Feeding the Mind

Finally, brothers and sisters, 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).

This letter has two key concerns: persecution that the church is suffering from the outside, and, under that stress, forms of conflict that threaten to tear this church apart from the inside (like the conflict between Euodia and Syntyche).

Similar dynamics have been repeated frequently. Recent stats suggest the church in North America is shrinking and some believe that our decline is the result of persecution from a decadent society peeling away our members. Under this stress, we easily fall into forms of conflict that threaten to tear the church apart from the inside. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says: “there is nothing new under the sun.”

In the face of such pressures, Paul invited us to seek the Lord’s presence with joy discovering the peace of Christ. Now he asks us to contemplate better things. We shouldn’t let our minds mull endlessly over the problems, pressures, and sins that threaten us from without and within. Rather, Paul invites us to feed our minds with virtuous things that are excellent and praiseworthy.

“You are what you eat,” the saying goes. If we feed our minds a constant stream of junk—ruminations on sin, climate disasters, loathing of the government, gun violence, persecution, mistrust of fellow Christians, despair about the future, and whatever else is wrong—if that’s what our minds constantly chew on, we’re going to get indigestion. And we may very well descend into becoming more and more these things that occupy our minds the most. Thinking too much about sin may inadvertently tempt us into it; mistrusting others, we may become less trustworthy; loathing the government, we may become loathsome; despairing about the future, clouds of despair may haunt our days and nights.

As an antidote, Paul invites us to feed our minds with better things. “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  That is, chew them over, ponder them carefully, let our minds run wild for a while on the best of what virtue has to offer. Such vegetables are far better fare to feed our minds than the empty, sugar-rush calories of bad news. As we ponder these things we may find that we become increasingly what we ingest: thinking of what is true, we align our lives to it. Pondering what is lovely or beautiful, we seek to become more lovely in character. Pondering the right, we become more righteous.

This list of virtues that Paul offers are not explicitly Christian virtues. It is a morality list drawn from the work of the pagan philosophers of the day. The subtle point appears to be this: all that is good and true in this world belongs to God and is a gift of God—no matter who came up with it. And so, as you chew over these virtues, your capacity to see God and His Spirit abundantly at work as the Sovereign King over all creation and creatures is expanded.

Slowly it may dawn on us the God, whose Spirit is everywhere present and at work, even in a secular world and in the atheist philosopher, is also here with me—and how much more so through Jesus!  May that notion give you peace.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.