Think About These Things, part 1

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." - Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV)

There is not one wasted word in all of the Bible. Every term, every verb, every noun, every adjective... each one drips with meaning and depth and purpose and life. That's why I'm not a big fan of surface skimming over Scripture. There are facets of meaning in there that we can easily fly over if we fail to stop and dig a little.

The passage above is one of my favorites. It speaks to my heart in a very personal way. It says to me, don't worry about a thing. Follow God and His ways, and find peace. Don't fret and worry... think about God and His ways (after all, can you think of anything more true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy that God - the creator of all good things?)

This week, I want to dig a little deeper into this passage. I want to capture the depth of meaning to some of the key words (so much depth can be lost in translation). I realize there is no way I will mine this vein in one week. A pastor could pull a year's worth of sermons out of these two verses. There are a lot of factors, such as the frame of mind of the person doing the study.

For example, community has been in the forefront of my thoughts lately as I've been preparing a lesson for church on the subject. What is community and why is it so important? It goes back to the essential question: why am I here? What is my purpose? Our original created purpose is found in Genesis:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." (Genesis 1:26a, ESV).

Notice the plural there: in our image and likeness. We are created in the image of the Triune God. And Father, Son and Holy Spirit do not exist in a vacuum. They relate to one another. So we, being created in God's image (the Hebrew word is "tselem," which means not only likeness, but indicates we are to be His representatives) means we are created to glorify God. And we do so in community. We are to relate to one another, to have fellowship with one another, to welcome others to believe and belong. And the one common factor drawing us together in this God-initiated community is God Himself through Jesus Christ.

So... what does this have to do with Philippians 4:8-9? We're human: faulty, failed and easily distracted. We need to remember why we are here, what our created purpose is. We live to bring glory to God. And we need to remember Who God is. We do this by keeping God and His goodness in the forefront of our thoughts, and acting on what we have learned from His word.

But it isn't just thinking about God. More thoughts on thinking and just what Paul means by that word when we pick this up next time.