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‘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
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.’
‘Think on these things.’
Php_4:8
But what of spiritual growth? There is a growth in organisations, in spiritual activities, in spiritual fuss, but this is only the scaffolding; the building itself grows but little. What is the remedy? We find it in the first word of our text, ‘Think.’
I. Get time to think.—It is more necessary than many realise; it is indeed absolutely necessary, for without time to think our spiritual life cannot grow. We hear too much of the voice of man. Get time to hear the voice of God.
II. Acquire the habit of thinking.—The mind quickly forms habits just as the body does, and if those habits are habits of idleness, or day-dreams, or vanity, the mind will soon become useless for thinking. Discipline your mind! Keep still and think. Think deeply, and so become deep. Think regularly, and so acquire the habit of thinking.
III. What shall we think?—It is a good thing to drive out wrong and impure thoughts from our hearts—we must do so; but unless we obtain good thoughts to fill their place the evil thoughts will return with sevenfold force. What, then, shall we think? ‘Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, any praise, think on these things.’ That is the great remedy for our lack of spiritual growth. The scaffolding is here; let us build up the spiritual building.
Bishop A. N. Thomas.
THE CULTURE OF THE IDEAL
I. Thus to write, in the capacity of a teacher of religion, was distinctively Christian.—How vital a thing it is, for the great majority of men and women, whose only abstract thinking is about religion, to have purity and goodness consecrated.
II. It is another mighty corrective (and it is required for the efficiency of the first) that we should learn to appraise aright all things true and beautiful. To do this will rebuke our greed, and calm our passions, and strengthen every noble impulse and desire.
III. This advice becomes a Christian teacher still more, because all such thinking leads up straight to the Cross of the Redeemer.—For in the same proportion in which inward things predominate over show and the senses and the world—self-control over appetite, self-sacrifice over indulgence—as purity and love become precious, and vileness more terrible than pain, so does the great life, the great sacrifice, the supernatural personality of Jesus our Lord become at once credible and splendid; and the visage that was more marred than that of any man is seen to be the fairest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely.
IV. One cannot think long upon such matters and continue indifferent to Him.—No; nor fail to confess the need of Him.
Bishop G. A. Chadwick.
Illustration‘Wherever you discern moral obligation or moral charm, the Apostle says not, Do homage to this, nor even, Work this out in your external conduct, though he very certainly expects that both these results will follow. But rather he says, Let it sink in; take stock of it; reckon it up: let your intelligence play upon it—for such is the meaning of his expression. And this is the one thing which we most need to-day, a dominant interest in really high concerns.’