As I was
preparing to share God’s word in our home church this morning, I could see very
plainly that God was forcing me to merge what he was speaking through his word
with what I was facing in my life. This is a characteristic of spending time
with God each morning that gives me such comfort in God’s love. He never fails
to teach me things that apply directly to whatever I am going through as an
individual child of God, and what we are going through in the body of Christ.
What settled
into my heart and mind was that the particular passage of Philippians 4:8-9 was
not isolated from the immediate context. While there is huge value in traveling
through God’s word from one verse to the next, we also need to remind ourselves
that these verses are not a whole series of disconnected stepping-stones that
get us through the treacherous rivers of life-difficulties. They are more like
individual jigsaw puzzle pieces that must be understood for their own
life-giving declarations, and put into the picture alongside all the other
pieces of the puzzle at the same time. They both add something to the picture,
and are understood more fully because of the picture.
With that in
mind, I took a step back at the section I have been in for a while and saw a
larger description of a mindset that God is working into his church for his
good pleasure and our complete joy. The present focus on what we think about is
an integral partner with how we pray, what we express, and how we feel. Each
distinctive focus of these two paragraphs of teaching belongs together in one
mindset. We are not called to cycle through these things one at a time, but to
live them out all at the same time.
It is similar
to what we see when we study light. What we mostly see with our eyes is the
fullness of light. It shines, and so all around us is illuminated. However,
when we put light through a prism, we see that light is made up of seven
distinct colors. We first see this in the beautiful expression of God’s rainbow
after a downpour. In school, we see this in science class when we shine light
through a prism. We understand that the single thing we call light is made up
of distinctive colors that are all shining together at the same time. We can
look at them one at a time, but we also know that each one contributes
something distinctive to give us the completeness of light.
Here is a
quick look at how the qualities Paul teaches in Philippians 4:4-9 call us to
live out each of the characteristics he describes as the individual colors of
the spectrum of the Christian life, and how they are combined to give a way of
life that meets everything we face with both joy and peace.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
Our
reasonableness towards everyone is conditioned by where we focus our need for
joy. When we give in to the sarky temptation to find our joy in people, we
become irritable and demanding that people give us the joy we need. However,
when we so abide in Jesus Christ that he is the source of our joy, hence the
one in whom we rejoice always, our joy in Christ is expressed in reasonableness
towards everyone else. It is truly amazing how free we are in our relationships
to others when we don’t need them to make us happy. When our hearts are already
filled with the joy of the Lord as our strength,[1] we
find that our strength in the Lord Jesus Christ[2]
expresses itself in sweet reasonableness towards others.
5 …The Lord is at hand;
Whether this
primarily motivates us in why we ought to show reasonableness to everyone, or
why we should not be anxious about anything, when we put this into the jigsaw
puzzle it appears to help us with both. We live the life we live, whether it be
in expressing reasonableness to all, or refusing to be anxious about anything,
because Jesus Christ our Lord is always at hand. He is always nearby. He is
always “our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble.”[3]We
do not need to choose which parts of our walk with God this most encourages; we
let this encourage everything about our lives, all the time.
6 do not be anxious about anything,
This is a
distinctive characteristic of life in Christ we can obey, but it is also
impossible to obey without obeying what is all around it. The church receives this
as the negative side of positive things. In order to do the positive things
that will fill the church with peace, and to continue the focus on Christ that
fills us with joy, we must agree together that there be no room given to
anxiety.
6 …but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Even the
connecting “but” shows us that the
distinctive color of the spectrum of not being anxious sits side-by-side with
the positive activity of prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, as the means
of presenting our requests to God. While consciously rejecting the sark’s
encouragement to be anxious,[4] we
also consciously turn from those feelings to the activity of presenting our
requests to God. Instead of worrying in that gnawing-on-a-bone way, we turn our
anxious thoughts into prayer requests. In so doing, we do not deny any of the
problems the sark wants to be anxious about, but present all those same
problems to God in prayer, making supplication for our most keenly felt needs,
while giving thanks to God in the midst of all we are going through.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As though
making an addendum to encourage us in making requests to God rather than
wasting time and thought on anxiety, Paul reminds us that the fruit of praying
in the Spirit[5]
is that God’s peace guards our hearts and our minds. We know that this NEVER
happens when we give in to anxiety, but it ALWAYS happens when we unite to pray
in the Spirit, so here is the encouragement we need to keep our focus on
rejoicing in the Lord as the person to whom, and through whom, we pour out our
hearts in prayer to our heavenly Father.
