Putting Truth Into Practice - Philippians 4:9 Series

Philippians 4:8 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.

Introduction

What is the Best Possible Universe?

I have a question for you to consider: What is the greatest possible world? When you think of perfect paradise – the greatest possible universe, what do you think of? Of every possible world that could conceivably exist, what is the best combination of circumstances - the most beautiful, beneficial, excellent, most spectacular, most awesome and awe-inspiring, most exciting possible universe? Whatever comes to mind – hold that thought and I’ll get back to it in a little bit.

Review

We’re studying through Php.4, we made it to vv.8-9, and last time we made the observation that there are two commands in this passage – think, and do. Verse 8 is all about how God wants us to think, and v.9 is all about how he wants us to behave. He wants us to think about things that are excellent and praiseworthy, and he wants us to put into practice the things we have learned from his Word. And at the end last time I made a point about the fact that those two – thinking and doing – always have to go together. When people emphasize doing and neglect thinking – they focus mainly on the commands in Scripture and don’t pay much attention to the information and doctrine and theology, they fall into moralism. And moralism is a sure ticket to failure in your effort to live the Christian life. You can’t obey the commands without understanding the reasons and motives and history and doctrine and all the rest.

Theologism

So watch out for moralism – that was last time. But on the other hand, many people err on the opposite side. Instead of focusing just on the commands of Scripture and neglecting the information, they focus on the information and neglect the commands. I don’t know if there’s a name for this one, so I’ll make up my own name and call it theologism. Theologism is when you emphasize theology - the facts and truths and principles of Scripture but underemphasize the commands and instruction about how we are to live.

Theologians write books and books and books about the various facts in Scripture – information about God, Satan, man, end times, etc. But very little on how we should live. If you want to know how to improve your marriage, or how to overcome a temper problem or how to defeat lust or increase your joy or self-control or love – you won’t find chapters on those things in theology books.

One popular trend now in preaching is what is known as Christ-centered preaching. I love the idea of Christ-centered anything but one problem with that movement has been that some of the proponents have become so consumed with making sure they talk about the death and resurrection of Christ that that’s pretty much all they talk about. They seem to think that if you just spend enough time thinking about the cross and the resurrection and about the grace involved in redemption you will just automatically live right. And so there’s no need for the preacher to tell you how to live. And if a preacher does – if there’s a whole sermon that emphasizes how to live without mentioning the cross, they call it moralism. (I don’t know how they deal with the book of James, which is an entire book of the Bible that talks about how to live and never once mentions the cross.)

Or another catchword they use a lot is legalism. They make it sound like if you are working hard to obey God’s commands, you are being legalistic. They say, “That’s too much law and not enough grace.” It’s not legalism when we put a great effort into living right. Nor is that moralism. It’s what Jesus taught us to do. Just look at any one of Jesus’ sermons. When he taught, he didn’t just give outlines of theological information. He talked to people about life – about paying taxes and helping poor people and marriage and finances and getting along with neighbors and the right way to worship. He never just lectured on theological abstractions disconnected from behavior.

And the Apostles were the same way. Just look at how the New Testament writers interpret the Old Testament. Huge portions of the OT are just information, without a lot of commands – stories, historical accounts of things God did and things people did. But whenever the NT mentions those things, the conclusion is always something to do with how we should live. They will mention something Abraham did and then say, “Therefore, live like this…” They mention something that God did with the Israelites, or Noah’s Ark, or this event or that event, and then say, “Therefore, live like this…” Scripture is filled with those kinds of arguments: because of this piece of information, live like this. Because of that piece of information, live like this.