Philippians 4:8
admonishes us to think about things which are true, noble, right, pure,
lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. If you’ve ever sought to
apply that kind of mindfulness, you may have emphasized (as I have
tended to) so-called spiritual things. And you’d have good reason to do
so. Most of the terms employed by the Apostle point in the direction of
our relationship with God through the saving work of our Messiah.
Things that are “true” line up with what God has revealed through his
word. The “noble” things become incarnated through practices encouraged
in the book of Proverbs.
That which is “right” conforms to the standards set by God’s character.
“Pure” things show up in moral behavior that brings glory, rather than
shame, to the name of our God. The vocabulary Paul selected for this
verse has resonance with and allusion to teaching found throughout the
Old Testament.
But two of the terms, “lovely” and “admirable,” come from other
sources. Both words appear only once in the New Testament. Gordon Fee,
in his excellent commentary says, “With this word [lovely] and the next
[admirable] we step off New Testament turf altogether onto the more
unfamiliar ground of Hellenism—but not hellenistic moralism…. This word
has to do primarily with what people consider “loveable,” in the sense
of having a friendly disposition toward.”
In other words, part of the mental discipline of mindfulness or even
“taking every thought captive” could include thoughtful appreciation for
displays of beauty or order or goodness that God has woven into our
world through his general revelation of creation. To be sure, we should
be careful never to elevate general revelation above God’s special
revelation of his word. But to dismiss physical beauty or any pointer to
goodness, grace, and design, would be a failure to appreciate God’s
hand in all of life.
Regarding this word “lovely,” Fee goes on to say, “Here is the word
that throws the net broadly, so as to include conduct that has little to
do with morality in itself, but is recognized as admirable by the world
at large. In common parlance, this word could refer to a Beethoven
symphony, as well as to the work of Mother Teresa among the poor of
Calcutta; the former is lovely and enjoyable, the latter is admirable as
well as moral.”
After hearing his mention of a Beethoven symphony, I felt inclined to
add a long list that includes things like a Dvorak aria, a Van Gogh
landscape, a Monet footbridge, a Richard Wilbur poem, a vibrant sunset,
Edwardo’s Chicago style deep dish elephant garlic pizza, or even the way
a dazzling white azalea plays off the earthen brown deck in my back
yard.
Does this have any connection to the task of evangelism? I believe it
does. Some of our non-Christian friends have a great deal of difficulty
relating to our mentioning of “a personal relationship with God” or
anything that sounds “religious.” But they do see and experience God’s
general revelation all the time, even if they don’t acknowledge the
Giver behind the gift. Perhaps our comments about how “lovely” things
are could pave the way to discussions of where those things came from
and why we, as image-bearers of the creator, find such things so worthy
of praise.
