Think on These Things

4 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

² I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. ³ Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

I’m pumped to lead us back into Philippians and finish our reading of this great letter.  The three weeks before Easter season we overviewed the letter to get ourselves back on track of what Paul was after in writing the Philippian Christians: a) unity in the work of the gospel.  b) Rejoice in Jesus Christ.  c) and Be stouthearted because there’ll be opposition, both without but especially within the church.  Both out there and in our own flesh.  

We paused our reading after v. 7 and now we’re ready to think about vv. 8, 9.  But I wanted to read from v. 1 in order to hear vv. 8-9 in context.  And then to make just one observation from that entire context: We should take in vv. 8-9 within the broad topic of anxiety and peace that began in v.4.  So that when Paul concludes v. 9 with “and the God of peace will be with you” he signals that peace – freedom from anxiety – has been in his mind since v. 4. 

So what is v. 8 – that has to do with peace – about?  The answer in a couple of words: virtue formation.  So that: the way toward peace runs through virtue formation.  

And what is virtue formation?  (For the first time I’m using AI). Virtue formation is the process of developing good character and habits, often through intentional practice and learning, to cultivate positive moral qualities and live a virtuous life. 

Stating that negatively: if you’re a person of poor character (and you will be that if you’re not tending to the content of your thinking and practicing virtue), you’re looking at a stressed, unquiet life.  If someone says, I’m so stressed out.  One of the possible solutions needs to be: you need to become a person of good conduct.

Panning out a little: this combination of the habits of thorough prayer and virtue formation – these are two ingredients to a life of peace, according to 4:6-9… 

… and then adding vv.  4,5: a life of peace, alongside big-heartedness and living in light of God’s ‘at-handness,’ go far to properly “rejoicing in the Lord.”  

And then hearing these two verses within the full sweep of the letter, we could make the point that a church works out their salvation, strives together in the work of the gospel, as they – among other things – pursue moral excellence.

OK, so virtue formation.  Let me quote from a commentary: 

Paul’s list of eight virtues bears a striking resemblance to lists of virtues in Greek literature….Paul ‘has taken over terms that were current coin in popular moral philosophy, especially in Stoicism.  Paul’s challenge to think about these Hellenistic virtues indicates his desire for the church to appreciate all that is good in the surrounding culture.  

Did you get that?  Paul is calling us to virtues that ‘most everyone in those day – whether they were Christian or not – thought of as important virtues.  So, in these couple of verses, the Spirit is summoning us to be good people… as goodness is commonly understood.  So that both the Church and the world can look at us as individuals and say – good man.  Good woman.  That’s a virtuous young man, right there.  That young woman is lovely in every way.  

We’ll just introduce virtue formation today.  Once we get done with Philippians, I want to spend a couple weeks to drill down into these eight words and consider how we are to live.  

Let’s read vv. 8,9 again:

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

V. 8 : Think – set your attention on – these categories of things.  But then, don’t just focus on ideas or ideals, v. 9: practice these [same] things…the very things that were features of the gospel you heard from me and also that you saw lived out in me.

Brothers [and sisters], give attention to your thinking and what is shaping it – what habits, what stories – books, movies, what environments, what symbols, what people, what media, what kind of discourse – are you constantly on YouTube or “X” or political podcasts and hearing rage, scorn, clever put-downs?…   Are you around people and thus being shaped by those who are cynical, unambitious, shady?

But don’t just give attention to what is shaping your thinking, but consciously, even painstakingly… feed your mind with what is true, what is honorable, what is just, what is pure, what is lovely, what is commendable…

Parents, are you buying bookshelves and filing them with stories of courage and perseverance and integrity and repentance? – – or are the stories your kids imbibe filled with crassness, the high and shallow drama of teenage romance, vapid moralism, cynicism?

Ok, details.  Constantly be setting before your consideration: 

what is true; not what is false, two-faced, one-sided, distorted, misleading…

what is noble; not what is base or vile or squalid or juvenile or silly (whoops, there goes a lot of stand-up comedians) … 

what is right; not lingering over and especially glorifying what’s wrong, unsound, inappropriate, unhealthy, sinister…

what is pure; not what’s squalid, corrupt, sleazy, racy…

what is lovely; not what’s uninviting, offensive, nasty…

what is commendable…admirable…inspiring; and not what is raunchy, slick, shady…

Then, Paul summarizes this list of six with two overarching virtues: 

1. think on the excellent things, things that take you away from squabbles and squalor and smut and mediocrity… and toward what is inspired, first-rate, Peyton Manning-esque.  
2. And think on what is worthy of praise – things that takes you away from what is disgraceful, even away from what is merely tolerable or lackluster… and toward true greatness, strength, honor.  

Now in v. 9 – and it’s crucial that you see this to understand the passage – Paul is not taking up a different topic.  He’s still on the same train of thought.  Think about these kinds of things (that was v. 8) – (and now v. 9) the kinds of things are consistent with both the message I brought to you (what you have learned and received from me…that is, the gospel) and what you heard and seen in me, the messenger.  

So, practice these things.  The things you saw in me; the things you heard in my message.  The things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable – excellent and praiseworthy things.  Practice those things.    

