Thinking and Doing
TCF Sermon
Philippians 4 – part 2
October 14, 2007
#
Phil 4: 8, 9 NIV Finally, brothers, 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. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
These two verses can be summed up in the title of this morning’s message: Thinking and doing
Paul tells the Philippians “think about such things,” and then in the next verse, he writes, “put it into practice..”
So, first, let’s think about thinking – how we think, and what we think about.
(Glass half-full vs half-empty - illustrate with a glass of water)
If you’re an optimist, you might describe the glass as half full. If you were a pessimist you might describe it as half empty. If you were a realist, you might respond to the question whether this glass is half full or half-empty like this: that depends on whether you are pouring or drinking. If you were a functionalist, you might note that the glass is simply twice as large as it needs to be.
If you were logical, you might say it’s not half full or half empty. It’s half full of water and half full of air.
If you were cynical, you might say that the glass will be broken soon anyway, so who cares?
If you were pathological, you might fear the contents of the glass, because water causes drowning.
Of course, the purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways, depending on one’s point of view, or attitude. Wikipedia
I read about a boy who brought home his report card. It was filled with poor grades. "What do you have to say about this?" asked his father. "One thing for sure," the boy replied, "Dad, you can be proud. You know I haven’t been cheating!" Morning Glory, August 12, 1993.
Here’s a boy who was really hoping his dad had a “glass half-full” viewpoint.
During his days as president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of companions were traveling across the country on horseback. They came to a river which had left its banks because of a recent heavy rain. The flooded river had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to cross the river on horseback, fighting for his life against the rapid currents. The very real possibility of death threatened each rider, which caused a traveler who was not part of their group to step aside and watch. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, the stranger asked President Jefferson if he would ferry him across the river. The president agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on, and shortly thereafter the two of them made it safely to the other side. As the stranger slid off the back of the saddle onto dry ground, one in the group asked him, "Tell me, why did you select the president to ask this favor of?" The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him. "All I know," he said, "Is that on some of your faces was written the answer ’No,’ and on some of them was the answer ’yes.’ His was a ’Yes’ face."
C. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening, Word, 1990, p. 6.
In exhorting us to think about this list of things, Paul writes us here in Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 about having a yes face. He’s not necessarily writing about optimism, per se. He’s not writing about positive thinking. But he is telling us the importance of our thought life on our peace of mind.
Last week, you may remember that we talked about how Paul’s admonition a few verses earlier than this morning’s text – in verse 4, where he encourages us to rejoice in the Lord always – is not simply an admonition to positive thinking. Paul was real about his circumstances – he was genuine. He talked about his hardships, he talked about his suffering. He was real with the readers of his letters, which we refer to today as epistles. He was real with God – remember his prayer – three times, asking God to remove the thorn in the flesh that was causing him suffering?
But let me see if I can draw a distinction between positive thinking, and a positive attitude. Often, positive thinking, especially spiritualized positive thinking, tends to deny reality. For example, I can’t say that I have a headache when I really do, because somehow that negative statement has an impact on my headache. It might prolong it. It might keep God from granting me relief from my headache. At least that’s the way the theology goes. Positive and negative statements somehow create reality.
Yet, Paul says to us, in many ways throughout his letters to the New Testament church, that we can certainly voice our very real sufferings. The Old Testament is full of the language of pain and suffering as well. The Psalmists were honest, sometimes painfully so, about how they hurt. But, the Word is clear that the best way to do this, the best way to be honest, if you will, is in a “glass-half-full” sort of way.
Ideally, we can cite as one of many good scriptural examples of the way to do this, the way Jeremiah did it in the book of Lamentations.
There we see, in chapter 3, Jeremiah starting by saying:
Lamentations 3:1-26 (NIV) I am the man who has seen affliction…
From there, he goes through a long litany of suffering and pain. Then, he tells us in verses 17-20:
17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD." 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
But his thinking doesn’t stop and stay there, does it? Jeremiah continues, after 20 verses of pouring out the details of his suffering,
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
So, what we see here in Philippians 4:8 is a similar idea. It’s Paul’s way of saying, “yet this I call to mind.” It’s Paul’s way of saying what Jeremiah said: “I say to myself.” Paul is telling us here how important what we think is to our spiritual and emotional well-being, and to our peace within. He’s telling us to be intentional about it, even as Jeremiah was intentional about it. “This I call to mind,” says Jeremiah. He made a choice. “Think about these things,” says Paul.
