00:00:00:32 – 00:00:22:28
Clint Loveall
Hi, friends. Good to see you. Thanks for being with us. We continue through Philippians. We’re in the fourth chapter here. I think, really well-written passage here, one that gets quoted often, one that I think is pretty well known as Paul, moves toward the end of the letter. In fact, he starts today’s passage with the words finally. So I jump in and read a few verses.

00:00:22:28 – 00:00:52:54
Clint Loveall
We’ll come back and and talk them through. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

00:00:52:58 – 00:01:25:15
Clint Loveall
A wonderful encouragement and a teaching, a challenge to put before these Christians in Philippi to put their minds on what is good. And the list of words here is impressive. I think most of them translate pretty well to English. Noble, good. Just pure. Pleasing. Commendable. I think it’s not difficult for us to get a sense of what Paul is saying here.

00:01:25:15 – 00:01:51:32
Clint Loveall
If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, and I will say the one interesting word piece for me at least, is the word that we translate think. The root word there is is our word for logic, and it essentially means to compute or to take into account, to regard. And so it, it’s not just a mental task here.

00:01:51:37 – 00:02:17:02
Clint Loveall
It is to reflect on those things. It is to incorporate those things. It is to engage those things and make them a part of one’s life. So not just a call here to o think about good, to dwell on them, to be involved in them, engaged with them, make them a part of your thinking. And, I don’t know if you have anything to add, Michael, really.

00:02:17:09 – 00:02:19:07
Clint Loveall
I mean, a great list.

00:02:19:12 – 00:02:47:12
Michael Gewecke
So this is a tough kind of text to study, if I’m going to be honest with you, Clint, because there’s a way in which Paul is taking some of the best of the Christian faith, and he’s just throwing it and the kitchen sink with us at the same time. And so what is a really tempting thing to do is to just make a t shirt with this on it, and then to move on.

00:02:47:16 – 00:03:12:15
Michael Gewecke
And and I think that’s a real mistake because when we are practicing discipleship, and what I mean by discipleship is that we when we are waking up day over day, and we are greeted with the question, how am I going to become more Christlike today by the power of the spirit working through me? How am I going to live out Christ’s way in the world?

00:03:12:19 – 00:03:37:18
Michael Gewecke
Well, the truth is, most of us start here in verse two. Most of us start with a Yoda and Cintiq kind of moment, right where there’s a problem I need to solve. There’s a difference that I have with someone else. There’s some kind of drama that needs to be navigated. This is a very normal part, a baseline of any human life.

00:03:37:22 – 00:04:19:38
Michael Gewecke
And we’ve taken this journey that we’ve been on for the last couple studies, and now, boom, we land right here in verse eight. And it would be so easy to read past these words and say, wow, that’s really beautiful. And yet I think there’s an invitation here. If we slow down long enough to discover that this is a rubric for Christian thought, it’s a rubric for what we practice with our minds and calling each and every one of us in this effort and desire to bring captive our thoughts to the things of Jesus Christ, would do well to recognize this is not just a beautiful thing to hang in the wall in your home, but

00:04:19:38 – 00:04:53:04
Michael Gewecke
to recognize this as an active, trusted, tried, true ledger, a rubric, a dashboard sign that we can consult on any given day and should consult on any given day. Asking is what I’m considering. Here it is. What’s shaping my imagination there? Is it true? Is it honorable? Just, pure, pleasing, commendable? Is there excellence in it? And I don’t think I really need to turn this towards you who are with us.

00:04:53:04 – 00:05:19:18
Michael Gewecke
I need to turn that towards me. It’s already turned that right. When we read this text, we already asked the question. Wow, is what I’m considering going to hit the bar of excellence? Clint, so often an honest person, myself included, will say, no, it doesn’t. And that’s the invitation to discipleship, to growth, to challenge, to change. And this text is a beautiful invitation to that new way of being.

00:05:19:22 – 00:05:21:27
Michael Gewecke
And it’s easy to pass by it.

00:05:21:32 – 00:06:05:18
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I would say not only invitation, Michael, an incredibly difficult challenge to keep our mind focused, our heart focused on those things that are, you know, as is said in other parts of the Scripture above, those things of up, those noble things. The other thing that I think is interesting is that Paul shows a tremendous amount of trust to the believer here that we are capable of discerning such things, that we are able to kind of, in general, know what’s good, what’s pure, what’s commendable, and yeah, I think it’s well said.

00:06:05:18 – 00:06:40:10
Clint Loveall
I think you make a good point. You might expect Paul to go on and say, and don’t do this, this or this, but if you stick to the do, the don’t is covered, right? I mean, if we aspire to this, we shouldn’t have to worry too much about the other things like gossip and slander and judgment. Because if we could keep our minds in our lives somewhere within this list of incredibly deep and challenging words, we would be fine.

00:06:40:15 – 00:07:03:11
Clint Loveall
Which then I think is sort of the transition here. As Paul says, keep doing the things that you’ve learned and received and heard and seen in me, which is basically to say everything you’ve seen in me and and that, I’ve visited with people through the years who think that it’s a little uncomfortable, that Paul would say, just keep imitating me.

00:07:03:16 – 00:07:21:20
Clint Loveall
But, I don’t think that comes from a place of arrogance. I think Paul knows that these believers look to him as not only a teacher, but is an example. And he’s essentially saying, look, if you’ve seen any of the good in me.

00:07:21:25 – 00:07:48:07
Clint Loveall
God be praised and keep doing that can continue to strive for that as he does himself. So, yeah, not not a I mean. I think you’re exactly right. You could easily read by these words and think that it’s a nice passage without feeling the heavy weight of how challenging it is for each of us.

00:07:48:12 – 00:08:16:01
Michael Gewecke
You’re exactly right to point to what I think is an incredibly subtle and yet unbelievably important transition in the text, because you go from think about these things which, to be clear before we move on, is just to say, Clint, that lands really, if you’re a person who is prone to anxiety or or fear of all kinds, often times it’s the practice of the mind.

00:08:16:01 – 00:08:45:19
Michael Gewecke
You just roll those things over so you could just stop right here in the text. You just stop right there. You can say, my challenge is going to be for that thinking pattern to reflect truth, honor, just justice, purity. You know, this becomes an opportunity. But we keep going. And you’re exactly right, I think, to point out, keep on doing this is where if you didn’t get caught in the first net, you are absolutely caught in this net.

00:08:45:19 – 00:09:16:06
Michael Gewecke
Because fundamentally, it’s not just a thinking equation. And this is where Christians quite frankly, Clint, we have got it wrong historically. We get it wrong today. We think about the faith as if it’s just a set of rules or propositions, as if, you know, we could deliver to you a multiple choice test, and that if you could answer between A through D, you could answer all 100 questions, get 100 of them right, then boom, you’re in.

00:09:16:06 – 00:09:37:22
Michael Gewecke
You’ve made it. You’re now functioning in the Christian life. That’s in no way reflected in the texts that we get from Paul, because here, keep on doing the things that you’ve learned and received and heard and seen. What are they seen in him? Remember he we’ve already talked a great length about how Paul, writing from a position in prison.

00:09:37:22 – 00:10:03:37
Michael Gewecke
Right. Paul’s in a very, very difficult ministry and life moment right now. So when he says, be like me, he’s not saying go and get really fancy things and live your best life. He’s saying even in humility, even in struggle, even in the midst of real difficulty, there’s something that can be modeled and seen in me. And I think we are so quick to take a text like this and say, well, that’s beautiful.

00:10:03:52 – 00:10:25:44
Michael Gewecke
And then we keep reading to the next section. But friends, it either transformation in our thinking, in our mind, or we get to the equation of asking so what? Therefore am I doing? Is it reflective of what Christ has done and what Paul’s a mentor and model to show us? It looks like in a different person skin. That’s the question that this text is inviting us to consider.

00:10:25:44 – 00:10:55:33
Michael Gewecke
And many people, I would say Clint would recognize this text. Many may even say it’s among their favorite passages of Scripture. What is unbelievable about it, I think, is how practical it is. It’s beautiful, yes, but this is one of those things that King shouldn’t be the kind of beauty that sits in your, your China hutch. This is the kind of thing that should be out and used in your home, in your life.

00:10:55:33 – 00:11:00:14
Michael Gewecke
Because this is a golden tool given to us by Scripture itself. Yeah.

00:11:00:16 – 00:11:37:48
Clint Loveall
I mean, if you boil it down very simply, think about good things and do faithful things you’ve seen in other faithful people and I ordered a clarion call for the Christians here. I, I would just, maybe two little things. Michael, contrast these opening words to, you know, the time in which we’re living, in which one of our temptations is always to put our mind on negative things, to put our mind on lesser things, or earthly things?

00:11:37:53 – 00:12:11:21
Clint Loveall
It it is a it is no small feat to keep one’s mind attached to what is just and pure and noble and pleasing and commendable. That’s a tough ask at any point in human history. Yeah, but as we now live in an era of just a firehose of of news, of information, of communication, much of it negative, it may be as challenging as ever to keep these words in mind.

00:12:11:25 – 00:12:37:28
Clint Loveall
And then the only other thing, the last thing I would say here is that Paul closes again with the the God of peace will be with you. And just if you’ve been with us the last couple of days, we started this series of three passages with a conflict between two women in the church, and in both of the follow up passages, Paul has made an appeal to peace.

00:12:37:33 – 00:13:04:51
Clint Loveall
In yesterday’s passage. The peace of Christ will guard your hearts and your minds. The peace that passes understanding. And today the God of peace will be with you again. Paul is not heavy handed here, but he is preaching. He he is addressing this conflict in a very gentle way, saying, I hope you ladies will get it sorted out, that it is that there is should be peace.

00:13:05:04 – 00:13:33:09
Clint Loveall
And here think about good. Put into practice what you’ve seen and the God of peace will be with you. And so, even in the things you don’t think maybe are carrying much weight, Paul has, I think, something in mind. And it’s, Paul is, I think he’s behind the scenes here, but I think he’s no less addressing the real situation.

00:13:33:19 – 00:13:59:08
Michael Gewecke
And sometimes, unbeknownst to us, our culture and our assumptions have a way of shaping what we think a text means until we see it from a different perspective. So I just want to point out to you this Philippians chapter four, verse eight is begun in this idea of a relational struggle in the midst of a congregation. And the point I want to make in that is there’s a communal aspect to the problem.

00:13:59:13 – 00:14:25:59
Michael Gewecke
So the context of what is being said here should help us understand when he says, you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, God, peace will be with you. Is this is not just an individualized text. We make that mistake sometimes. This isn’t just about what you individually think about. That’s important. Obviously. Obviously what we submit our individual minds to is in view here.

00:14:26:04 – 00:14:55:26
Michael Gewecke
But it’s not just that I submit to you, the people who are being encouraged to think differently, in fact, to apply what they think against true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, etc. that’s the whole congregation. That’s the whole body who Paul’s already tasked with. Hey, help our sisters in Christ as they’re working through this difficult thing. So another way to look at this text, Clint, is this is also, in a way, reflective of what we are doing as a Christian, right?

00:14:55:26 – 00:15:24:50
Michael Gewecke
What we’re preaching, how we’re conducting ourselves in our study, in our service, in our interactions with one another church. It’s full of moments where we get it right, and there’s beautiful dialog and grace and mercy and love. And whenever you have those moments, you say, thanks be to God, because that’s a gift that we are given whenever you experience it, I submit to you this is the kind of thinking that led to it, and I think that it’s become based upon the church community, congregations.

00:15:24:50 – 00:15:48:48
Michael Gewecke
Wherever you are joining us for this study, wherever you’re planted, wherever you grow, it is the body’s work to prioritize this kind of thinking, because that’s the kind of thinking that will ultimately lead to to God’s peace at work in our midst. And that’s an amazing promise. And I think we might miss if we override texts like this to be too individualistic.

00:15:48:50 – 00:16:01:28
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think said another way, Michael. We are called both as individuals and corporately to enact the mind of Christ, to pursue the mind of Christ and all that it entails. It’s, that’s really good.

00:16:01:33 – 00:16:20:04
Michael Gewecke
We are glad that you would join us for, even if it is only two verses, verses that are packed. Yeah. And, we hope that it’s been encouraging, challenging and substantive for you today. Certainly. Give this video a like if it’s been helpful for you and your study helps others find it in their own. And of course, subscribe so you don’t miss studies like this.

00:16:20:04 – 00:16:21:57
Michael Gewecke
We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

00:16:22:01 – 00:16:22:28
Clint Loveall
Thanks.