Reading is an important part of my pastoral work, but I also love to read as a Christian. The most relaxing thing for me to do, even after a day’s work, is to read. I enjoy family vacations, but my wife and I love to read, and that makes any vacation special for us.
Good thinking is a popular way of summarizing Phil. 4:8 where Paul says: “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.”
These words are part of the larger section of Phil. 4:4-9 which paints a picture of a truly peaceful and productive Christian. Paul shows us how to glorify God and do good to our fellows by being the kind of person Christ is forming through the Gospel. Verses 4-9 show us that true godliness is Christian joy, a gentle spirit, freedom from crippling anxieties, and the control of our thoughts.
First, consider what God is telling us to do in Phil. 4:8. It is to train our minds to be active. Thinking, by nature, is active. Sitting in front of a TV, watching swirling images, flickering lights, and advertisements, is passive. The TV is doing all the thinking for us. It is shaping our minds often with an agenda of the world. This is why TV is viewed as entertainment, relaxation, and reward for work. This is not a wholesale condemnation of all TV watching, but a loving warning to evaluate whether TV and the many forms of electronic media available to us today foster the kind of thought life that heeds the command of God in Phil. 4:8. Christ dwells in us (John 14:20; 15:4; Col. 1:27), so that even our thoughts are not our own to do with as we please. If He dwells within us, then He has lordship over our thoughts.
Paul is showing Christians that we need to train our minds to be active by looking for the best things. This is taught in the words “if there is…..” at the end of the verse: “If there is any excellence, and if (there is) anything worthy of praise…..” The “if” is not a denial of the presence of any excellent or praiseworthy things, but an affirmation. And we look for the best things by sifting through lesser things. This is indicated by the repetition of “whatever” which is used 6 times in this one verse. We must think and make informed judgments about whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and of good reputation.
Sometimes something very valuable gets lost in a pile of junk. At times I have lost very important fasteners or connectors in a tub of castaway parts. Once I asked one of my sons to look for whatever part I had lost in a collection of otherwise useless castaways. I’d say “whatever you find that looks like this, pull it aside.” This is what Paul is telling us to do with our thought life. The Bible is our guide in this training. The Scripture is infallible and inerrant in our pursuit of the excellent and praiseworthy things in life which are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and worth telling about. But carefully selected Christian books are an indispensable support and encouragement in this training. With the aid of good reading we can understand the truth of God better. God has given many good and godly writers whose life and work sheds light on the Scriptures. But book reading is like my tub of castaway parts. Many books out there are of no use, and many are harmful. Select the best books! Budgeting to build a little library in your home is a real indication of how seriously we value good books. Look for guidance in selecting the right books. And read so that your love of God’s word will be enhanced.
The second thing Paul is telling us to do is take our thoughts captive. He says “think on (dwell on, ponder) these things.” The emphasis is on thinking and taking captive. Excellent and praiseworthy – these are the things we are to be thinking about. The Bible is the only source of truth that saves and sanctifies. Devotion to the Bible throughout our lives will give us these things. We are “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4). And if we do not take our thoughts captive, others will: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8). Later in that letter Paul commands: “Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Col. 3:2). We might have as our motto for controlling our thought life: “Active & Captive!”
I want to use every good and godly means to train my mind for what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and worth telling about. And I want to control my thoughts for thinking on things that are excellent and praiseworthy. All else is worthless “junk” for our life purpose which is “to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Paul said that he counted “all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).
Here again, good books are a great aid, not only in training our minds, but in taking our thoughts captive. By selecting appropriate books for our reading pleasure and profit, we are placing our thoughts into the paths where our minds will learn how to think the truth and our hearts will be drawn to that which is godly and lovely. We may be reading to become further established in sound doctrine, understand a Bible book, or build on series of sermons our pastors have been preaching. We will find many excellent and praiseworthy men and women of God in Christian biography. We will see the excellence of God’s providence as we read more about church history. Good books preserve the honorable lives and studied reflections of godly men both past and present. Purity of doctrine, purity of motives in service to King Jesus, obedience and courage in the face of dangers and trials, portraying lives that are truly lovely, attractive, and compelling – worth telling about, worth preserving in Christian biography – these kinds of books, alongside our Bible study, will help us to train our minds and take our thoughts captive to Christ.
Good reading fosters good thinking. Good thinking helps us in every area of our lives. It communicates joy, gives us peace for a gentle spirit, and enables us to turn all our worries into prayer requests so that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard (y)our hearts and (y)our minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). Now that’s good thinking! Are you training your thoughts by good reading?
Recommended Reading:
Read Any Good Books? By Sinclair Ferguson. Click to view this title at Trinity Book Service.
“Why use Christian books? The most obvious reason is that there is value in reading. Perhaps you know the famous words from Francis Bacon’s essay ‘Of Studies’: ‘Reading maketh a full man’, he wrote. He meant that about reading in general. Reading promotes maturity in our lives; it fills our minds with new thoughts; it enables us to be more fully and truly human, better equipped for this world than we would otherwise be (from p4).”