Paul gives us a list of things to think about. I don’t think we should think of this as a complete list of good things to think about - just a representative sample of the kinds of things we are to focus our minds on.
Six items are mentioned as the objects of a wholesome thought life, the kinds of things we should be thinking about. Each one is introduced with the word “whatever.”
In the Greek the word “whatever” is plural, which suggests that several things could be included under each heading. Bible Knowledge Commentary
Paul tells us to think about what’s true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Then, as perhaps kind of a catchall, to cover all these things and more, he tells us to think about those things that are excellent and praiseworthy.
True doesn’t mean not false, or unreliable, but genuine and real. Noble means honorable or morally attractive. Just or right means righteous, both toward God and man. Pure would refer to the high moral character of a person’s life. Lovely has the idea of that which is admirable or agreeable to behold or consider. Of good report has also been translated “of good repute” or “fair sounding.” Virtue, of course, speaks of moral excellence; and praiseworthy, something that deserves to be commended. William McDonald
Then, Paul tells us that it’s important to think about these things.
Think on these things is a strong word, and a favorite of (Paul’s), used by him thirty four of the forty times it appears in the NT. It means “to reckon, calculate, take into account,” and as a result to “evaluate” a person, thing, quality or event. It includes also within the range of its meaning, the ideas of “to ponder or let one’s mind dwell on” something. Word Biblical Commentary
Paul asked them to continuously focus their minds on these things, to give full critical attention to them, and to reflect carefully on them, with the kind of meditation that moves us to action. Paul’s desire was not to ask them only to think about these things, without putting them into practice in their lives. That’s why we’re looking at both thinking and doing this morning.
We’ll see that clarified a bit when we move on to verse 9. The verb think about (logizomai) means to ponder, to give proper weight and value to. The implication in the original Greek is that we are to allow the resulting conclusion of what we’ve thought about to influence the way life is to be lived.
In the followup to verse 7 from last week, which tells us of the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Paul tells us that occupying our minds with this list – these kinds of things - is part of the process of preserving God’s peace in our hearts.
It’s how we cooperate with the garrison – a group of soldiers guarding - that’s the idea behind the word for guard in verse 7.
Presume for a moment that you were the president, and you had a group of men assigned to guard you constantly, to keep you safe. This particular garrison is called the Secret Service. But if you were doing things to undermine their protection of you, maybe trying to sneak away from their watchful eye, they’d have a harder time protecting you.
You cooperate with their guarding of you if you want to stay safe. You don’t sabotage their efforts. You do, or don’t do, the things they ask of you.
In the same way, we cooperate with the peace of God which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus by being intentional about thinking good thoughts.
Feeding our minds on evil, or unwholesome thoughts, or constantly pondering our fears and worries – the things we placed into the worry bag last week - brings just the opposite: a lack of peace.
Paul is, in a way, encouraging us to discipline our minds with right thinking, and this is connected to our peace, or lack thereof.
Os Guinness wrote about disciplined minds in a great little book called Fit Bodies, Fat Minds. Paul is exhorting us here to have fit minds. Disciplined minds. Minds that are trained and used to thinking about the kinds of things that might be included in this list.
Of course, the opposite is true, too - that would also seem to indicate that those things that clearly wouldn’t be on this list, should not be things we should routinely fill our minds with, and certainly, we shouldn’t put ourselves into a position in which we dwell on these things.
So the opposite of things that are true – again meaning genuine and real, should be on our list of things not to ponder so much in our minds. This world is so full of things that are counterfeit and phony.
The opposite of noble, that means things that are not honorable, not worthy of our respect, shouldn’t occupy too much of our thought life. The opposite of right or just – which would be wrong, or unjust – is not worth giving the time and space in our thinking processes. Impure things – not necessarily restricted to the idea of chaste, in the sense of freedom from bodily sins, but perhaps including things like purity in motives and actions – should not be a part of our ongoing thought life.
Lovely things has the fundamental meaning: “that which calls forth love, hence lovely, amiable, attractive, winsome.” Consequently, our minds as followers of Christ are to be set on things that elicit from others, not bitterness and hostility, but admiration and affection.
Admirable is a Greek word found only here in the New Testament, and is translated in different versions with phrases like “of good report,” or “of good repute,” gracious, gracious in the telling, honorable, kindly, high-toned, auspicious.
