Questionable motives; Philippians 1:15-18

Does it matter WHY? As long as something good happens?
Paul reminds me of two 20th century heroes of the faith. Deitrich Bonhoffer and Martin Luther King Jr. Both were imprisoned for their beliefs. Bonhoffer was a Lutheran minister in NAZI Germany who helped the underground resistance. Her stood up to tyranny, hypocrisy and just plain evil and eventually lost his life for it. King was arrested and put in prison several times, not for stealing, or killing, or dealing drugs, but for speaking and marching and sitting. For insisting that the Constitution insured equal rights for everyone.

When they showed the courage to suffer the way they did, it encouraged others to step up and do what was right too. You might say, "well, if they really believed what they say- they shouldn't have waited until some leader did it first, they should've been doing it all along." Well, maybe, but so what? At least they started doing the right thing once they saw these heroes do it.

The people in Philippi were worried about Paul. Was the prison cold? Did he get enough to eat? were there rats? Would he get sick? Were they planning on executing him?

But even in the worst of times, Paul tried to make sure that the Philippians saw the bright side.
"Hey," he said in verses 12-14, "you know what? My being in here has been a good thing. All the guards are learning about Jesus and because I had the guts to go to jail- other Christians have been less afraid to share their faith."

There are lots of preachers out there who had messed up motives. Some wanted to kind of take Paul's place as the main missionary. Some wanted fame or prominence, maybe they were competing wither with Paul or with each other- who was the greatest? Some of them had totally false motives, and they were really only in it for the money or the high that comes from being influential.

Are there still preachers like that today? Sure. I look at a tele-evangelist with a huge mega-church that meets in a football stadium and wears thousand dollar suits and wonder. I hear Christian radio psychologists who preside over political summits and bemoan that they're aren't any candidates out there who are pro-family enough or anti-this-or anti-that enough and I wonder.

Do people do humanitarian work or donate food, money, clothing, time, and blood just because it's the right thing to do? Or do they do it because they're think they have to to get into Heaven, or because it will look good on college applications or their resume'?

Sure. But hey people are being clothed and fed and taught and cared for- so why does it matter if it's for wrong motives? People are learning about Jesus and led to the Bible, so what if the preacher drives a Rolls Royce and likes to watch himself on TV?

Let good things happen. Sometimes teachers and coaches have to find ways to motivate their students and athletes. So what if they hate me as their coach? As long as they're united as teammates, let it be against me.