The gospel, as the apostle literally puts it, moved ahead.
The apostle uses a metaphor (prokopen) that evokes an image of pioneers moving ahead of an army to clear a way over mountains and through forests for the soldiers still to come.1 The gospel has broken through: it has now reached the highest echelons of the reigning power on earth. And it was precisely Paul’s imprisonment that had enabled this advance of the gospel!2
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,