The verses themselves startle us because they show us that even Paul the apostle had people around him that didn't like him necessarily. Which is hard to imagine -- that people would not like Paul or that Paul would have some kind of enemies within the church, but they were there. The verses also bring an obvious point to view, and that is that not everyone who names the name of Christ or is even involved in ministry is there for the right reason, for the right motivation. The message they bring may be right but the messenger may be flawed. In fact, isn't that the truth with all of us? We're all flawed, and every church is flawed -- there are no perfect churches. Every church has problem people. Every church has the Tate family: have you heard about them? There's old man Dick Tate, he wants to run everything. While Uncle Row Tate tries to change everything. Their sister Agi Tate stirs up plenty of trouble with help from her friend Irri Tate. Whenever new projects are suggested, Hesi Tate and his wife Vege Tate want to wait until next year. Then, there's Aunt Imi Tate, who always wants our church to be like the others. Devas Tate provides the voice of doom, while Poten Tate wants to be the big shot. And of course, there's the black sheep of the family, Ampu Tate, who has completely cut himself off from the church.

It's not a modern problem, by the way. I know a lot of times we think back to the early church as the "good old days, the perfect time". If you think the early church was perfect, you know nothing of the early church nor of church history. In fact, just a cursory reading of 1 Corinthians shows you a church with mega-problems. I wrote you a list of them. In Corinthians, it talks about a church that has division over preachers, divorce and remarriage was a gigantic issue, sexual immorality was a problem, spiritual gifts was a controversy, there was a wholesale lack of love that Paul had to address in three chapters, doctrinal issues -- in one church. Wow. That's not perfect.

Many of the letters in the New Testament, written by Paul, Peter, John, were written against groups that had infiltrated the church -- like the Gnostics, the Judiazers who were legalistic, anti-nomean groups who were trying to say everything was okay. Yet, in verse 18, notice the word "rejoice". "I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice." This is Paul's attitude in the midst of dictate, agitate and amputate -- the problem people in the church. He decides to take the high road of rejoicing.

Let's look at Paul's attitude when he had problem circumstances in his life. He was in a prison, he wanted to preach the Gospel but he was shackled in a Roman jail for two years before he was released, and yet he saw somehow the plan of God in the problem circumstances. Now we deal with problem people. But get this, these are problem Christian people. This is where we grow a little bit disillusioned because we think somehow, and perhaps even rightly so, that, 'well, I'm in the church, surely it ought to be different in the body of Christ. I thought things would be different when I became a Christian and joined the church.' What you may have forgotten is that -- we're all growing. Do you remember what Jesus said when He described the people He came to minister to? He quoted out of Isaiah, He approached the synagogue, in Luke chapter 4 and He said, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those who are captive, to give sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." Listen to that list: poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, oppressed. That is a messy bunch of folks.

John White wrote in his fine book The Fight: "Do not be surprised then to discover tensions within your heavenly family. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are not perfect. After the first happy glow, during which you may idealize them, you will be shocked to discover bitterness, bickering and overt hostility in the Christian family. You will also discover that some Christians are stupid, ornery, tackless, prudes, hypocrites and so on. Some will be bigoted advocates of totally unacceptable political positions. Others will slurp their soup and have bad breath." That's the Christian family. And these four verses we have before us, we're told basically two things: recognize them and respond to them rightly.

Recognizing them, is what he speaks about in the first few verses. Paul had two groups around him. He's writing really about the troublemakers but he had Christian troublemakers as well as Christian truthmakers. That's the balance of what the church is like. There were some that were doing things in the ministry for the wrong reason -- there were others who loved Paul, loved the gospel, loved God and didn't care who got the glory. They wanted to make sure God did, but they didn't care who God used. Christian troublemakers, though, Paul mentions.

Let's look in verse 15 through verse 18. "Some, indeed, preach Christ even from envy and strife. Some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth Christ is preached and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice."

