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And so the tears of Paul blend with his lion-like courage, and help us to understand the
grip that such a man had upon hearts that were attuned to the same grace that saved,
moved, kept, and empowered himself.
#13.
Separate Features: Freedom from jealousy.
pp. 225, 226
"Here we see . . . . . that noble freedom from jealousy with which he speaks of those
who, out of rivalry to himself, preach Christ, even of envy and strife, supposing to add
affliction to his bonds, What then? Notwithstanding, every way, Christ is preached; and
I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice" (Conybeare and Howson).
The cause of jealousy is the safeguarding of that which belongs to self. It is with
perfect right that God can be jealous that the love and faithfulness of His people shall not
be delivered from His Own glorious Person, but mortal man can seldom be moved to
jealousy without sin. What was it that enabled the apostle to rise above this besetting
sin? The answer is that he had within him something that had taken the place of self. In
another part of the same chapter from which Conybeare and Howson quote in the above
extract, he says:
"Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to
live is Christ" (Phil. 1: 20, 21).
Christ had taken the place of self, so that Paul was enabled to look away from the
cruel envy that could even preach Christ with the object of adding affliction to his bonds,
to the simple and single fact that Christ was preached. There he could rest. He would go
not a step further. Whether out of love or out of envy, one feature was common--Christ
was preached, and therein, said Paul, he would rejoice. In such circumstances it was
impossible to add afflictions to his bonds. No man can be hurt by an external thing of
this character: it is only as he "feels" the attack, the envious word, the cruel look, that it
can hurt. In physical things it is not easy to avoid feeling a blow, for one function of the
sense of touch is to give protection. But, in spiritual things, the heart can be so taken up
with the things of Christ as to be almost insensible to such evil intentions of the enemy.
This is indeed a "noble freedom". If, at the apparent triumph of his rivals, Paul had been
moved by jealousy, all his boasted freedom, all the liberty of which he was the champion,
would have been nothing worth. As it was, the stone walls of a Roman prison or the
presence of a Roman guard in his own hired house, could not make the Lord's free man a
slave, but evil thoughts entertained within his breast, self-enthroned, instead of Christ,
that would have made Paul a bondslave, even though he walked at liberty among the free
of the earth.
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he
that taketh a city" (Prov. 16: 32).