Think on these things
Philippians 4.4 – 9
In
studying the Bible, we are taught that the situation or setting of the writing
is important to consider. Where is the author and what is to happening to him
when he is writing? If a person is in a good place – if so then he will
probably write happy things. If he is in a terrible situation, he or she will
probably write negative things. This passage today is ironic in that just the
opposite is true – Paul is in a terrible situation – he is prison, but look at
the way he writes.
I
love the way the apostle Paul writes especially at the end of some of his
letters. He gathers a bunch of different thoughts and writes them in short
pithy statements. He could write a whole paragraph for each of these
statements, but it is almost like he is running out of papers, so he just
writes a few, powerful words. Listen as
I read Phil.4.4-9.
Phil
4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Phil
4:5 Let
your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
Phil
4:6 Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (and leave them there)
Phil
4:7 And
the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil
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.
Phil 4:9 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.
Did you get all of that? I think the
last verse is extremely important – put these things into practice. That is
really the point of all of Paul’s writing – it is not just some nice things to
read, but these are to do every day in our lives. We will get back to that, but
do not forget this. I am going to go through most of these fairly quickly and
then slow down on one this morning.
Christians are to rejoice in the Lord
always – do you hear me – rejoice. Rejoicing is more than smiling all the time.
We are to have joy in our lives always in spite of what is happening. All of us
have bad days – they start out bad and get worse it seems. But even in those
days we are to rejoice in the Lord. Deep down we know our Lord is at work in us
and through us so we rejoice. Paul is rejoicing while sitting in a horrible
Roman prison, yet he had joy in his life because of Christ.
Then we are to be gentle and let our
gentleness be evident to all people. I wonder how many of these commands are
for the benefit of Paul himself? I think that Paul might have had trouble with
gentleness. Paul was a fighter, and never backed down from those who confronted
him, and neither should we. If he thought you were doing something wrong, he
told you in no uncertain terms. Paul and all of us need to learn to be gentle
with others – even those who might attack us and slander us. Jesus Christ was
gentle, but he deal with those who were doing wrong – think of those who were
making the temple area a den of thieves instead of a house of prayer. The
prison where Paul was held was anything but a gentle place – prison guards are
notoriously violent with their prisoners, but Paul was gentle toward them.
Next Paul makes the statement – the
Lord is near. I do not know whether to take this with the statement before this
or after or as an independent sentence. God is always near us – near enough to
know our needs and cares. The sentence can also mean that the return of the
Lord is near – 2000 yrs ago Paul thought that and wrote it – and the coming of
the Lord is still near – he may come today or tomorrow. The coming of the Lord
gave Paul hope – what he had to endure would be over soon – when the Lord
comes.
Next Paul writes this – read
verse 6 - it is not written in the text, but I think it is understood – and
leave it there. Do not be anxious about anything. Watching the evening news
is makes us anxious, or that is what it is designed to do. Even in the weather
report – Thursday night the man said there was a chance of snow – a slight
chance – so slight that it is hardly enough to be mentioned, but it will make
some of those out there to be anxious so put it in. What will make people
anxious should be brought to the Lord in prayer and left there. Do you think
Paul had reasons to be anxious in that Roman prison? At any minute he could
receive his sentence of death – any minute.
Read verse 7. The
peace of God is his peace - the peace that comes from him. God will saturate
our lives with this peace so we can be at peace. This peace is indeed to beyond
our understanding. I believe the only way Paul could have endured the
imprisonments he went through for the cause of Christianity. No human being has
the strength to endure what he went through without the peace from God in his
life.
As Chrs we must think the best thoughts – those things which
are the truth – when we feel we are being lied to all the time. Think about
those things that are noble or worthy of respect. Think about things that are
right – just and upright. Think about things that pure – those things that are
morally good. Think about things that are admirable and praiseworthy.
We think about negative things – how bad the world is.
We think about immoral things – story of a Chr man who
started to lust after a neighbor – he wished that her husband would die so he
could have his wife – he even thought of ways he could kill the husband.
Finally while reading the Bible he realized how immoral his thoughts were and
stopped them.
We can have “stinkin thinkin” twisted in so many ways.
We can have materialistic or worldly thinking because that
is what we hear all the time on TV, in books, and on the computers. Instead we
are to fill our mind constantly with the right kind of thoughts – from the
Bible, from good books, from Chr radio and prayer.
Finally Paul says whatever you have been taught, received,
heard, or seen in him, put them into practice. This is the plea of every
preacher – story of the minister who preached the same sermon once, twice, and
the third time – when you start practicing that one I will go on to the next
one.
Chrs are to be: Rejoicing in the midst
of terrible wretchedness
Show Gentleness in
the midst of extreme brutality
Live in Hope for
the Lord’s return in the midst of despair
Not be anxious in
the midst of massive worry
Have the peace of God
or from God in the midst of constant terror
Have our minds filled
with Noble thinking in the midst of twisted thinking
These things will make us shine light
for the Lord in a dark world that needs more than anything else to have the
light of Christ.
April
29, 2012
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