It is used, therefore, of “expressing what is kind and likely to win people, and avoiding what is likely to give offense.” Word Biblical Commentary
So, things we might think about as Christians which are likely to give offense, are not things we should be filling our minds with. There are clearly things that are not excellent. There are obviously things that are not praiseworthy. These things should not be a regular part of our thought lives. These are not things we should dwell on, mull over, ponder on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, these things are all readily available for us to consume in our popular culture and in our society. And by default, we must think about such things to some degree simply because we will encounter them, and we must deal with them.
There’s a difference, however, in recognizing the reality and existence of these things, and filling our minds with thoughts of them, pondering them, meditating on them. Paul’s telling us we should change our diet. Our thought diet.
Computer programmers will tell you that if you put mistakes into a program, you’ll get mistakes out. Garbage in, garbage out, they call it. Our minds are similar in that respect.
Think about these good things, and again, this is not an exhaustive list, but good things like these examples, and the output of our lives will be positive, and we will have the peace of God. Our thought life will preserve peace, as well as motivate us to Kingdom service. The flip side is, continually feeding our minds with the rot of our culture, dwelling on these things, immersing ourselves in the stink of the world’s sewer. These thoughts will only make our lives stink.
What we put into our minds determines what comes out in our words and actions. Paul tells us to program our minds with thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Do you have problems with impure thoughts and daydreams? Examine what you are putting into your mind through television, books, conversations, movies, and magazines. Replace harmful input with wholesome material. Above all, read God’s Word and pray. Ask God to help you focus your mind on what is good and pure. It takes practice, but it can be done.
Life Application Notes
That brings us to verse 9 of Philippians 4, which follows right on the heels of the kinds of things we are to purposefully think about:
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
We noted earlier that these verses are about thinking and doing. Paul doesn’t separate how we think from how we act, and it’s no accident that he follows this admonition on how we are to think, that is, the kinds of things our minds should dwell on, with an admonition to put into practice our right thinking.
It’s not enough to hear or read the Word of God, or even to know it well. We must also put it into practice. How easy it is to listen to a sermon and forget what the preacher said. How easy it is to read the Bible and not think about how to live differently. How easy it is to debate what a passage means and not live out that meaning. Exposure to God’s Word is not enough. It must lead to obedience. —Life Application Bible Notes
Of course, I’m sure it never happens here at TCF, that you listen to a sermon and forget what the preacher said. But let me tell you something – if you never remembered a word I said to you, but remembered clearly what the Holy Spirit convicts you of during a Sunday sermon, I’ll be delighted. Because sermons here at TCF, like the thoughts Paul encourages us to think in this passage of scripture, are totally ineffective if they don’t have an impact on the way you think, resulting in a change in the way you live, your actions. These things are inseparable. The way you think impacts the way you behave, whether you admit it or not.
Right living results from right thinking. If a person’s thought-life is pure, then his life will be pure. On the other hand, if a person’s mind is a fountain of corruption, then you can be sure that the stream that issues from it will be filthy also. And we should always remember that if a person thinks an evil thought long enough, he will eventually do it.
Believers Bible Commentary
Paul lived what he preached, and he preached with his life. That’s why he was able to say to the Philippians:
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice.
His life spoke more eloquently than his lips. The Philippians can safely follow Paul’s example and exhortation. He urges them to keep on doing and practicing those things;
"converting creed into conduct and profession into performance." - KJV Bible Commentary
Paul’s doctrine or teaching, and his life, were one and the same. What the Philippians saw in him, was the same thing they heard from him. My prayer is that this would be true of all of us. I pray that there’d be no separation between the way we behave, our actions…and the things we claim to believe. When people see we practice what we preach, there’s a lot more power in what we preach to really and truly impact their lives. There’s credibility. We’re believable.
The opposite is true – the world’s hypocrisy detectors are very powerful. The world can spot a phony Christian in a minute – and don’t we hear about it when they do. Let’s not be part of giving the world this kind of ammunition to call us hypocrites.
So thinking is critical, as we’ve noted this morning. But without the corresponding actions, it’s pretty much worthless. James said faith without works is dead. Paul believed that those who tell others to become Christians are obliged to show them what it is to be a Christian. Because there was always such a close connection between the word Paul preached and the life he lived, he could say without embarrassment or arrogance – “look to me. Follow my example. Imitate me.”
