In the amount of time I would’ve spent on Facebook two weeks ago I memorized a verse. I downloaded an excellent app called “Fighter Verses”. It is put out by Desiring God ministries and makes it super easy to memorize Scripture! It is a bargain at $2.99 on the App Store.
Each week has a specific verse that everyone using it is memorizing together. Last week’s happened to be Phillipians 4:8 which says, “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!”
And so I have tried to not just memorize this verse but also to live it out the last couple of weeks. In the process of trying to find things that match all of the adjectives in this verse I have only found a few things that seems to match the descriptions! God our Father, Jesus Christ His Son, the Precious Holy Spirit, and the Gospel of Grace . . .
True? Check! Honorable? Check! Just? Check! Pure? Check! Lovely? Check! Commendable? Check! Excellent? Check! Worthy of Praise? Check! I do not think that Paul is merely driving toward a generic contemplation of nice things. He is not saying, “think about helping little old ladies across the street.” He is not saying, “think about just judges.” He is in context pointing to God as the source of comfort, and peace comes from fixing our gaze on the things that really are worthy of praise . . . And that list is a pretty small and elite list!
Excellent