Sermon Tone Analysis

Learning to Better Discipline Your Mind

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Characteristic of the most effective Public Servants is a hugely disciplined mind.

Their ability to stay on point is because they have learned to think (usually very quickly) before they speak.

But even more fundamental than that is their habit of thinking about the right kind of things in the first place: they have learned to dwell on certain things and not allow their minds to dwell on the wrong things.

With that in mind, this week I would like to take a closer look at .

This is a passage I have been meditating on for several years now and it has greatly helped me.

I think it will help you too.

It unlocks guidelines as to how one ought to discipline, manage and care for his mind.

How do godly people think?

What should be going on in your mind?

What habits should be forming in the maintenance of our minds?

That organ inside your skull is an incredible asset given to us by our Maker; it stands to reason that we should be good stewards of it.

How one ought to care for and manage his mind is in essence the subject of this passage and this week’s study.

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Ralph Drollinger

I. INTRODUCTION

APPEARS near the end of Paul’s epistle to the Church at Philippi, which is the first church he planted in Europe, more specifically Macedonia (now northern Greece).

This is a letter characterized by joy.

In that the letter is very practical (as illustrated by the verse we will examine) it does provide one of the most profound passages on the humanity and humility of Christ (chapter 2) as well as insights into false teachers (chapter 3).

Overall, herein is a love letter of praise and thanksgiving to one of Paul’s favorite churches.

Repeatedly throughout my walk with the Savior I read this small epistle and find myself refreshed and encouraged as a result.

I trust the same is true for you.

Let us now turn our attention to 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if any­thing worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

In closer context, this passage follows and contrasts Paul’s command to be anxious for nothing (v.

4:6).

In place of anxiety (merimnao) (this Greek word is best understood as “unconscious blasphemy”) the Apostle in this previous passage delineates the manifestations of his and other’s spirituality: joy, prayer, thanksgiving and peace.

These four elements appear in chapter 4 just prior to the verse of study, verse 8 as recorded above.

For an individual in the capital to possess a strong spiritual maturity, a peace of mind, a Christ-empowered confidence, these elements must be depicted of him on a continual basis.

How is that achieved?

Primarily and positionally by one making and possessing peace with God through personal faith in Christ, and being richly filled with the Holy Spirit.

But secondarily and practically it is achieved through the constant, repetitive training and disciplining of one’s mind.

In the study of Satanology (all that the Bible has to say about Satan) the informed, mature believer realizes he is in a spiritual battle.

More importantly, it is critical that he understand where the battleground lies: The believer is in a constant battle for the mind!

States in this regard:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

states stereophonically For our struggle is not against flesh and blood . . .

In Satan’s battle for the mind is illustrated by what Jesus states relative to Peter’s misguided thinking: But turning around and seeing His disciples, He [ Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

It follows from this analysis that the victorious Christian need possess a mind that is not only Spirit-controlled by God, but highly disciplined by self.

What follows in 4:8 are eight of these qualities that the believer need dwell on — be highly mentally disciplined regarding.

The main verb (an imperative verb meaning this is a command from God), i.e. the action required by God of the believer in this passage is specifically to dwell (logizomai) meaning, “to recon, consider, take into account, calculate” in an ongoing sense the eight virtues preceding the command.

But before examining each of the characteristics in detail, notice the succeeding context in 4:9; in fulfillment of 4:8 Paul immediately pleads for the Philippian believers to imitate him!

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

4:8 and 4:9 are not disjoined comments.

It is to say that the mental disciplines — the virtues of godly, mature thinkers as listed in 4:8 — are more caught than taught.

Who in your life emulates the eight characteristics that flow from 4:8?

I dare say their personal example is more of an impetus to your spiritual maturity than memorizing and meditating on the list that follows (as important as that is).

Whereas Scripture didactically communicates, another’s personal life persuades and influences; a godly example is often more powerful in terms of another’s bringing about change versus what is read.

That is why one should attend Bible studies and build close relationships with other mature believers.

Choose today to build friendships with godly individuals because their virtues will rub off on you! (; contr.

).

One becomes like the friends he chooses.

(I might add that if you are a parent, you must choose your children’s friends for them.)

