You better THINK

 Read Philippians 4

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord.  If Paul thinks he should say it twice, who am I to argue.

Don’t be anxious.  Don’t worry about anything.

Be thankful.

Present everything to God in prayer and petition.

OK, I get it.  Thanksgiving, prayer, joy, and not being anxious, I get it, but how do I keep my mind from wandering? How do I focus on the right things?

I used to counsel inmates who had drug problems and sometimes they would be close to getting out—their release date, not a well-thought-out escape plan.

I would begin with open-ended questions.  What are you going to do?

It was a well-rehearsed response.  I won’t use drugs or alcohol. I’m staying away from bad influences. I may have to move to someplace new.  I will get a job. I will take care of my kids.

These, of course, were all the right answers, but mostly worthless answers.  I had follow-up questions.

Where will you live?  Parents? Half-way house? A clean and sober friend? What about your wife and kids?

What jobs are available where you want to go?  Back in those days, you actually had to look for a job as opposed to now when nobody wants to work and jobs are everywhere.

Drugs or alcohol were a big part of your life, what will replace them?

At this point, I have become the mean guy.  I’m asking questions that have been avoided for years.  Welcome to the club.  I will do the same this morning.

Consider Paul’s words.

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.  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.

Those are some good words—downright poetic, don’t you think—but do they have any value for us?  Of course, they do, they are from the Bible, right?

Whether they have value for us depends on how we put them into practice.  Will we make them fit into what we are already doing, or will we use them as a model and a filter for our decisions?

Is this the right choice?  In the light of all truth, will it honor God?  Will it bring glory to God or is it just what I want?

Am I just satisfying my own ego and desires?

What are these words—noble, pure, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy?

Paul gives us familiar words to frame our response to grace, what he called working out your salvation.

Is it noble to cuss out someone?  Usually not.

Are my motives pure when I am only considering my anger about a situation?  Probably not.

Hold on.  I’ve got this next one.  I do a lot of things that are considered admirable. Admirable by whom?  By the world or by God?

Many of you are thinking, those inmates were right.  He is the mean guy.  Why does he ask us to think so much?  I’ll go with my gut, even though it may really be my ego and anger or even my fear that I am calling intuition.

I’ve got this next one—whatever is excellent.  I don’t do anything half-hearted, half-way, half-whatever.

Oh no, here comes the follow-up.  Does that include forgiveness?  Does that include loving your enemies? Does that include helping someone carry their load even if we don’t like that someone?

I know.  I’m just the mean guy. Actually, I’m just asking you to read what Paul wrote with special attention to the main verb—think.

What about praiseworthy?  You have already figured this one out.  Praiseworthy in God’s eyes or in man’s eyes?  It can be both.  Some things that we choose to do can be both.

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.  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.

Paul’s counsel here is to think on these things.  These are your mental boundaries.  This is your paradigm—your navigational framework. Think within that framework.

You still need to do the thinking. I don’t mean just memorizing the verse.  Think!  I might decide to do my Aretha Franklin special now.

Paul noted that he had given both counsel and an example.  Now it was the church in Philippi’s turn to work these out—to work out their salvation with a general framework and a filter for their decisions.

So, his counsel is both guidance and post-decision filter with a very demanding verb--think. If you have even studied ethics, you find that you have ethical guidance but you also apply an ethical filter on the back end to validate or invalidate what you thought was ethical.  In the case of Paul’s counsel, we use his words as a filter to see if we are applying good thinking.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Paul challenges us to work out our salvation using our sound minds.  If it’s the most important thing we will do—remember our discussion about fear and trembling—then it’s worth using our sound minds and even investing the time to think.

Yes, just call me the mean guy, asking you to think in a world given to emotional responses labeled as thinking and blinded to the red herrings and nonsequiturs that roam so freely in modern discourse.

When you are hating on me in your hearts and minds, remember, Paul is the one challenging you to think.  I agree with him, but you might just have to contend with two mean guys.

So, when you are having lunch this week or taking a break from working in the heat and someone asks you what was the sermon about, you can say that you were challenged to take the counsel of the Bible and think.  You are challenged to think.

Amen.