In today’s First reading St Paul shares, that whether by life or death Christ will be exalted. Here was a man of God who was imprisoned for proclaiming the Gospel. He was hopeful that the proclamation of the Gospel will be carried on regardless of his life or death for in the midst of deep turmoil nothing could stop him from talking about Jesus.
It is interesting to mention that a few verses prior (vs 18) he talks about those who may preach Christ out of selfish or impure motives. And declares that as long as the Gospel is preached he is not concerned of such people or their motives, because in the end, Christ is been proclaimed.
Luke 9 mentions how the Lord called the twelve apostles and gave them power and authority to drive out demons, heal the sick and preach. In vs 49, John tells Jesus, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” And Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against us is for us.”
Sometimes we too can be caught up in condemning or exposing those who preach Christ differently. Every minute used for condemning can be used instead to proclaim Jesus to a lost soul.
The Lord has not appointed us to judge other people. In his mercy and love he has anointed us with the Holy Spirit to spread his Good News to those around us. This is our primary mission as we walk this journey in faith and surrender. Even more than our words, it is our actions that should bear witness to Christ.
As children of God should we be joining the bandwagon of division or be part of the healing process? There is a hurting world around us that is desperately in need for Christians to bring Christ’s light to them.
So then, what is our calling? In vs 27 St Paul tells us that we ought to live our lives worthy of our calling, standing firm in one Spirit, determined with one mind for the spreading of the Gospel.
Further in verse 28 he says, in no way should we be intimidated by our opponents. Our calling is to not condemn our Christian brothers and sisters who preach Christ differently, specially those who are not part of our own church and even those who may condemn us. Rather we ought to cover them in our prayers that Jesus may lead them to repentance if need be and reveal more of his love to them.
As Jesus prophesied ‘all’ those who proclaim the Gospel will be persecuted. Do we join the persecutors or join Jesus’ party in proclaiming the Gospel to all? The choice is ours.

Prayer: Abba Father, all I have is yours. Take my time, gifts and possessions and use them for your glory. Amen.