Christian troublemakers are mentioned. How do I know they were Christian? Because he uses in verse 15, 'some' and there's an antecedent to that word 'some' and it's in verse 14. Let's go back. He says, "Most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some [of the Christian brothers in the Lord]" -- and notice 'preach Christ', they got the right message, the right doctrine, the right Person -- but are preaching the Gospel for the wrong motivation. They're not heretics, they're not legalistics -- they got the right message. But there's a problem going on.

Years ago, one author likened the church to a herd of porcupines on a cold night. You can imagine it, can't you? They want to snuggle real close and get warm, but they've got a problem, don't they? They're called quills. And so, they need each other but they needle each other. They get real close to warm up and jab, so they move further apart with their own space and get cold and try again. They go through this interesting dance all night. We need each other, but sometimes we needle each other -- that's the Christian family. If you grew up in a large family, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Remember family vacations? Two weeks in a car. Mine was from California to Minnesota. It was fun about a quarter of the time when we were not around each other all the time. It was difficult -- that was the family, that sibling rivalry.

Yet, at the same time, though it is expected, one of the saddest sights is to see a church, the body of Christ, torn apart by contention. The kind of contention that are mentioned here, even in our chapter. Why does it happen in the church? John Trappe, the Puritan reformer, said: "The devil loves to fish in troubled waters." So what does he do? He gets a group of Christians who are together and tries to stir up the waters. Because only when they're stirred up can he sufficiently fish. That means we need to do everything we can to calm the waters, and not let them be stirred up.

The people, these Christian troublemakers, that he is referring to in verse 15, they were not attacking Paul's message. It was the same message -- they were preaching Christ. They were attacking Paul personally. Why? Why would anybody attack Paul? He mentions why. The first: they were jealous. "Some indeed preached Christ from envy", jealousy. You see, Paul was gifted, he was successful. And because he was gifted, God's hand was upon him, things happened wherever he went -- he was an easy target. Anybody who does anything for Christ is an easy target. People who don't do much watch people who do much and often criticize those who do the doing. Paul experienced that.

Just as Americans are prone to blame large corporations or the government or whatever is big, small-minded people were attacking Paul because he had a very successful ministry.

Why were they jealous? We don't know exactly, but perhaps they were jealous because Paul had personally seen the resurrected Christ -- he had a vision. Not everybody else could boast of that. Maybe they were jealous because Paul was suddenly thrust into being an apostle -- he was on-stage, he was recognized by the other apostles (though he himself wasn't one of the original twelve). 'What makes him so special?' Or, maybe people were jealous of Paul because his letters were considered to be Scripture by the early church when other letters were not. We don't know exactly, but there was envy. There was jealousy -- they didn't like Paul personally. There's something interesting about envy: it's not so much wanting to get something for itself, it's just wanting to take away what somebody else has. 'Paul shouldn't be able to boast of that' Whatever.

The stoics, a brand of Greek philosophy, defined 'envy' as grief at someone else's good. Interesting story comes to us, the years from Michelangelo the sculptor and Raphael the famous painter were both commissioned to beautify the Vatican with their works of art. They were both esteemed artists, they both had a good reputation, but a rivalry grew between them -- a jealousy. They were working on the Vatican at the same time, one sculpting, one painting. The rivalry grew so intense between them, they wouldn't even greet each other in the hallways of the Vatican. And what is ironic is both of them were supposed to do it for the glory of God. And it happens within the church. Some were envious of Paul's ministry.

There is another description of these Christian troublemakers: they were argumentative. Notice right after that, Paul uses the word 'strife' -- it means debates, conflict. They had an argumentative spirit. Which, by the way, some people thrive on. Have you ever met someone who just seems to always be looking for a fight? They're just looking for someone to slam. 'Well, so-and-so said this.' 'Uh, I don't like that.' 'Well, so-and-so did this.' 'Uh, I don't like that.' 'Well, what DO you like?' Some people are known only for what they're against, never for what they're for -- that's dangerous. That is strife. They're like mistletoe -- mistletoe looks good, but it's a parasite. It doesn't have its own life, it derives its life from somebody else's growth. And so they exist only to slam others.

