My answer for a misguided Muslim friend

 My answer for a misguided Muslim friend. 

                                             




Today I read a post by my friend who wrote the next post:


“DECEPTIONS AND LIES IN CHRISTIANITY 
.

A Christian is allowed to preach using PRETENCE AND TRUTH as approved in Philippians 1:18”

Often I read articles and posts of Muslim trying to misinterpret what the Scriptures says, such as the post we read above. According to Mainul  “A Christian is allowed to preach using PRETENCE AND TRUTH as approved in Philippians 1:18”

So lets analyze the text in question. Quote:

Php. 1:18  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

So the question is, ¿Is this passage allowing Christians to spread the message of the Gospel by lying to people or using deceptive methods? Because that’s what the post of Mainul is trying to communicate to us.

For understand what Paul was talking about, I have only to explain it using the surrounding verses of Philippians 1:18. Im going to start in verse 14, which reads

Php 1:14 “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

The situation here is that Paul was in prison, he said that most of the brothers (believers) became confident in preaching the message of the Gospel, What motivated them to speak the word without fear? The answer is in the very same verse 14:

“having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment”

Paul keep saying:

Php 1:15 “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

Among those believers who were preaching the Gospel, were those who preached out of envy and rivalry, meaning that some of the proclaimers were sinning as they proclaimed, trying to afflict Paul by making him feel jealous that they were free while he was in prison.

The next verses reads:

Php 1:16 “The latter [those who preached from good will] do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” [ ] Added by me.

The key it's in the verse 17:

Php 1:17 “The former [Those who preached out of envy and rivalry] proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.” [ ] Added by me.

What Paul is talking about is that some of the proclaimers of the Gospel, were actually preaching the Gospel, not lies, but they were doing so with bad intention, to afflict Paul because he was in prison, but he rejoices that Christ is proclaimed.

The verse 18, which is the one we want to understand, says:

Php 1:18  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

The overarching point of this passage is that God, in his gracious sovereignty, turns even prison and bad motives into the advancement of the gospel. “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). But the most surprising thing about this text is the way Paul’s celebration of gospel truth overrides his sorrow at defective motives.

What is more astonishing is that this sinful behavior is just the opposite of the way the gospel itself would incline a person to act. So they are hypocrites. They preach the gospel and then contradict in their very motives the gospel they are preaching.

Now, here we see Paul celebrating the fact that Jesus was proclaimed by those with good intention, which preached out of love, and those who did it to afflict Paul because he was imprisoned, but Paul rejoices.

In Galatians 1:8 Paul said:

Gal 1:8  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

So we might think: Why did Paul rejoiced in Philippians 1:18 but cursed in Galatians 1:8?” Well there is a big difference in both events, In Philippians the Gospel was proclaimed, but the motives of some of the proclaimers were not the right way, In Galatians Paul was condemning anybody who dares to preach a defective Gospel.

The difference is that there is no evidence in Philippians that the hypocritical preachers were saying false things when they preached the gospel. They preached the true gospel. But the preachers in Galatians were distorting the gospel.

In other words, Paul is more agitated when the gospel itself is defective than he is when the people who preach the true gospel are defective.

So two lessons:

 1) Rejoice that God can override prison and poor motives to advance his cause. 2) Value the truth of the gospel even more highly than you value the attitudes of those who preach it.

Conclusion:

Scriptures does not allow us to preach using deceptive methods or lies, but Muslims such as Mainul want to pervert the message of the Scriptures because they are enemies of God of Israel, and they are ignorant of what the Scriptures actually teaches, but praise the Lord Jesus Christ for that, so while they are trying to “expose” the Biblical Message of the Gospel, We will rejoice like Paul that the message of the Gospel is being spread throughout the world, and He enables us to give answer for those who don´t understand or distort the message, May God reveal His Son, the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ to them.