Paul considered divine and human action as inseparable. He believed in the sovereignty of God, and he also believed in the freedom and responsibility of man. He could say to the Philippians
“work out your own salvation…for it is God who works in you.”
Our tendency is to try to reconcile these two things as mutually exclusive – things that just don’t really seem to go together…oxymorons, like “airline food,” or “extended deadline,” or “firm estimate,” or “one hundred percent chance.”
Paul did not attempt to solve the mystery of this relationship between God’s sovereignty, and man’s freedom and responsibility. In his closing exhortations in the book of Philippians, he tells us, as we saw last week, that if we have faith, if we exercise that faith by prayer and petition, presenting our requests to God, God will give us peace, which will guard our hearts and minds.
But, even though he exhorts us to faith and trust here, he immediately then moves to this idea that we have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we have to do our part in controlling our minds and our thoughts. What’s more, he says, right thinking is supposed to lead to effort on our part – effort not just to think right, but to do right.
Proverbs 23:7 says: For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
Scottish preacher Alexander MacClaren said “thought molds action.”
One looks round the world, he writes, and all these solid-seeming realities of institutions, buildings, governments, inventions and machines, steamships and electric telegrams, laws and governments, palaces and fortresses, they are all but embodied thoughts. There was a thought at the back of each of them which took shape….our thoughts became visible, and stand round us…Sooner or later what has been the drift and trend of a man’s life comes out, flashes out sometimes, and dribbles out at other times, into visibility in his actions; and, just as the thunder follows on the swift passage of the lightning, so my acts are neither more nor less than the reverberation and after-clap of my thoughts.
Alexander MacLaren
William James said: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.”
Thoughts make deeds. Deeds make character. Character makes destiny.
That brings us to the final thought in these two verses.
It’s a similar final thought, but not a precise repetition of, the end of the passage we looked at last week. Last week we saw that the result of our turning over our anxieties to God, in prayers and petitions with thanksgiving, was that the peace of God would guard our hearts and our minds, in Christ Jesus. That’s what it says in Philippians 4:7.
Today, we see at the end of verse 9, following the encouragement to right thinking and right doing, a similar thought:
And the God of peace will be with you.
The peace of God is shown by Paul to be a direct result of prayer. A direct result of trusting Him to handle our anxieties. In this verse, we see ever more clearly the source of that spiritual power. Last week was an exhortation to joyfulness, and to trusting God. This week, we see an exhortation to righteous thinking, and to righteous endeavors.
In verse 9, it expands on the idea of the peace of God, by promising us the very presence of God, who is the source of the peace of God. It’s interesting that Paul made the point in verse 7 to say that the peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds, and then goes on to say in verse 8 that these are the things we should think of. There’s a clear connection between the two then made in verse 9.
In verse 7, the peace of God is the portion of those who are prayerful; here the God of peace is the Companion of those who are holy. The thought here is that God will make Himself very near and dear in present experience to all whose lives are embodiments of the truth. William McDonald
Paul wrote often of the peace of God and the God of peace. In fact, it became a sort of standard signature benediction for him in many of his letters.
Here’s a list for the note-takers among you:
Rom 15:33, 16:20, 2 Cor 13:11, 1 Thes 5:23, 1 Cor 14:33, 2 Thes 3:16, Heb 13:20
So, Paul began in verse 7 by telling us that we can attain this peace through prayer and thanksgiving. But in verses 8 and 9, he adds other important steps for us. He tells us that the fears, the worries, the anxieties that we face daily can really be dealt with effectively, kept from torturing us, and consuming us emotionally, if we will continually think over these good things, ponder them, meditate on these things that are excellent and praiseworthy, fill our minds continuously with good and true things, and then respond to the shaping of our mind by these thoughts by putting into practice what we’ve learned from the gospel of Christ.
This expression the God of peace means either that God is the source and origin of peace, or is Himself characterized by peace, or both at once. It is an advance in thought over the promise provided in v 7. There it was said that God’s peace would be with them; now it is said that God Himself, who gives peace, or who is Himself peace, will be with them. Word Biblical Commentary
I’d like to read one more passage of scripture as we close, as an admonition to us to follow Paul’s path to the peace of God in our lives.
Colossians 3:1-2 (NASB77) 1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Pray.