We don't know what this debate, rivalry, argumentation was, but maybe some were looking at Paul's ministry. And now he's in prison in Rome. And they're going, "A-ha! There's sin in his life. Here's a guy that once had the blessing of God, he could travel anywhere unhindered, now he's in prison. Obviously, he's done something wrong. God's withdrawn His blessing." Or maybe others were saying, "He doesn't really have the Holy Spirit like we have. He hasn't tapped into God's supernatural resources like we have. He's in prison but he could pray through this problem and be delivered -- we certainly could!" Easy to say that when you're not in prison. Envy, strife -- he describes them further in verse 16. "The former preach Christ from [notice the word] selfish ambition" These were selfish Christian troublemakers -- selfish ambition. Epithya, is the Greek word. Selfish ambition, a word that was used in ancient times of politicians who would travel different places and give great speeches to inflate themselves up, great swelling words to promote themselves. Envy and strife: simply a manifestation of self-love. That's all it is: self-love. Whenever you hear gossip, know this: somewhere in there, there is an ego that is trying to get out. Somebody's trying to inflate themself -- it's the motivation of selfishness. Therefore others are being cut down.

This speaks to our motivations. We may have the right message, but what is the reason that we do things? Say things? Are we competing against other people for ministry? Other churches for ministry? Other organizations? Remember Paul said, "speak the truth in love". It's one thing to speak the truth, it's another thing to have that beautiful motivation of speaking the truth in love. God is concerned, not only about what's on our lips, but what's in our heart. Not just about the message, but the reason we do it.

There are lots of motivations that are wrong. Not always are they done correctly. Selfish ambition. Peter spoke about the ambition of money. He spoke about ministry and those who were greedy for money -- they had a financial motivation for doing something for the Lord. John spoke of those who had the selfish ambition of wanting control over other people. You know, some people look to serve in a ministry because they'll be recognized and they'll have a certain amount of control -- they can give orders and people will do stuff. John wrote about diatrophies, who loved to have the preeminence among them -- wrong motivation.

There's a fourth description of these Christian troublemakers. They were vindictive. Same verse, 16, "the former preached Christ from selfish ambition not sincerely, [and get this] supposing to add affliction to my chains" This group of people, whoever they were in Rome, just wanted to irritate Paul. They didn't want to defend the gospel, they didn't want to instruct believers, they didn't want to evangelize the lost. What they thought -- 'if I preach the gospel, it'll make the Romans so mad they'll take it out on Paul. Maybe he'll get beat up or something, wouldn't that be great?' They were vindictive, supposing to add afflictions to my chains. This was a personal attack on Paul -- they didn't like him. They were attacking his faithfulness, his integrity. It was not a theological problem, it was a personal issue. It was ad hominem attack. We get a hint of this, 2 Corinthians 10, Paul alludes to what people were saying about him. This is what he says, "They say his bodily presence is weak, his speech is contemptible." Now, there is a rumor, a legend, that says that Paul the apostle was rather short, bald-headed, hook-nosed, bow-legged and his eyebrows grew together like they were one solid unit. And that sort of brings to light what he mentions when he says, 'his bodily presence is weak': "Look at Paul! Look at him, he's kindof goofy looking! And he can't even talk that good!" Jealousy, strife, selfish ambition, vindictiveness. Sort of like scorpions, wouldn't you say?

You know anything about scorpions? They feed on other insects, but they also have been known to destroy themselves. One experimenter put 100 scorpions in a jar. In a couple days, 14 were alive -- the rest had killed each other. He isolated a pregnant female, put the scorpion in the jar and she killed and ate her young as soon as they were born. One escaped and sought refuge on mom's back, and started stinging mom and killed her. Talk about sibling rivalry and family dissension. Scorpions have been known even, when cornered and they have no possible way of escape, with their flexible tail to sting themselves to death. That's pride, man. Christian troublemakers -- the scorpions that were around Paul's life.