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.
I do not have
space to define each of the descriptive terms Paul uses here. However, the
emphasis is, “think about these things.”
Paul has told the rejoicing church that we are to handle our anxieties with prayer,
supplication, thanksgiving, and requests. But, what do we do when we can’t stop
to pray? What do we do after a prayer meeting where we did pray about
everything that was tempting us to anxiety, but now we go home to the same
relationship problems, the same work concerns, the same inner heartaches and
sorrows, and the same crushing world events?
Paul’s answer
is that the rejoicing-in-the-Lord church that gives no room for anxiety because
it presents all its requests to God in prayer, focuses its thought-life on
righteous things. We handle our anxiety-tempting circumstances in prayer, and when
we are done praying, we direct our thoughts to spend all their time on
excellent and praiseworthy things. Anxious thoughts are not handled by thinking
about them, but praying about them.
The
thought-life of the church is described here. When we are having trouble doing
this, we return to the prayer-life of the church. When the prayer-life of the
church handles things as described, and the thought-life of the church handles
things in its corresponding way, everything is covered.
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things,
Through the
apostles’ letters to the churches, and the book of Acts showing us the Spirit’s
work through the apostles, we can look at specific examples that we can follow.
The apostles did so many things that help us see how to put into practice the
things they teach. Even when we have no other mentors helping us grow in the
Lord, the apostles continue to minister to our lives through the things we have
“learned and received and heard and seen”
in them.
9 …and the God of peace will be with you.
As Paul
encouraged us in our praying with the promise that the “peace of God” would guard our hearts and our minds, he now
encourages us in what we think and do with the promise that “the God of peace” will be with us. In
this comprehensive mindset, with all its spectrum of glorious colors binding
together to lead us in that which fills the church with joy and peace, the “peace of God” and the “God of peace” are with us. The peace
that is in God is in us because the God of peace is with us.
Now, while we
may initially feel that all these qualities are an impossible juggling act
requiring us to keep everything in the air at the same time, they are really
more like the fruit that grows in the church that focuses on this one thing,
abiding in Jesus Christ.[8] When
we abide, or remain, in fellowship with Jesus Christ at all times, these things
Paul writes about are the colors contained in the light that he shines in us
and through us.
We do not
stop abiding in him in order to try to replicate these qualities in our
churches. Rather, as we make everything about us working out our salvation with
fear and trembling because God is working in us both to will and to work for
his good pleasure,[9]
Paul reminds us of the distinctive qualities we can expect to see in our lives
because of our fellowship with God. God is already working these things into us
both to will and to work them for his good pleasure; we simply join his work by
working out our own salvation with the humility of hearts that walk in the fear
of the Lord.[10]
Please look
at my blog for other posts I have presented on this journey through Philippians
4:4-9, and watch for when I upload my video message of sharing these things
with our home church.[11]
We are assured that we can have lives and churches that are saturated with both
the joy and peace of God, so let us help each other set our minds on these
things.[12]
They are, after all, the mindset of the people who have the mind of Christ.[13]
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Nehemiah 8:10
[2]
Ephesians 6:10-20 show us what it looks like to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ,
putting on the whole armor of God, and taking our stand against the evil one.
Such victory in Jesus Christ sets us free to be reasonable in all our dealings
with others.
[3]
Psalm 46:1
[4]
Just a reminder that “sark” is a transliteration of the Greek word our English
Bibles translate as “the flesh”.
[5]
Ephesians 6:18; Jude 1:20 speak of “praying in the Spirit.” I believe that this
is contrasted with praying in the sark, or the flesh. It is not a reference to
praying in tongues, something gifted only to some believers, but to praying in
fellowship with the Spirit, with our minds set on the Spirit, something
available to all believers.
[6]
II Peter 1:21
[7]
II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 3:16 (the point here is that Peter identified Paul’s
writing as scripture)
[8]
John 15:1-11 is Jesus’ beautiful imagery of our abiding relationship in him.
[9]
Philippians 2:12-13 have been a main theme of our home church’s journey through
Philippians.
[11]
I will add the link here when it is available.
[12]
Colossians 3:2; Romans 8:5
[13]
I Corinthians 2:16
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