancel culture reflexes.  Of course, the world is not so black and white in the offline world of embodied relationships.  You can try to cancel someone: but you'll see them again at church, at school, in the store, at community events.  They still exist.  And you do too.  The difference is that you're both estranged now, carrying hurts and hates that gnaw at your soul.  In Christ, this world of Old Testament estrangement was transformed.  Ken Baily put it this way: the law stated that the clean becomes unclean upon contact.  Jesus taught and lived a different principle: that the clean can restore the unclean—and again, all it takes is contact.  Jesus' world is one where redemption, healing, forgiveness, grace, and mercy are possible.  Where dividing walls of hostility are knocked down.  Where people are reconciled together.  It is a world where our lives and actions, our sin and impure motives no longer have the final say about who we are.  Jesus does.  So whether from pure motives or false, out of goodwill or selfishness—if Jesus is there, so is the good news.  Because, as John puts it in 1 John 4:4,"the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  In my young life as a pastor, I have already quite personally encountered those who preach Christ out of selfish ambition supposing that they can stir up trouble for me.  Christ calls me to (die to myself and) love them anyway—trusting not in their motives, but in the work of Christ in their hearts, in their life, and in their churches—even through their preaching.  As God declares of his word in Isaiah 55:11: "It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."  No Christian then—preacher or otherwise—can so quickly be dismissed if we recognize Christ within them—even if we otherwise might wish to dismiss them.  Even if all the world tells us we should. Jesus works more surprisingly and abundantly and in more places than our own categories and tolerances allow.  Jesus works in your heart too.  Will you let him call you beloved?  Will you let him call your estranged friend or relative the same?  Will you let him teach you how to forgive and love again?  I pray you do so that together with Paul, you too might rejoice.  

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