Monday, February 18, 2008

Think On These Things

Philippians 4

(Having the flu just knocks your everything out of whack. But I'm back!)

Philippians has just great verse after great verse. Has a lot of "t-shirt verses" too, if you know what I mean. Verses that are catchy enough to be kidnapped and slapped onto Christian t-shirts. Do we get the "dog returning to his vomit" verse t-shirt? No sir. No sirree Bob.

Verse 8 - "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."

The buzz word here is "edifying", and I've heard it a lot. The goal of a Christian's attention should be focused on things that are ultimately edifying to both ourselves and to God. We're not supposed to crave the depraved, the lies, the corrupt, the sinful -- just the opposite. Yet in a sinful world, isn't everything corrupt save God and the Bible? Yes, but God also grants the Christian a holy filter to be able to sift through what is untrue and focus on what is "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy".

I've gotten some flak over the years with my movie viewing habits. I watch some pretty bizarre and sometimes fairly unwholesome movies -- sometimes to critique them for others' benefits, and sometimes because I'm searching for that pure diamond in the rough. I think there's a serious case to be made that many movies (I won't go so far to say "all") have qualities that are listed in verse 8. Whether Christian or not, movies are crafted by people who were made in God's image, with God's creativity. The most ungodly person still has the gifts God's given them and can produce things of beauty and skill. These products can be testimonies for God just as much as anything I might produce, although I would hope that my creative efforts would be clearer in purpose and purity.

Verse 8 reminds us that not everything is worth sifting through, however, and we are left to the conviction of the Spirit, our common sense and conscience, and biblical instruction as to which things are worth discerning our way through.

In verses 11-13, Paul offers up a powerful testimony to how a Christian life is lived without worry or concern, but rather to be fully content in all things. He doesn't say that the Christian life is always peachy (verse 12 makes that clear), but that God will always give us strength for any situation, and he never abandons us.

No comments: