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"

 

 

Slow but Steady

Because the trail was so rocky, I was looking down while hiking in nearby hills one day. That’s when I spotted a huge black beetle on its own rocky “hike,” moving so fast that I wondered if it would be a blur on my photo.

As I later looked at this photo, I thought how it also pictures the Christian life. Becoming a Christian doesn’t guarantee that all life’s roads will be smooth and free of conflict. The very difficulties we resist, like a tough work or school environment, or living with a contrary or whiny person, may be part of God’s greater plan to shape our character.
In thinking about suffering, I’ve often returned to this quote: “If God’s net purpose in saving an individual is just to get him to heaven, He would probably take him to glory immediately. But God wants to prepare him for rulership in an infinite universe that demands character. Progress in sanctification, in the development of Godlike character and agape love, is impossible without tribulation and chastisement.”(1)
Yes, the Highway to Heaven is strewn with boulders, but we’re not to give up. One who knew that well was the apostle Peter. He saw the end result of getting through life’s rocks: “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:9). Salvation is both a moment (of accepting Christ) and a process (of developing Christ-like character). It’s not absorbed like osmosis. It’s done by “giving all diligence” (v. 3), which comes from the Greek word spoude, suggesting earnestness, zeal, even haste. And what a list of Christ-like qualities Peter gives as a standard of excellence! From several Bible translations, here are deeper shades of meaning for his list in vv. 5-7:
*Virtue: excellence, resolution, Christian energy, good character.

*Knowledge: intelligence, spiritual understanding.

*Temperance: self-control, alert discipline.

*Patience: steadfastness, endurance, passionate patience.

*Godliness: piety, reverent wonder.

*Brotherly kindness: affection to one another, warm friendliness.

*Charity: Christ-like love--genuine, generous, and sacrificial.
I don’t know about you, but I’m still in process on all of these. I know that God loves me, but He also loves me too much to leave me in my old ways. Every unpleasant or difficult experience is a schoolroom for growing in these qualities. Like that beetle on a rocky trail, we’ll face unknown “rocks” that seem bigger than we can handle. But unlike the insect kingdom, we have the loving care and help of the Lord Jesus, who sees where we can go with Him—if we persist.

Next time you see a beetle, think about that. And thank God for lessons from His creation, even the creepy-crawly type.

(1) Paul Billheimer, Don’t Waste Your Sorrows (Fort Washington, Penn.: Christian Literature Crusade, and Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1977), p. 44.