The words “joy” or “rejoice” appear 15 times in the short book of Philippians. But when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the believers at Philippi, he was sitting in a prison…not exactly happy circumstances. During Paul’s imprisonment, he was unable to proclaim Christ in the synagogues as he usually did; he was – by all appearances – left on the sidelines. However, as Paul himself identified, his persecution caused others to take up the mantle of proclaiming the gospel. And in this Paul finds joy.

This would be a life-lesson in and of itself. But Paul’s situation gets even worse. Some people were preaching Christ out of competition, trying to rival the chosen Apostle. And yet Paul still found – even chose – to rejoice. Why? Because all that mattered to him was that Jesus was proclaimed. And since God’s glory was Paul’s whole motivation, it didn’t matter the role he played.