So, first think the thoughts.  Then walk the walk.  

Keep setting before your mind what is virtuous.  Then get around that which is virtuous.  Then make a plan to practice them.  

By the way, not a bad template for parenting.  I want to pause here and point out (again) how much great children’s literature there is that can fill your mind with what’s true, noble etc. Especially good fiction can teach truth, which is why our Lord so often used stories that reached our imagination to communicate truth.  

I see what people are reading and I often think, read more fiction.  Not thrillers but “Cheaper by the Dozen.”  “Wind in the Wilows.”  Jane Austen. 

Church: live with excellence.  Live a praiseworthy life.  

Be true – not fake, not false, not dodgy.  But with a deep integrity between your confession and how you speak and react and decide etc.  

Be noble – not silly, not juvenile, not flimsy, not weak.  But dignified, purposeful, courageous, sober-minded.  

Be just – not double-tongued, not taking the easy way out, not dishonest, not blindly partisan, not a bandwagoner, not gossipy.  But honest, above board, ethical, principled, patient, fair.  

Be pure – not double-minded, not bitter, not manipulative, not sneaky, not careless with God or others.  But good, saintly, wholesome, focused, straightforward, genuine.

Be lovely – not morally misshapen, out of balance, disproportioned in character, disagreeable, thin-skinned, aggressive, offensive, stingy, petty, vulgar, cheap, gaudy.  But dignified, cheerful, generous, delightful, interesting, pleasing, priorities and character that are proportionate.  

Be commendable – not a bore.  Or an annoyance.  Or a fraud.  Or a dolt.  But rather be careful to do what is right in the sight of God and man.  Don’t be a “this is who I am, they can take me or leave me.”  

So, yes, in your character aim for excellence.  Strive to be someone of good reputation.  Practice these things.  Figure out the obstacles to overcoming bad habits and installing good habits.  Make a plan.  Develop accountabilities and structures.  Improve.

And the God of peace will be with you.  

Now, Paul says that in what we learned and received from him, that is, the gospel, we have a whole trove of what is true, noble, etc.  So in the final part of this sermon I want to (once again) relay the gospel:

Here is the truth: The Creator made human in his own image – a creature with the ability to reason and name; a creature to rule the creation in behalf of the Creator, bringing to bear HIS wisdom and priorities; a creature who by maleness and femaleness and coming together in male and femaleness would represent God into the world.  The human was made to bear God’s likeness, as God’s son, carrying out this distinctive human calling in trusting fellowship with the Heavenly Father.  

The first human stood at the head of the human race, carried within him all the genetic information of every human to follow, and represented them.  As the federal head of the race, he came to distrust God and made the choice to decide for himself, away from God, what was good and what was evil.  This distrust was fundamentally opposed to the image bearing he had been created for, and in eating the forbidden fruit he fell short of his human calling.  And not only did he fall short – or sin – all those who were in him fell short as he did.  

What occurs when humans walk away from the Source of life?  

What is the verdict after transgression of an eternal and righteous God?

When one incurs the anger of the omnipotent Most High God, what’s the only way this will go down?

When a creation doesn’t fulfill what it was created for, what is the expected result?

The answer to all the above is DEATH.  And one of humanity’s first lessons about death is that it’s a lot more than physical expiration.  There’s a hard to describe, “spiritual” aspect to death that is drawn out – we learn later that it’s a never-ending process – isolating and painful HELL.  

Well, even as the Creator uttered sentences of judgment on the image bearer, he also introduced a coming deliverance.  He’s recorded in Genesis 3:15 telling of a coming Image Bearer – the seed of Eve – who would crush the head of the serpent who had just drawn humanity into death by layering one falsehood on each other. 

Wait, who is this serpent and where did he come from?  Well, from other scripture we can confidently identify him as the Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, Prince of Darkness etc.  We know that he’s a creature – nothing like a parallel to the Creator – and from a couple of Scripture passages we can barely make out that he was banished from heaven for his pride.  

But we do know he was there at humanity’s original falling short…and behind it – he was turning the children of the Father against their Father and he was doing so by saying helpful, compassionate words.  I’m here to help.  And I’ll let you know you can’t trust the Big Guy…he’s trying to mess up your future and keep you small.  

Some long time goes by before God formally begins this project of Devil-crushing.  Between Eden and then, the Serpent had continued to lay traps of falsehood and spread nets of deceit, and the children and grandchildren of Adam had drifted farther and farther away from the truth of the Creator, the truth of who they were as Image Bearers.  In fact, the memory of a Creator had been replaced by stories of pantheons of gods and religions of nature infused with deity and dealings with an undefined occult.  Image-bearers lost sight of God and thus lost track of what they were.

Reaching into one spot of this paganism, God calls a man, Abram, and tells him to leave it all behind, leave his family and homeland behind, and settle in another country.  Even though Abram and his wife Sarai are well past child-bearing years and never been able to get pregnant before, God assures them that they will produce offspring that will eventually become a notable nation, and – perhaps even more incredibly – the blessing: original deep goodness returning to the creation from the Creator – would run through them.  It will be Abraham’s Seed who will crush the serpent and save humanity!

