Paul’s joy that Christ is preached

Today in my devotions I looked at Philippians 1:12-19. The title of this section in
the NLT is “Paul’s joy that Christ is preached”.

Verses 12-14 read, “And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear”.

Two things really jumped out at me from these verses.

Paul is pleased being in prison

The first is that Paul is glad to be in prison. He tells us that the whole palace guard knows he is there for the Gospel. Paul came in contact with people he would not normally be able to share Christ with. As we see from Acts 16 Paul got to share his faith with the jailer and his family.

Paul’s continued boldness encourages others

The second things is from verse 14. Paul says that, “most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear”. Paul’s boldness despite being in prison gave other courage to continue to talk about Jesus. Acts 16 said they prayed and sang hymns while in chains!

Paul’s boldness to preach the message of Christ landed him in prison. However this did not stop him and everyone knew why he was there. We see the jailer and his family came to Christ. And the other believers were greatly encouraged in their efforts.

Paul’s commitment to preaching the Gospel inspires me nearly 2000 years later.