At the same time, he mentions simply by way of contrast, that there were Christian truthmakers as well. He says, 'Yes, there were some that had the wrong reason for ministry, but there were others who did not.' Notice, this group, in contrast, was an encouraging group, verse 15: "some preach from goodwill.' They loved Paul, they had goodwill toward him. It was not about who gets the glory, who's ministering, who started the church -- it's about, this is the kingdom of God, this is the gospel of God. These were the kind of people who would encourage Paul by listening to the word, listening to the gospel, listening to the teaching -- and putting it into practice, doing it. Nothing makes a minister feel better and more encouraged then seeing people walk in the truth he labors over to preach. They did it out of goodwill. Their motivation is mentioned in verse 17, they were 'loving', when he said 'the latter do it out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel."

Do you know that the essential motivation in ministry for it to be effective is love? Love. Love, speaking the truth in love the Bible says. They loved God, they loved the gospel, they loved Paul -- because he loved God and loved the gospel. You know 1 Corinthians 13, let's be reminded of it at this point. Paul said, "if I could speak in any language in heaven and on earth and I didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, if I knew all mysteries of the future, if I knew everything about everything but didn't love others, what good would I be?"

Years ago, when Dr. Karl Meninger was treating patients psychologically (he was a physician as well as an expert in mental health), he decided to embark on an experiment taking his clinical staff together to determine why patients were being treated and why they manifested some of the physical ailments that they did. He decided that the hospital should have an atmosphere of 'creative love', he called it. And he told them, 'I want no unloving attitudes, I want loving words, loving attitudes with all these patients.' They noticed in 6 months that the patient's time in the institution was cut in half because they were getting what they didn't get anywhere else -- love.

In contrast, the troublemakers- there are those other ones, who encourage -- the motivation's out of love. The third mark of them is they were understanding, for he says, "knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel." You see, this group of people, they weren't saying, "Paul's out of God's blessing, he's not in touch with the Holy Spirit". They were saying, "Paul's in prison as we understand it, we know for the furtherance of the gospel. We understand that he's in the will of God" and so Paul marks them.

Which are you more like? The troublemaker or the truthmaker? What marks your personality? What are you more apt to be like -- stir up the waters or calm them? It's a good question to ask. Do you find it easy to rejoice when God blesses other people. You know, Paul said, "Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep." Truth be known, it's a lot easier to weep with those that weep. Something bad happens -- oh, we'll weep with you. But when God blesses that other person, more than He's blessing you, how do you feel? It is tough to rejoice with them. It's easier to say, 'well, they got it, but they don't deserve it -- it proves God's grace. They got it, wrongfully...' or whatever.

Verse 18, responding to problem people. Paul says, "What then?" OK, I'm faced with these two groups of people, especially this troublemaking group, they don't like me, they're saying bad things about me, they're selfish, they're even vindictive. What then? What shall I do? What's my posture? What's my attitude and my response? Here it is: "only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is preached and in this I rejoice and I will rejoice." You've kindof got a blank stare on your face. Perhaps it's because we think the response out to be, 'Shame on them -- they need to get their hearts right with God. I'm the great apostle Paul, everybody should be on my side.' They weren't, and Paul doesn't say that. He says, 'I'll rejoice.'

Now, I don't want you to read something into that that isn't there. Paul was not some emotionless, stone-cold statue that had no feelings and could just detach emotionally. He was not aloof -- 'well, forget everyone, man, I don't need anybody.' He wasn't like that. This hurt him deeply. But simply, he takes the high road of rejoicing. It was a decision, not a feeling, that he made. Paul would not let problem circumstances nor problem people rob him of his joy. Remember, maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal your joy. If that's true, Paul was very mature. Because he wouldn't let the circumstances or these scorpions rob him of his joy. He took the high road.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." Paul made it his serious business while ministering on earth. Question: why does he rejoice? He rejoices because his whole motivation for going to Rome is being fulfilled. Why did he go to Rome? To spread the gospel. That's what he told the Romans: I'm going to come and I'm going to preach the gospel. His prime motivation for going to Rome is to see the gospel of Jesus Christ go to the surrounding environs and now, it is. Some are doing it for the right reason, others are doing it for the wrong reason, but you know what? The message is getting out there. And if his prime objective is being fulfilled, even by people who are trying to add affliction to his bonds, great! Because it's not about me, it's about God's gospel. Therefore, I will rejoice. Paul knew that the power lay in the gospel, not in the gospel-teller. That was irrelevant.