It’s important to note three things: 1) that from the beginning this saving and Devil destroying project of God wasn’t just God doing things, but God regularly setting a course into and through the impossible.  Notice, it’s to the childless couple he promises descendants as the sand of the sea.  All the way through the history of redemption, we keep thinking: this won’t work…this can’t go on…there’s no pathway forward!  

The second thing to note is 2) that it’s not just God doing things, but God repeatedly recruiting people into joining him in what he is doing.  Also, he brings them into hazardous or fraught situations where they’ll have to trust him, and they’ll prove their trust to him by obedience. Trust and obey.  Trust and obey.  Over and over.  As if God is re-setting the scene in the Garden and letting it play out to a different effect.  Will you trust me now?  Have you learned yet?  

The final important thing to note is 3) that God makes it very clear that he is working salvation for all of humanity through Abraham and his descendants… and only through them.  He makes this clear by entering into a covenant with them that sectors them off from all others.

Ok, Abraham’s family grows, God’s project moves forward, though never quite as we’d expect.  They become a nation – ISRAEL – but unlike any other nation their constitution is from God.  We know that constitution as the Torah!  Just think about it: what and binds Israel together as a nation is their trust of and obedience to God as codified in the Law.  Also, they’re given a ritual, an external signifier that they’re in this covenant of trust and obedience with the Creator: all males are circumcised. 

Several things happen throughout the long history of Israel:  

• Even though they are called to be God’s children – a sectored off version of image bearers who will reset the human race, who will create a new track record, who will teach the rest of the world how to worship, what is wisdom etc – – they prove to be just as stuck in the ways of Adam as everyone else.  They’re not Adam 2.0…at their best they’re Adam 1.1  In fact, at their worst, God tells them He knows no society as corrupt as they.  Almost as if God has Israel deliberately making a point: after Adam, humans and God just don’t mix well together.  The more they interact the worse it goes.   
• And yet God keeps drawing near to them.  Instead of forsaking them he keeps renewing the covenant with them, adding details onto what he plans for them and through them.  Not that God lets them do whatever they want to no consequence.  He punishes them, but so that they’ll return to him.  You come to see this side of God that is doggedly patient and merciful.  
• As God through the generations continues to communicate his plans with Israel and through them, details begin to emerge.  Someday there will come an Israelite Man who will embody who Israel was meant to be and – through God – do what Israel was meant to do.  

Sometimes the One to come is called a descendant of King David, a future King of the Jews.  Sometimes he is called the Prophet.  Sometimes a Servant of Yahweh.  This Servant would be the sacrificial Lamb to take upon himself the penalty for the falling short of Israel to their vocation…and the falling short of all the world.  This Prophet would announce the will of God, but even more in Himself would explain God.  This King would free Israel from her enemies but beyond that would destroy the Enemy behind all enemies – the Devil himself.  

Israel – as embodied in this man – would fulfill the destiny given to her when God called Abraham.  

So, Israel is waiting for One to be born in her.  The sign of circumcision on the organ that begins life seems especially appropriate.  Israel is a people looking to a future birth.

Well, you know where things went from there.  In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son – an Image Bearer born to a virgin Israelite woman.  The Spirit inspired correspondents who tell the story of Jesus – especially Matthew and Luke – take pains to show that through Jesus God is both re-playing the original story of humanity and re-playing the history of Israel.  Adam 2.0 has arrived.  The True Israelite is born!  

This Image Bearer is without sin, no deceit is found in his mouth, in every second he trusts God.  This is who Israel and – though they didn’t know it, the world – has been waiting for.  All the covenant promises find their Yes and “Amen” in Jesus Christ.  

This King of the Jews shows himself ruler of creation, demons, even death.  This Prophet reveals God as never before: from now on we’ll know God as Father and Son in the fellowship of the Spirit. 

This Servant lays down his life for other image bearers.  And in the death of Christ, the God of Abraham deals a lethal blow to the old serpent of this world, to the dark powers, to this present age, as he delivers humanity from the chains of guilt by the King of the Jews taking their punishment upon himself.  Not by works of righteousness that we have done [including not by any virtue formation] but according to his mercy he saves us.  

And then, in the Resurrection of the Image Bearer 2.0, a new creation springs out into the world.  Yes, that new creation cascades into the world with saving power, the power of God’s Spirit creating eternal life.  A physical and earthly life still, yet one that isn’t subject to sin or the ravages of corruption.  Above all, a renewed human life that is toward God.  That’s the stuff of Resurrection! 

All people who hear and have believed in what God is doing through this Jesus, Adam 2.0, are the true children of Abraham and heirs of the promises to him.  In the Christ’s resurrection, they are justified as image bearers who belong in and over God’s renewed world.  All peoples of the earth, including the Philippian Christians, as they respond to the gospel are being brought under the ancient Abrahamic promises of blessing and land.  Only now the promise of a particular strip of land has been expanded to all the earth [Romans 4:13].  

Those who hear of Jesus and believe in him are baptized, as Owen was a couple weeks ago.  Baptized into his death and into his life.  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  

Walk in newness of life – which brings us back to virtue formation!  

AMEN.