CCC Gainesville | Blog
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Yesterday I briefly touched on this passage and how it tells us to praise God for wherever we find beauty. One article that helps summarize my understanding of this principle contains this quote:
Misunderstanding Philippians 4:8
If holiness is so important, it seems reasonable to argue that we should withdraw from anything that fails to measure up to the standard Paul gives in this text. Anything that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy is, therefore, out-of-bounds for the believer, and must be set aside. And, since precious little in Babylonian culture comes even close to passing this test, it is inappropriate (at best) and dishonoring to Christ (at worst) to get involved with it, regardless of the reason.
I believe this understanding of Philippians 4:8 is mistaken. Let me explain why.
We live in a fallen world. A world which, though created by God and declared to be good by him, is now abnormal and under his judgment because of our sin and rebellion. It’s not merely that human beings occasionally commit some sin, but that by nature we are sinners. It is not surprising, then, that the effects of the Fall permeate all that we are and do. Since we are created in God’s image we bear true significance, but we are also fallen which means that everything about us is tainted by sin. It’s not just non-Christians of whom this is true, but Christians as well. We are all sinners, and thus all fall short of God’s glory. Even if we are redeemed by God’s grace and deeply desire to honor our Lord above all, we realize that even our worship is incomplete, at best, and flawed, at worst. We seek as believers to live to God’s glory, but we are well aware that this can occur only by grace. Until our redemption is consummated, even our service to him is imperfect, affected by the inevitable ripples of the Fall.
This means that nothing anyone does or makes in this fallen world (except for Christ, of course) measures up fully to the list Paul gives in Philippians 4:8. Everything falls short in one way or another. As a result, trying to use this text as a measure by which to draw lines for our involvement in a non-Christian world ends up being a rather subjective affair. We don’t intend that, of course, but how could it be any different? If nothing in this bent world fully meets this standard, we end up drawing our lines arbitrarily. We rule out the things we tend to be uncomfortable with, and then conveniently, we tend to ignore the fact that what we have ruled “in” doesn’t meet the standard, either. –Dennis Haack
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