Discipleship Week 22: Don't give up...think holy thoughts!

Philippians 4:8-9

“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.”

This is a beautiful exhortation to us to think holy thoughts. The mind is critical to the Christian life. If we do not think through life in light of what God desires for us, we will certainly not live life in light of what God desires for us. Actions always begin with thoughts. The things that we do are always connected to the things that we think. This may be for good or for bad. But actions are always tied to thoughts. This is why the following give and take between parent and child isn’t really accurate:

Parent: What were you thinking?

Child: I…I guess I wasn’t thinking.

Parent: That’s right! You weren’t thinking. Now go to your room and think about what you didn’t think about!

Whatever it was that got the child in trouble, he or she certainly did think of something that led to those actions. Maybe it was thinking about a selfish desire, or maybe it was thinking about rebelling against their parents. There is always a thought process which leads to actions. Which is why Paul calls us in this passage to think holy thoughts. As D.A. Carson notes, “If you think holy thoughts, you will be holy; if you think garbage, you will be garbage.” If we want to live holy lives, as God calls us to do, we have to begin by thinking holy thoughts. So perseverance in the Christian life really does begin first with our minds, then our actions.

Now this idea that actions always begin with thoughts is not a unique idea to Christianity, it is very widely accepted. And it is fairly widely accepted that changing your thinking will change your actions and your life. But the question then becomes, how? How do we change our thinking? How do we think these holy thoughts? Our culture will tell us that we have enough goodness to think these thoughts on our own, so they will look at this exhortation from Paul as a challenge to work hard to raise their thought level to this standard.

However the Scripture is clear that we are incapable on our own of raising our thoughts to holiness. The universal brokenness and sinfulness of humanity (Romans 3:23) impacts our entire being, which includes our minds. So our own efforts to improve our thought life will inevitably lead back to our sinful desires. To use Carson’s terminology, our own efforts to elevate our thoughts only lead to garbage. It is only through the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can have a renewed mind (Romans 12:1-2) that can think about these wonderful, holy things. Holiness in our thought life must, first and foremost, be an act of God, graciously working in our lives.

And yet, we do play a role in our sanctification, we do play a role in this renewal. Part of our role of course is recognizing that the majority of the work of renewal is done by God, and not by us. And yet as we submit ourselves to God and to his sanctifying work in our lives, there are several ways that we can apply this passage into our lives.

1. Think God’s thoughts. Our own thoughts will lead to back to our sinful nature, and then to sinful actions. God is holy, and his thoughts lead to holiness. So instead of trying to elevate our thought life on our own, a far more fruitful work is to begin to understand what God’s thoughts are. One way we can do this is through prayer. A great question that we can pray to God in ANY situation that we face is this: “God, what do you think about this?” If our default thought process is our selfish and sinful desires, asking our Father what he thinks about something is a great way to cause us to slow down before we make a decision (because so many of our foolish actions come very quickly after foolish thoughts!). It is a great way to filter out voices and opinions of others that might be leading us away from God. And it is a great way to orient us away from ourselves and towards God and his will.

2. Saturate yourself in God’s Word. The best way to think God’s thoughts is to read what God has spoken. If our minds are saturated in God’s Word, then we will naturally move away from our sinful mindsets and move towards holy thoughts, because God is holy. The more we have God’s Word hidden in our hearts, the easier it becomes to recall God’s Word to mind when we face difficult decisions and temptations to sin. There are several ways we can take in God’s Word, but I think it important to note here that the task of memorizing Scripture, while daunting and challenging for many, bears great fruit in the Christian life. When we are tempted to sin we often do not have an hour to sit down and read God’s Word to saturate our minds. However the Scripture that we have memorized is already right there, and can be called to mind very quickly to help us think God’s holy thoughts in the face of temptation, which leads to holiness in us. So let us give ourselves to this task!

3. Learn how to think from your spiritual mentors. We often look at our mentors to see how they live, and Paul has made an excellent case earlier in Philippians that we should emulate the spiritual mentors who God has placed in our lives. Here Paul applies that same principle of following the example of strong spiritual role models to the task of thinking holy thoughts. So as you seek to follow the example of your role models, don’t just look at how they live their lives, but also look at how they think. Get inside their heads, and understand their thought processes. When faced with a difficult decision, how do they think through their options? When confronted with temptation, how do they look to God? When experiencing trials and suffering, what do they think about? When celebrating success (or processing failure), where are their minds focused? If holy thoughts lead to holy lives, then it is critical that our growth in the Christian life focuses just as much, if not more, on our minds than on our actions. And learning how our role models think holy thoughts can train us to do the same.

We can persevere in the Christian life by thinking holy thoughts. We can continue to grow in holiness as our minds are renewed more and more, day by day. And while recognizing that much of this is God’s work in us, we still have work to do ourselves. So how do you need to grow in thinking holy thoughts? What leads you away from thinking holy thoughts? Don’t give up in the Christian life, think holy thoughts, and persevere in holiness.