Few things cause us more grief in interpreting the Bible than ignoring the context.
It’s true that some statements are pretty clear no matter what the context is. One of those is found in Philippians chapter 4: whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. Paul is not talking about moral ideals. The Greek philosophers believed that the good, the true and the excellent all existed independently of God. The role of their god or gods was to try to implement these in the world. But for the Bible, all these phrases are simply a character description of God himself, and hence of Jesus.
So when Paul tells us to think on these things, he’s really telling us to think on Jesus.
Even though the statement is clear, context still sheds light. The previous verses allude to a serious disagreement between two of the prominent women in the church. Paul had to appeal to them to stop their arguing.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve observed a lot of arguing in the last few months. I guess it’s not surprising, because when a whole society gets under pressure, everyone starts quarrelling.
Quarrelling starts when we begin to think on things other than Jesus. We expect that to happen in the world, but it’s a tragedy when it happens among God’s people. And make no mistake, it has been happening.
It’s entirely acceptable for Christians to have convictions on things going on around them — how to respond to pandemics, how to take political responsibilities seriously. But when we start to fight with each other and trash each other’s opinions, it’s a sign we have fallen into the same problem Euodia and Syntyche had. We’ve stopped thinking on the right things.
When we think more about pandemics and politics than about Jesus, Jesus begins to influence our conduct less than he did before. But the more we think about Jesus, the more other differences between us fall into perspective. We don’t stop holding our views, but we can hold our views without publicly casting dirt on someone else’s or on the candidates they support, or on the opinions they hold about how to live in a pandemic.
Come to think of it, thinking on Jesus more would do most of us a lot of good.
You might even become more like Jesus, in which case people might start liking both you and Jesus a whole lot more.
Why not give it a try?
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AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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