Philippians Chapter 4: Live Consistent With Godly Character
Billy Graham has preached to more people than almost anybody you can imagine. During the past 50 years he has held mass evangelism meetings all over the world. Thousands of people have made profession of faith in Christ. One thing I like about Billy, among other things, is that he is a humble man. He does not take credit for himself. In fact, he goes so far as to admit that without the scores of people who have been praying for him all through the years and the people who invite their friends to attend, these meetings would never be a success. Ninety percent of those people who receive Christ at those services are brought there by a close Christian friend. What does that tell us? Several years ago there was a marketing term that was invented, I do not hear much about it anymore, but it went like this: “The medium is the message.” It described the means by which most people are impressed and influenced. And it really means "the messenger is the message” as well. In other words, whatever the package was that the message came in, that was the message. A beautiful young girl is portrayed on the screen smoking Virginia Slims cigarettes. She is at the tennis match and she has a gorgeous hunk of man sitting with her. Message–smoke Virginia Slims cigarettes and you will be beautiful and you will get that gorgeous hunk of man. That is the message.
Actually, that idea is not new. Would you believe it is at least 3,000 years old? In the Old Testament during the time of the kings David and Saul, it was risky business being a messenger because the messenger was the message. Bring good news to the king, and you will most likely be rewarded with gifts and a high position like Pharaoh gave to Joseph. Bring bad news about a tragedy or a loss in war or death, look out because you the messenger may get yourself whatever the message was that you brought. Whether it is seen as a good message or a bad message is determined by the one who receives the message.
Second Samuel chapter one tells us about a messenger that came to David with news of Saul’s death. And he also told David about his part in that death. The messenger knew how Saul had tried so many times to kill David and so he figured, “Hey, this is good news.” And so he jogged all the way back from the war front. There was no e-mail or fax. So he ran back to get the message to King David and he gave him the message. And he expected to get a great reward from his new king. Can you imagine his brief, but very fatal surprise when he discovered that he himself was killed. He failed to understand the respect that David had for God’s formerly anointed Saul. David mourned over that loss. He mourned over the loss of Saul’s son, Jonathan, who died at the same time. And the messenger got the message that he brought.
I do not know what this has to do with Billy Graham, you say. Simply this, were it not for the faithful exemplary day-by-day faithful-living Christians who portrayed their faith in an active way before those people, the probability of those Christians going to the meetings, let alone receive Christ, was practically nil. In other words, by being alive in Christ themselves, by patterning their lives after Christ, they had earned the right to invite their friends in the name of Christ. And I would label those Christians as exemplary medium messengers and furthermore, that is what everyone of us ought to be. Our lives need to match our message. That is our calling. Paul said in Philippians chapter one, verse 21, “For to me to live is Christ.” Jesus Christ is our message. And I am one of His messengers.
Chapter four of Philippians is a wrap-up summary of Paul’s thoughts on living out Christ in our lives. Chapter four, verse one: “Therefore my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, this is how you should stand firm in the Lord.” This is how you should live. Remember chapter one of Philippians--Jesus Christ is our life. “The Lord is my life and my salvation.” Jesus Christ is our life. Chapter two, Jesus Christ is our pattern. “Have this same attitude that Jesus Christ had.” Chapter three, Jesus Christ is our goal. “Forgetting those things which are behind I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” In chapter four, Jesus Christ is our message.
As a pastor, it is the ultimate personal fulfillment to look back at the churches you have served and the people upon whose lives you had some impact. It is a very fulfilling joy. And that is what Paul is doing here when he refers to the people at Philippi as his joy and his crown. However, he has a problem in this city. His concern is for the continued spiritual prosperity of the church in Philippi. But there was a problem. Two old friends, two ladies, who had been very good helpers of Paul are now fighting with each other. He is worried because he wants the differences between these women to be moderated and settled soon because he knows if that does not happen there is going to be one of those good old church splits. We do not have any idea what the problem was with these two ladies. Someone has tongue-and-cheek named them You Owe Me and Soon Touchy. This refers to pride and being easily offended, which is a national Christian disease. Christian contrary views are to be expected. We are not clones. But contrariness is not to be expected or tolerated because we are Christians.
