THINGS TO THINK OF
‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and it there be any praise, think on these things.’
Php_4:8
St. Paul here tells the beloved Philippians what things to think of, what to value, what to practise in their lives.
I. Things true.—‘Whatsoever things are true.’ The word has a fuller and deeper meaning in the Bible than it now has. Truth with us means the opposite of falsity in speech, but in Scripture it means the opposite of all unreality, all sham. St. Paul bids them think habitually of all that is real; on the substance, not on the shadow; on the eternal, not on the transitory; on God, not on the world. ‘Whatsoever things are real’—God, the Soul, Eternity, the Gospel of Jesus Christ—‘think on these things.’
II. Things honest.—‘Whatsoever things are honest.’ The word in the original means ‘noble,’ ‘grave,’ ‘reverend,’ ‘seemly.’ It is an exhortation to dignity of thought as opposite to meanness of thought. It invites to the gravity of self-respect. Nothing becomes too bad for men who have lost their self-respect. Why is this sea of life strewn with hopeless wrecks? Could the unmanly man, the unwomanly woman, have sunk to such depths of loathsome degradation if they had ever thought of whatsoever things are honest? There are no words of counsel more deep-reaching than these, especially to young men and women.
III. Things just.—‘Whatsoever things are just.’ Justice is one of the most elementary of human duties, and one of the rarest. Try to be, what so few are, habitually fair.
IV. Things pure.—‘Whatsoever things are pure.’ Ah! that this warning might reach the heart of every one of you, and inspire you with the resolve to banish from your minds everything that defileth. Impure thoughts encouraged lead inevitably to fatal deeds and blasted lives.
V. Things lovely.—‘Whatsoever things are lovely.’ Winning and attractive thoughts that live and are radiant in the light. If you think of such things, the baser and viler will have no charm for you. Try, then, above all, ‘the expulsive power of good affections.’ Empty by filling—empty of what is mean and impure by filling with what is noble and lovely.
VI. Things of good report.—‘Whatsoever things are of good report.’ The world delights in whatsoever things are of ill report—base stories, vile innuendoes, evil surmisings, scandalous hints; it revels in envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. If you would be noble, if you would be a Christian man, have nothing to do with such things.
There is no nobler character than the man who knows the awful reverence which is due from himself to his own soul; who loveth the thing that is just and doeth that which is lawful and right in singleness of heart; who keeps the temple of his soul pure and bright with the Presence of the Holy One, who hates all that is ignoble and loves his neighbour as himself.
—Dean Farrar.
Illustration
‘This text opens a curious and delightful glimpse for us into the real nature of the genuine St. Paul. Some men think of him as a dogmatist and controversialist, absorbed in the interests of a few beliefs. Upon him, they will tell you, the vision by Damascus burned and branded two or three essential dogmas, so that ever since he has clung to these, for the dear life of his soul, regardless of everything beside. And some think of him as an expositor of the crabbed Hebrew type, finding odd, not to say exaggerated, correspondences between the Old Testament and the New. Sturdy dogmatist and subtle expositor he was; and I for one thank God for him in both capacities. But most of all for this, that in him these were means for a much greater end; and that end was character, the nursing and making operative of the ideal—which he indeed never spoke of as the ideal, but by a much finer and more vital phrase, as “Christ in” him, and “Christ formed in” his children.’