¹²I want you to know, my friends, that the things that have happened to me have really helped the progress of the gospel. ¹³^*As a result, the whole palace guard and all the others here know that I am in prison because I am a servant of Christ. ¹⁴And my being in prison has given most of the brothers and sisters more confidence in the Lord, so that they grow bolder all the time to preach the message^a fearlessly.

¹⁵Of course some of them preach Christ because they are jealous and quarrelsome, but others from genuine goodwill. ¹⁶These do so from love, because they know that God has given me the work of defending the gospel. ¹⁷The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think that they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison.

¹⁸It does not matter! I am happy about it—so long as Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy, ¹⁹because I know that by means of your prayers and the help which comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ I shall be set free.

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Footnotes

athe message; some manuscripts have God’s message.

Cross references

*1.13: Ac 28:30