Think About These Things

Scripture: Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Devotion:

            These words of scripture may be familiar to some of us. They are typically thought of as a list that individual Christians should aspire to in their thought life. However, the Greek here is plural giving a communal idea to the verse. In other words, Paul is saying here that these thoughts should be typical of the church as a body as well as individual believers. Paul is here coming back to a theme of the thought life of the believer as being especially important to living a distinctively Christian life. Let us take a quick glance at each of the items in this list.

            The first item in the list is the word “true.” This is the essential starting point. Thinking about things that are false will automatically lead us into a blind alley. The truth is the starting point for all Christian thought. Jesus himself said that he was “the way the truth, and the life.” If we want to truly follow Jesus, we must be children of the truth. We must be speaking truth to each other and the world outside the church.

            Noble comes from a rare Greek word. It means worthy of respect, dignified. So much of what we think about in our culture is neither respectable nor dignified. We tend to focus on the trite and the trivial. The scriptures urge us to be a people who are worthy of the name Christian.

            Whatever is right has the meaning of righteous. The church is to be known for proclaiming righteousness of God in everything it says or does. The church and each believer in the church should have this characteristic for their lives.

            For pure we have the meaning of holy in relation to God. Pure and the next adjective in the list lovely are close in meaning. Both mean that we as a Church are to be attractive to the outside world. The church and the individual believer are to be always pleasant. No matter how difficult the conversation we should never be disagreeable.

            The Greek word translated here as admirable occurs only here in all the New Testament. Its meaning is to speak well of. Again, indicating that the church and the believer are to be attractive in speech in the world. Paul is stressing throughout this listing of virtues that we as Christians should truly be what Jesus called us to be, salt and light.

            Finally, the Christian mind is to be focused on the things that are excellent and praiseworthy. It is quite easy in this culture in which we live to think of things that are not excellent or praiseworthy. However, the verb “think” in this verse is an imperative verb. That means that Paul is issuing a command here not merely a suggestion. If we are going to be able to do this, we must be people of prayer.

Prayer:

            God, we know that you want us to serve you with all our minds. We must control our thought life. Thank you for giving us a pattern for doing this. May we take each thought captive to Jesus Christ. While we with your help tear down the strongholds of the flesh, the world, and devil have set up to make us stumble. Keep us in your care. Be patient with our failures. Lead us to eternal life in Jesus. Amen.