In verse four Paul returns to his enthusiastic, positive discipling. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Let me say it again, rejoice.” You know, it is hard to keep a grudge when you are happy, when you are in a rejoicing state of mind. And notice the rejoicing is to be in the Lord and is to be always. That covers a lot of circumstances, does it not? The source of our joy is the Lord Himself and our inner attitude should not be dependent on our outward circumstance. I read this quote and it states what I am saying. It talks about out attitudes and how important they are. “The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than the past, more important than education, more important than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes. It is more important than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, or a home. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we are going to embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play,” I like this, “on the one string we have and that is our attitude.” Life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And we are in charge of those attitudes.
Ok, then. As a Christian, if the medium is the message, then the Christian messenger’s message is--“rejoice in the Lord and let it be seen.” Jesus said in Matthew 5, “Let your light shine.” Paul said in Philippians chapter two, “shine like stars.” In situations that I find to be unpleasant or even tragic, the fact that God is with me and the assurance that He will uphold me is the ultimate source of joy. How is our message sent to others? What messages should Christians be sending and how do we send them? We send them more by the way we live than by what we say. And as a Christian, the messenger’s message is this: “Be a person having a consistent gentle spirit.” As a Christian, you cannot and you dare not try to separate what you say from the way you live. You cannot separate them.
In 2 Corinthians 3:2, I love this, Paul says, “You are a letter.” What is he saying? Your life is a letter. It is a billboard. It is a big sign and what does it say? You are known and read by everybody. Wow! Maybe that realization makes you want to crawl off in a corner someplace and hide. You are a letter written, known and read by everybody? The messenger is the message. And if that is true, Paul says in verse five, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” “To all” means Christians and non-Christians alike should see this. Sad to say, I have known some Christians who have no friends outside of the church. What a shame. But they like it that way. Some surveys have been taken indicating within three years after a person becomes a Christian, he has no non-Christian friends. Jesus Christ crossed every barrier, especially those outside the faith. Sure, He gave them a rough time sometimes, but He communicated with them. And He crossed the barrier of race as well. And as He taught His disciples on the shore or along the road, He was always followed by an entourage of Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, Scribes, Priests, everyone of them trying to trap Him into an idea or a teaching that was inconsistent with the will of God and the Holy Scriptures so they could condemn Him. But He taught with authority, with conviction, and He gently, but firmly disarmed His antagonists. “We never heard a man speak like that,” they said. First Peter 3:15: “Be prepared to give the reason for the hope you have but do it with gentleness and respect.” Do not burn your bridges of communication when you are trying to win an argument. Have a gentle spirit about you. Be gracious, be balanced, be moderate, not weak. We think of gentleness as weakness, but it is not. It is strength, inner strength.
As a message-messenger your exemplary message is to live like you trust God completely. Verse six: “Do not be anxious, worried, or stressed about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.” Chuck Swindoll said, “God does not speak to the hurried, worried mind.” It is an awesome privilege to have the opportunity of having an audience with the Lord of the universe. Prayer is communication through which we open ourselves up to God. We get to know Him better and we acknowledge our own reality. What do I mean when I say “acknowledge our own reality.” Just this, when I really pray to God I get gut-honest. I do not always pray that way. But when I really pray, that is where I am. Gut honest. Presenting our needs and our desires is not a guarantee that God is going to give us exactly what we want the way we ask for it. When we communicate with God, really, we do not demand what we want. We discuss with Him what He has for us. God’s teaching agenda very often is different than what we think it is as we approach speaking to Him. I can tell you things in my life that I wanted done a certain way but God had done them differently. Does the pot say to the potter, “Why have you made me like this?” No way!
The Christian messenger’s message is this--God assures us of personal peace. Personal peace. Have you ever had occasion to claim this for your own? It has been a bedrock stabilizer for me. “And the peace of God,” verse 7, “which transcends all understanding will guard your minds and your hearts in Christ Jesus.” Fifty-two years ago I was laying prostrate on my stomach in a mudhole trying to avoid Japanese snipers and I was reminded of a song–you wouldn’t believe the crazy things you do when you are in the middle of war. I learned this song just before I went overseas. I sang it hundreds of times.