So, on one hand Paul has critics. On the other hand, he has comrades. The comrades are partners with him in the gospel and he rejoices because of them (v.3-5). Paul has critics, he rejoices in spite of them. He'll rejoice because of this group -- loves them, partners in the gospel. He sees this other group and goes, 'I'll rejoice in spite of them, because the gospel is being preached.' Because even though they are stupid, ornery, tactless -- they're still part of the body of Christ. And Paul's not going to pick a fight and let the body of Christ be torn asunder.

Steven Brown describes the difference between thoroughbreds and donkeys when being attacked: "Thoroughbred horses will put all of their heads in the circle and their back legs to the periphery and they will attack the enemy by kicking outwardly. Whereas donkeys face outwardly and kick each other." Dumb. But they're donkeys. Let's not the church act like donkeys. We're not the enemy. Paul knew that -- 'I'm not going to kick you, I'm not going to pick a fight.' They were people looking for a fight and Paul wouldn't engage. Like the old philosophy, 'Never wrestle with a pig. You'll both get dirty and the pig will like it.'

Paul is dealing exclusively with motivation in ministry. Not the message. We have to mark this, otherwise you'll walk away completely misunderstanding this. Paul is dealing exclusively with people preaching the right message, the right Christ, the right doctrine but doing it with the wrong motivation. When it comes to preaching the wrong message distorting the gospel, Paul has a whole different stand. He gets very aggressive and he's not having a 'bad apostle' day or anything, it's simply a different set of circumstances. Galatians 1:6: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel which is not another but there are some who trouble you to pervert the gospel of Christ but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you let him be accursed." Anathema, the Greek word -- cursed to the lowest hell. "As we have said before, so now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." Strong words. Paul was steaming. Why? Because the message was being messed with. Do you see the difference?

When you mess with the message, rebuke is in order. It's commanded -- defend the faith, Jude 3 tells us. 'Put up a good fight for it' is the literal Greek. That's when you mess with the message. When you mess with the messenger, get over it. Take the high road of rejoicing. Who cares? They're just mad at me, they're not changing the gospel. Now, that's difficult to do. Because we sometimes think, 'If they're attacking me, they're attacking the gospel!' Not necessarily. It's not pleasant, it's not right, it's not good, it shouldn't happen. But, it does happen. If they mess with the message, stand up for it. If they mess with the messenger, get over it. And take the high road of rejoicing.

So Paul shows a largeness of heart. He's both narrow and wide. He's narrow in the message, he's not a pluralist saying, 'whatever you're into, man, whatever philosophy, it doesn't matter' -- he's saying, 'the gospel is the truth, you mess with that, you're gonna mess with me'. But at the same time, being narrow, he's wide in the expression of the message. What makes a person like that? What makes a person say, 'I can get over it, I can rejoice.'? One word -- grace. Grace. Knowing that God has been gracious to me, He's forgiven me such a debt, I think I can extend some grace to other people. I'm not perfect. Grace begins with the right opinion of yourself. Paul didn't step into this scene saying, 'Excuse me, I am the apostle Paul, thank you very much.' He says, 'I'm a sinner saved by grace, and I will extend grace to other sinners saved by grace who are called together.' If you see Christ at the center of the universe, you'll let this stuff fall off by the wayside. If you see yourself as the center of the universe, you'll be mad at everybody.

From the great theological war chest of Reader's Digest, called Anyway, and I'm going to add something to it at the end: "People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be devastated overnight. Build anyway. Give the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the best you've got anyway" And I'll add this to that: You will be misunderstood for serving God, but serve God anyway. Even though they're still around -- you know, Dick Tate, Ampu Tate, Agi Tate, Irri Tate -- they're all around us -- take the high road when you're around them. Don't stir up the waters. When the devil comes to do that, make sure you're the kind that wants to calm the waters when the true gospel is involved. Blessed are the peacemakers.