We need to learn from Moses. It is hard for us to rejoice in another’s success or prominence, especially if the person’s work is in the same field as our own— because we are jealous of his or her success. Jealousy is wrong and distasteful in many situations, but nowhere more than in Christian circles and over Christian work. Yet it is prominent in the church—pastors jealous over the success of other pastors, parachurch leaders jealous over the success of other ministries, lay workers over the prominence given to other believers. This ought not to be.

We should remember Paul, who took note of the sad bickering and rivalry among the Christians of Corinth and admonished them: “So let no one boast in men” (1 Cor. 3:21). When some of the Roman Christians spoke against him, hoping to add to his trouble while in prison, Paul wrote, “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. . . . What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (Phil. 1:15, 18).

It is true that some claiming to be led by the Holy Spirit of God have brought dissension into God’s church. That must be dealt with in another way. But where the true Spirit of God is at work, there Jesus Christ will always be glorified (see John 16:14), and those who love him and desire his glory will rejoice. Indeed, in our day of even greater blessing, they will rejoice that “all the Lord’s people” are indeed prophets in the sense that the Holy Spirit has come upon them to bless them and their gospel witness (see Acts 2:16–18). Rejoicing in the spread of the gospel, even while under personal duress and attack, is one sure sign of a faithful minister or teacher of the Word of God.