At various times in my life, I have tried to lose some extra weight. When doing this on my own, I usually just tried to eat less, resulting in being hungry a lot. However, after signing up with a program from work, I’ve learned – or re-learned – that to succeed with healthy eating habits, we can’t just stop eating bad stuff. Instead, we must fill up on good food, instead.
Let’s read a verse from Philippians 4:
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.
Philippians 4:8 NIV
While verse 6 told us not to be anxious, this verse tells us what to fill our minds with instead. Like my dad telling me not to think about elephants (per an earlier article in this series), we can’t just succeed with a list of what not to do. Some people look at Christianity as a list of “Thou shalt not” instructions, but God doesn’t stop at telling us what to avoid; He also tells us what to do as a superior alternative.
There’s a science experiment where you boil some water in a metal can, and then cap it off before letting it cool. After driving out the room-temperature air in the can, when the remaining steam cools, the outside air pressure crushes the can – violently! (I think that the Mythbusters did this one time with an entire railroad tanker car.)
Jesus warned about a similar problem in Matthew 12:43-45 (see also Luke 11:24-26), where merely getting rid of an evil spirit isn’t enough if that spirit returns later to find a person’s heart still unoccupied.
We can’t succeed by merely getting rid of bad stuff. Like a metal can, if we just try to drive out bad thoughts from our mind, or bad intentions from our heart, the pressure from the outside has the potential to metaphorically crush us. Instead, we must fill ourselves with things that are more noble and righteous, starting with the Holy Spirit, Himself.
So, how does our thought life compare to this ideal? Let’s ask ourselves: how do the things that we think about line up with these instructions?
- Things that are true.
- Things that are noble (NIV) or honorable (NASB) or honest (KJV).
- Things that are right (NIV, NASB) or just (KJV).
- Things that are pure.
- Things that are lovely.
- Things that are admirable (NIV) or commendable (NASB) or of good report (KJV).
- Things that are excellent (NIV, NASB) or virtuous (KJV).
- Things that are worthy of praise.
I’m pretty sure that none of the major cable news channels meet this criteria, nor do my online news feeds, nor do a lot of other sources of information that we can find around us. However, those are easy sources of information to consume, so when we’re hungry for something to fill our minds with, these are ready and waiting to step up.
Conversely, it takes work to fill ourselves with good things. Like managing a healthy diet, we know that our lives may include some mental “junk food” (being imperfect human beings who interact with others in a fallen world), but filling up on as many of these good things as possible – as outlined in this chapter from Philippians – helps us resist the urge to dwell on things that are far from God.
So, try a feast from Philippians here, and see if you’re craving the mindless noise of the world less when you do.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for September 17, 2023
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press Commentary, Philippians Colossians & Philemon, by Anthony L. Ash. College Press Publishing Company, © 1994.
Those Who Sin Differently 