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Sunday, June 28, 2015

Pastoral Panoramic Ponderings ~ The Mindset of Philippians 4:4-9


          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.
          Rejoicing is both a distinctive expression of our lives, and a characteristic of everything else we do. Whatever else Paul teaches us in these two paragraphs, and whatever else he teaches us about the comprehensive mindset of our life in Christ, rejoicing in Jesus Christ is a constant. Once it is in place, it continues through everything else. 
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,
          Not only do we have wonderful teachings from Paul and the other apostles, and not only do we have these wonderful evidences that these men “were carried along by the Holy Spirit”[6]in the Scriptures they wrote to the churches,[7] but we also have their resounding example of how to rejoice in the Lord always, how to let our reasonableness be known to all, how to replace anxiety with prayers and intercessions, and how to think of what is excellent and praiseworthy.
          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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