Paul was in prison, and he told them that rather than the situation being negative for the gospel, it had now turned out to be an advancement of the gospel.

That can only happen because Paul was using spiritual reasoning, rather than natural reasoning. He was reasoning from God's point of view, sharing God's perspective, and seeing things the way God saw them.

Think about Joseph. His brothers seized him, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, lied against him, and put him in prison. A palace official who interpreted a dream for him forgot him.

It was years and years of going from one bad situation to another. At the end, Joseph told his brothers, What you meant for evil, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20).

The bible says that all things work together for the good (Romans 8:28) for those who love God.

Paul did not just want to have this new reasoning for himself; he wanted to share it with the people. He wanted to prove to them with clear examples how his imprisonment was turning out to be a good thing.

For many of us, it may not be immediately apparent how some things are beneficial.

Jesus dying on a cross, for example. The disciples did not know how that was a good thing? Peter said he should put it out of His mind (Matthew 16:21-23).

It runs contrary to all of their beliefs. They had grown attached to Jesus, and their identity was deeply intertwined with him.

He had already told them that they would judge the 12 tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). So, what were they to make of that promise when they see Jesus hanging on a tree?

And for Joseph, selling him into slavery (they initially wanted him dead) was seen by his brothers as a way to ensure that his dream of preeminence remains that-- a dream.

The parallelism is simply stunning. Jesus was the new Joseph, and as he was dying, people said to him while he was still hanging on the tree: 'We would see what will become of your claim to be king (my words)' (Matthew 27:42).

The similarities between the stories of Jesus and Joseph are astonishing.

After Jesus died, His disciples mourned and were disoriented.

It was like up became down and down became up.

But in the end, it all made sense as Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and poured out His Spirit; and generations of people, thousands of years later, are discovering that the cross makes all the sense in the world.

One psalmist talks about seeing the wicked flourishing, and he was troubled by it. But he said he understood things when he went into the house of God (Psalm 73).

His fellowship with God brought about a new perspective, and rather than join the sinners, he realized that everything makes sense. God was not unjust, and God has not retired.

Paul said he wants the believers to know the positive outcome from what appeared at first to be a bad thing-- his imprisonment. He told them to trust in God even when things seem dire.

When they see things from God's point of view, then they will be able to dance to a beat that no one else can hear, because they are seeing from God's eyes.

Just as Elisha prayed that the eyes of his servants be opened to see the chariots and horses of fire surrounding him (2 Kings 6:17).

The natural eyes may see that the enemy's armies are everywhere, while the spiritual eyes see that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

We must see things from God's point of view; if not, we may sink in the mire of despair. But we have no choice; we are supposed to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4),

and that can only happen when we shift our frame of reference from the earth to heaven, set our eyes on things of heaven and not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2), when our frame of reference is eternity.

We need to see from the throne of heaven, since we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). We should not associate with people who mock the divine perspective; we should not give them a time of day. Who tells you where your God is?

Look at Job. The bible says his ending was greater than his beginning. God proved Job, and he came forth as gold (Job 23:10). But his wife could not make sense of his "holding on to his integrity," mocked and said he should curse God because of his pain (Job 2:9).

James 5:11: Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Why does the bible have these stories?

Virtually every book has a dire situation that ultimately turns out for the good, beginning with the fall of man itself.

What possible good can we realize from man going into sin? For one thing, it shows us that God is merciful.

Before the fall of man, we knew God was mighty and merciful, but after, we know God is merciful.

But you say, was it worth all the trouble? I say yes.

Because without the revelation of who God is, we would not realize the fullness of who we are, because we are made in his image.

And not only that, we see God as judge, as Adam and Eve experience the fierceness of his judgment.

And we see Him as the one who controls history, declaring that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3).

The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® https://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved