The Christian In The World
THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD
PHILIPPIANS 4:8-9
What do you fill your mind with?
If the Philippians had a heavenly citizenship (3:20), it was also true that they were resident foreigners in the world. Since their conversion to Christ they had found the world to be an arena of conflict and suffering (1:29). It posed a threat to life and provoked anxiety (2:27,30; 4:6). Its people justified the description “crooked and perverse” (2:15). There was another side to reality in the world, however, to which Paul directs their attention in 4:8. The term “whatever” must not be watered down or limited to aspects of thought and life which are distinctively Christian. Paul commands the believers to recognize everything that is humanly true and good in contemporary society as a focal point for thoughtful consideration. Elements of truth, purity, beauty and moral excellence in culture provide control and direction even for the pagan. They are to be appreciated as expressions of God’s common grace by which he restrains chaos and enriches human life. When the world knows what is good, the Christian must know it as well. Paul therefore commands, “Think about these things.”
Complementing God’s common grace is the deposit of Christian truth given to the church as an expression of his special grace. Paul defines this deposit in terms of the tradition which the Philippians had received from his teaching ministry and had seen embodied in his personal ministry (4:9). The world frequently knows what is good but fails to do what is good. What the Philippians have learned from Paul is that knowledge of the good demands performance of the good, because only then is this a knowledge of God. When the apostle commands, “Do these things,” he is echoing his earlier call to “hold true to what we have attained” (3:16) and to imitate his example (3:17). These constitute the conditions under which Christians may walk with the God of peace in the world.
Thought Consider what you watch on television and the internet in the light of these verses.