Think tank: "virtue"

Rhododendron--a short-lived beauty in our climate, but oh! How amazing!

Returning to a series on Philippians 4:8.

We tend to clothe the word “virtue” in high-collared long dresses with lots of buttons and lace that a household of maids kept mended and ironed. Really, it’s not a Victorian thing that’s gone the way of suffocating corsets and other indignities of long-ago fashion.Virtue is very contemporary.  It’s a total expression of a godly lifestyle. Dwight L. Moody, the great 19^th century evangelist, once said, “A holy life will make the deepest impression.  Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine.” Biblical “virtue” is moral excellence. 

Virtue starts with our standing for Christ, and proceeds with His standing beside us. The first is salvation; the second is what some term “sanctification.”  It’s the growing process of becoming Christ-like in what we do and say. 

In his book How to Reach Your Full Potential for God (Nelson, 2009), Charles Stanley identifies that progression. He noted that research has determined that our minds process about 12,000 thoughts a day.  That’s 4.4 million thoughts a year.  We determine what thoughts will become action. As Christians we need to take charge of our thoughts and choose to dwell on those that honor Christ and His call on our life.  Stanley suggests:

*Thinking about what Christ has done for us by dying on the cross: forgiveness of sin, freedom from guilt and shame.
*Contemplating our future home with Him in Heaven.  That’s all and everything “virtuous” in one amazing package!
 

Besides these good and hopeful thoughts, Stanley warns against choosing dark, negative thoughts:

Impure, demeaning, angry, bitter, resentful, lustful, manipulative, and greedy thoughts are not part of who you are in Christ.  Don’t relive your hurtful experiences. Avoid bringing them up from your memory to chew on them again.  Ungodly thinking doesn’t fit the profile of a godly person, so turn off any ideas that could take root and lead you astray. (pp. 82-83)

If there be any virtue…we surely find it in the Bible’s composite of a godly woman, the “Virtuous Woman” of Proverbs 31. Busy lady! But the verse that always stands out to me is the one describing how her thought life and her mouth reflect virtue:

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. (Proverbs 31:26)
This lady knew how to live honorably and weigh her words!  If there was any virtue, she thought on those things…then spoke golden words.

 Anyone up for a Proverbs 31 review?

 

Next: "any praise"

 

 

Think tank: "of good report"

With hedge-like foliage and less-dense blossoms, these "bush roses"
provide a boundary for the front of our yard, hopefully adding
to a "good report" impression of the people living here!

A series on Philippians 4:8.
Ah—words from the past, back to my childhood. Who said them to me, I can’t remember, but I can still hear the haughty tone in which the youthful speaker delivered them:  “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all!”  Words have the power to lift or to wound, and children are especially adept at the wounding skills. The apostle Paul certainly experienced “wounding.” In listing the good, bad and ugly he’d been subjected to as a Christian leader, he said he’d been target of “bad report and good report” (2 Corinthians 6:8).

I wonder if he had those reports in mind when he penned his list of things to think about, and included “whatever is of good report.” The original Greek word is euphemos, from which  we get our English word “euphemism,” defined as “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.”  You’ve probably heard the witty story of a family that hired a writer to put together a family history.  They didn’t know what to do with a black sheep family member who was electrocuted after being convicted of murder.  So this is what the writer came up with: “He occupied the chair of applied electricity at one of this nation’s well-known institutions. He was committed to his position and literally died in the harness.”

Okay, done with jokes.  The Bible’s euphemos has a more positive spin, referring to “words or sounds of good omen.”   The “sounds” may refer to non-verbal ways, like grunts or sighs, to indicate agreement. 

I find each of Paul’s “think on these things” challenging. But this one really ties together the thought-life and the mouth-life. When I run against something negative, can I hand it over to God for help in finding that kernel of “good report”?

About thirty-five years ago I went through a discouraging, negative situation. I was unemployed, grieving, and working as hard as I could to empty out my parents’ home after their deaths so it could be sold. One day a former colleague called, asking me to do a special writing assignment for her publication. I was so discouraged and doubtful of my abilities that I tried to turn her down.  She wouldn’t accept my “no.”  Wisely, she knew accomplishing something outside my negatives would be helpful in my long journey to wellness.  “I have a Bible verse for you,” she said.  I could almost see this short, intense older woman standing hands-on-hips with a finger wagging at me. “It’s Nehemiah 8:20, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’”  I accepted her rebuke, and the assignment, and it turned out a good thing for me to do. She turned my “bad report” (of my emotional state) to a “good report” of hope for how the Lord would help stretch me and heal me.

Turning “bad reports” into “good reports” is a lifelong learning process.  It helps to keep eternity’s purposes in mind.  Jonathan Edwards, the famed Puritan preacher, had a list of “resolutions” he followed, and one was this: “Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.” Our ability to faithfully share “good reports” that glorify Christ  will impact others long after we’re gone.

Next: "virtue"