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. 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. (Php 4:8-9)It's not exotic, complicated, "sketchy." There are no controversial words or strange varieties of concepts. It's really hard to find something with which to argue, "Sure, it says that, but it doesn't really mean that." It's just ... straightforward. "Dwell on these things."
So ... why don't we? Why do we dwell on the false, the dishonorable, the wrong? Oh, we do it to defend against them, but ... that's not what it says. Don't dwell there. Could it be that dwelling on these things prevents us from falling victim to their opposites? Paul says if we do this, "the God of peace will be with you." That seems like a real benefit. And still we seem to lean more toward dwelling on the negatives. "What's wrong?" rather than "What's right?" Would we find it easier to love others if we dwelled on those things? Would we be better at following God if we got our eyes off the world's evils? Why is it so difficult to dwell on the good rather than the bad?
2 comments:
I would guess it's partly because we're still fighting with the old self and those bad things are often fun in the moment. But also, things like abortion or war are so bad they require our attention to try to correct.
In my Bible (NKJV), “dwell on these things” is translated as “meditate on these things,” so that suggests a slightly different nuance as I read Phil. 4:8-9--i.e. less “fixate” and more “ponder” or “contemplate.” I had read somewhere a while ago that all the qualities Paul lists describe the Lord Jesus Christ, so the suggestion was to substitute “Jesus” for “whatever”--i.e. Jesus is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy; therefore, focus on Him in every situation, for “the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in [Paul]” (Phil. 9) are all about Jesus. That might not be Paul’s intended meaning, but it makes sense to me since he goes on shortly to speak of his contentment in the Lord in all situations.
As to your main theme, I agree with David that it’s partly human nature to be drawn in by sensationalism, and it’s also an aspect of exercising discernment to notice “what’s wrong” rather than “what’s right”--with the desire of helping to right those wrongs. And I agree with you that dwelling on the negatives is unhelpful--especially if done without keeping a hopeful eye on that perfect standard that is the Lord (i.e. “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”). I can see your points that dwelling on the negatives we see in other people makes it so easy for us to not love them and also that fixating on “the world’s evils” distracts us from following God more closely. So clearly, a positive outlook--towards others and regarding our temporary home--leads to better fellowship with “the God of peace.”
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