Joy Over Anxiety

What are these things? The problem with this verse is that it is very often taken out of context. It becomes a verse to quote when you want Christians to be more engaged culturally, to be discerning about what is going on in the world around us and to ensure that we dwell on things that are praiseworthy.

That is important. But I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about first and foremost. The problem is that nothing in the world will pass Paul’s test of being true, noble, pure, right, lovely and admirable – since everything is soiled by sin.

For Paul what is most praiseworthy – what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable - is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ that he has been talking about in the previous chapter. The gospel we were thinking about last week. The good news that our very best efforts will always fall short of God standards, we can be made right with God through faith in Christ.

We need to use our minds to understand more and more of the gospel and more and more of how it applies to our lives.

Listen to what Tim Keller says in his excellent new book, Center Church:

‘You must let the gospel argue with you. You must let the gospel sink down deeply until it changes your views and the structures of your motivation. You must be trained and disciplined by the gospel.’

We can do that by carefully and prayerfully reading our Bibles and using our minds to understand more and more of what the word of God is teaching. We can do that by reading good books and by listening to good sermons that help us to understand more of what the gospel is about. If you were not here last Sunday evening, a good place to start would be to listen to the podcast of Paul Worth’s sermon on the Joy of the Gospel where he unpacks Philippians 3. We can do that by attending a home group or Bible study and working with others on the meaning of different texts of scripture.

And the more we understand the gospel and how it applies to our lives, the less liable we will be to be overcome by anxiety as we face the trails of life and more liable we will be to know God’s joy.

‘Think about such things, says Paul, ‘and the God of peace will be with you.

I think this text does have wider application. Not everything is our world is praiseworthy. There is plenty that is not. Plenty that is untrue, ignoble, impure or unlovely. And the problem is that we can spend too much of our time and attention on these things. Whether they are on the tv or the internet or in the cinema or wherever. Dwelling on these things will take us further away from God’s will and further away from his peace.

We need to be discerning about how we engage critically with the world around us and where we focus our thoughts.

Developing our mental and spiritual muscles to identify and consider what is praiseworthy and to identify and reject what is not is part of what it means to grow in Christian maturity. If we do we are far less liable to be undermined by what is going on in the world around us. And the result of that is that we are far less likely to become anxious - because we are more confident about God’s will for our lives.