This verse highlights the importance of motivation in the context of ministry.
Here, Paul identifies the motivation of envy and rivalry and says they aim to cause trouble for him.
Another is the motivation of love for Paul, wanting to see his vision continue even if he is out of circulation.
There is a verse that comes to mind.
Proverbs 27:6: Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.
The supposed loving gesture of the enemy is harmful.
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between a minister with the wrong motive and one with the right motive.
But we are still responsible.
Hebrews 6:12: so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
You are responsible for who you pattern yourself after. Don't be like Adam and Eve, who took no responsibility for the influence they followed.
Jesus said that it is not everyone who calls Him 'Lord' who is doing the will of His Father (Matthew 7:21). This means that for some people, the profession of faith (or words) does not align with their affection (or heart).
For example, people come to you with claims of their worthiness for being followed based on the visions and revelations they have seen, rather than their fidelity to the truth of the gospel.
Paul specifically calls out in the book of Colossians those who are puffed up with claims of what they have seen, and says that believers should not be taken in by them because what they promote would not help.
Colossians 2:18-19: Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great length about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
Paul said these people go on and on about the supposed vision they have seen. But someone can retort and say, didn't Paul also have visions? Yes, he did.
But one thing he did not do was say Believe me because of my vision.
We have it on record that he proved Jesus is the Christ using the scriptures (Acts 17:2-3). No one can verify his vision, but everyone can verify and confirm the scriptures for themselves.
Even Jesus, after His resurrection, went through the scriptures with two disciples, and I am sure those two disciples told the others, which might have formed a bulk of the message the disciples shared going forward. I mean, this is Jesus speaking from the scriptures, who would not take it seriously.
Luke 24:27: Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures.
Luke 24:32: They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?”
From the focus verse, we have two sets of people who are preaching Christ. Still, they are driven by a different agenda, one of love and goodwill, the other of envy and rivalry.
Both have to reference Paul when presenting the message; Paul's name would have to come up, as they would be speaking to people about Jesus, with Paul's framing as the basis.
They would be using the words of Paul and would refer to Paul, just as we refer to Paul's letters now; they would refer to Paul's preaching.
One may twist what Paul said, painting him as a bad person, so that his imprisonment would be the best that can happen to him.
However, those preaching Christ from goodwill will present Paul in a favorable light and will be those who want to further Paul's aims.
But in both cases, they are spreading the message about Christ.
That introduces the concept of the compounding of the gospel message, where it comes at you from different angles at various times in your life, even from people with differing motives.
Paul is saying all of that is good; it is better than not hearing at all. It is all adding to the fulfillment of the scripture that says the knowledge of God's sovereignty will cover the earth as the water covers the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
The Christian message will dominate.
But just as Judas fulfilled the purpose of God in his betrayal of Jesus, so also those who proclaimed the gospel from wrong motives would contribute to the spread of the message, but God would judge them for it.