Let us now turn our attention to the passage.

J.B. Lightfoot in his commentary on Philippians provides aiding insights into the order and relationship of this seeming random shopping list of eight virtues.

He states,

Speaking roughly, the words may be said to be arranged in a descending scale.

The first four describe the character of the actions themselves, the two former being absolute, the two latter relative; the fifth and sixth point to the moral approbation which they conciliate; while the seventh and eighth in which the form of expression is changed are thrown in as an afterthought, that no motive may be omitted.1

Take time to digest what Lightfoot is saying by going back over the passage.

Make those relationships of the aforementioned in your mind not only now, preliminarily, but as you now study each of the eight that follow.

A. WHATEVER IS TRUE

Paul’s circumscription (def: “the property of having limitation in space as opposed to omnipresence or infiniteness”) and understanding of truth is that which is confined to God’s revelation in Holy Writ (cf. ).

As a Public Servant you can rely on a poll or consensus for ascertaining public opinion; one can rely on science or psychological data, but be sure of this: sources of truth apart from the Scriptures possess varying levels of certitude: Keep in mind that polls change daily.

Science once believed the world was flat.

Shock treatments were once routinely administered.

Bloodletting was thought to cure disease.

Doctors used to perform frontal lobotomies.

But the Bible is immutable and veracious because it is breathed by God Himself (; ).

WISE IS THE LEADER WHO DWELLS ON SCRIPTURE — WHO POSSESSES A LIFELONG HUNGER FOR ITS MIGHTY FORTRESS OF ALWAYS-RELIABLE, ALWAYS-CERTAIN TRUTH

The prophet Jeremiah bespeaks of his understanding of this, his manifest personal discipline, where in 15:16 of his book he states, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, o lord God of hosts.”

Have you been called by God to public office?

Are His truths foremost in your mind and in your votes? is an apt summary of this mental orientation, this absolute presupposition relative to intellectual well-being and proper functionality.

Jesus states, “Sanctify them in truth; Your word is truth.”

What a tragic disconnect — a tragic testimony too I might add — when someone names the name of Christ in the Capitol, but His truths are not characteristic of his or her thinking or the way he or she acts or votes.

In the wisdom of Proverbs, in a largely verbal culture, truth had to do with true speech as opposed to a lie or deceptive speech (cf.

).

This insight makes for another practical application point: Go to great lengths to discipline your speech in terms of truthfulness.

Do not exaggerate, speculate, provide false impressions or mislead.

Do not be disingenuous or opportunistic in your speech.

Remember the definition of disingenuous: “lacking in candor;” also: “giving a false appearance of simple frankness.”

In addition, do not talk too much (cf.

; ).

Conversely, “ . . .

gird your loins with truth” ().

The only way I know of doing this is to develop a voracious appetite for God’s Word!

B. WHATEVER IS HONORABLE

This Greek word here for honorable is semnos and is found elsewhere only in the Pastoral Epistles where it is a descriptor essential to leaders.

The idea of this virtue is for one to possess mental “seriousness, sublimity, and dignity.”

It is the sister idea of worthiness.

In context, one cannot allow his mind to dwell on things that are unworthy of his time and attention, or baser things beneath them.

Avoid the profane and dwell on the sacred.

Choose only high-protein items from the menu of a fallen world.

Consume only dignified content versus junk-food weight-gainers like soap operas, gossip sessions, pornography, or sounds that are something other than music.

Those things serve to rot one’s mind, not buoy it.

Per the Lightfoot quote, these first two virtues are absolutes, the non-negotiable foundational aspects of sound mental discipline.

In that promises believers a sound mind from God, truth and honor serve as absolutes to keep it that way! Choose this moment to upload into your computer only truthful and honorable content!

C. WHATEVER IS RIGHT

Given the bedrock mental commit­ments to scriptural truth, and being a person of seriousness, sublimity, and dignity, what is the right or just thing that you should choose to dwell on?

Dikaios carries the idea of thinking only on what is just and proper.

Is your mind disciplined to think about and conclude to do the right thing when there is no one else watching, or to whom you are accountable?

To illustrate, do you choose to vote pro-life because the Scripture says that is right?