Nobody in Bible times was better than Paul at putting lipstick on a pig. Nowhere does he do it more than in his Letter to the Philippians. Here he is in the hoosegow, enough to discourage anyone, and those at ‘TheWaySucks*com’ and the liars at ‘WeLovetheWay*com’ are saying it’s his own fault. They’re hoohawing and making catcalls over his imprisonment, saying his brothers sold him out and so forth. They even say the Way is hemorrhaging members!
But Paul says,
“Now I want you to know, brothers, that my situation has actually turned out for the advancement of the good news, so that my prison bonds for the sake of Christ have become public knowledge among all the Praetorian Guard and all the rest. Now most of the brothers in the Lord have gained confidence because of my prison bonds, and they are showing all the more courage to speak the word of God fearlessly.” (Philippians 1:12-14)
I mean, the guy wasn’t easy to discourage. But, was the Way “hemorrhaging members?” Apparently (allowing for the hyperbole), it was.
“For there are many—I used to mention them often but now I mention them also with weeping—who are walking as enemies of the torture stake of the Christ,” he says at 3:18. He wasn’t happy about it. He mentioned them with “weeping.” But it didn’t change the big picture. Do you think some of these new “enemies” were included in 1:15-17?
“True, some are preaching the Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter are proclaiming the Christ out of love, for they know that I have been appointed to defend the good news; but the former do it out of contentiousness, not with a pure motive, for they are intending to create trouble for me in my prison bonds.”
And so he pulls out some lipstick and applies it to the pig:
“With what result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over this. In fact, I will also keep on rejoicing.” (1:18)
Thus, one might think of the modern slogan that goes: “All publicity is good publicity.” A middle ground is evident in 1:15-17. Some were outright enemies, but others were only sort-of enemies. The sort-of were doing it, preaching the Christ. Only, not with “a pure motive.” What would have made the motive pure? Apparently, recognizing an organized arrangement, in this case centering on Paul and his companions and on who sent them. Rather than loyally support these ones, they were “intending to create trouble for [him] in [his] prison bonds.”
You don’t hide that you have enemies. You advertise it. They validate you.
****** The bookstore
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