Faith, Love and Hope

After enduring the abuse and mistreatment they encountered in Philippi, they didn’t change their message. The problems they faced did not cause them to try and make the gospel more palatable, to be less offensive, but instead chose to continue to teach the truth of Jesus. They had boldness to continue, because it wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about their gain, their notoriety. Instead, it was about making much of the name of Jesus.

If we are trying to build our ministry and we face criticism, we might be tempted to shift and change the message so that others may want to come and hear it. We may invite them to learn to live a better life, instructions for raising better children, how to resolve conflict and the like. All of that is well and good, but if we are building the kingdom of God, then we point people to Jesus in all things. We make it about Him at all times and we don’t worry about how “successful” we are, because our definition of success isn’t based on drawing a crowd, but rather the saving work of the Holy Spirit.