Philippians 1: Advancing the Gospel

“¹² Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. ¹³ As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴ And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” -Philippians 1:12-14

How does the gospel advance? There are many ways, but one that Paul mentions in the first chapter of his letter to the Philippian belivers is persecution. Paul was under house arrest in Rome at the time of the letter’s writing. He said what had happened to him was helping to advance the gospel.

Why? Palace guards and everyone in the area discovered the reason for his arrest was because of Jesus. Even believers in Rome became bolder in their faith, because Paul had set an example of one who had risked it all for Jesus.

While Christians often speak of persecution as a way God uses to spread the message of Jesus, we often overlook the importance of RISK. Paul risked his entire life to tell people about Jesus. He gave everything to live for God. What would happen if we did the same?

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.