God will keep him in perfect peace
Whose mind is stayed on Him
When the darkness falls and shadows come
He giveth in word His peace.
He is the only perfect resting place
He giveth perfect peace
God will keep him in perfect peace
Whose mind is stayed on Him.
Let me tell you something. That promise did guard my heart. It did guard my mind in spite of all the hell that was around me. It passed all human understanding. There are times when I wish that everybody had a war experience. I think it wakes you up.
Have you noticed how easy it is to get lax. Where does sophistication end and sin begin? Modern bohemian lifestyle essentially says, “If it feels good, do it. If it feels good it cannot be bad.” Morality? “If two people agree to something no matter how vile and against God’s commands it is, then it is ok.” And of course, the old faithful, “Well, everybody is doing it.” In verse eight Paul gives us something else to think about. A person’s thoughts determine who and what that person is and is becoming. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And just as lust precedes all sin, so does devotion to God and prayer precede Christian behavior. A person’s thoughts determine who and what he is becoming. My thoughts determine my attitude. My thoughts determine my words and my actions toward others. Someone has wisely said: “We are not what we think we are, but what we think, we are.”
Look at Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–mediate on these things.” Ok, here are some items. Item number one, verse eight, truth. Jesus Christ was and is truth (John 14:6). These things are vitally important to the Christian life. The first, truth, involves facts. Jesus came, He lived, He died, He rose again, ascended into heaven. That is history. Do not try to rewrite it for me. Your life today is a result of your thinking yesterday. Your life tomorrow is a result of your thinking today. That is why it is necessary to think on the truth instead of lies and falsehoods. Psalm 51 says: “The Lord desires truth in the inner parts.” God desires that we think and live according to His ways since His ways are truth. The Word of God both describes and directs us in His ways. Not only is it right to live according to God’s ways it is good for us. Listen to the instruction of Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.” Paul lists truth first because without it the other qualities cannot be developed.
The second vital thing we need to think on, and act on, are noble things. The word noble means honorable or worthy of respect. I am concerned that many of the precepts and mores that have long been revered in our country as well as the image of those leaders that we long held in honor are gradually but purposely being torn apart. It matters what we pay attention to. It matters what you look at and listen to. Paul tells us to raise our vision in order to raise our character. When a judge is threatened with a lawsuit for having the Ten Commandments hanging on his wall or when our President vetoes a bill that prohibits the sucking out of a kid’s brains two seconds before he is born, we have lost respect for things that are noble. When pornography is being accepted and promoted in our universities as normal and it dominates internet traffic we as a country have lost sight of noble things. But as Christians God calls us to raise our attention higher. Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” We can look no higher than Jesus Christ. To think high is to live high. To think low is to live low. Look unto Him!
The third vital thing necessary for a good Christian life is seeking what is right. That means just things, fair things, equitable things. Before taking action on any matter, ask yourself this question, “Is this right?” Does it meet God’s higher standard of rightness? Paul writes elsewhere, “Some things may be lawful but they are not expedient nor do they edify.” The law may allow some things, but is it helpful? Is it useful? Or does it tear down or whittle away at what is right?
The fourth thing listed in Philippians 4:8 is purity. Is your thought life free from contamination? Are your thoughts wholesome? Do you know what one of the latest addictions is? Pornography. It is running rampant and has taken over fifty percent of the internet. It is so easily accessible nowadays. I am sure Paul had reference here to moral purity of heart and sexual innocence apart from marriage. He wrote of this in his letter to the Thessalonians saying, “This is the will of God for you, your sanctification, your holiness, your purity.” How you handle your sexual self matters. That area of our lives is so powerful that it can ruin us. It can destroy marriages, reputations or even end our lives prematurely. But above all it comes between God and us. Our commitments to keeping our sexual selves under godly control is an important part in developing a good relationship with God. We teach pre-marital abstinence not only because it is socially, economically, and physically healthier but because it is morally and spiritually right. The ultimate motivator for sexual purity is pleasing God by doing what He knows is best. Just think of all the destruction sexual impurity has wrought on this world–the disease, the broken relationships, the broken spirits, the ruined souls.
The next thing we are to focus on are things that are lovely. This is really not a masculine word. Most men rarely speak of anything as being lovely. What it really means is the opposite of evil, something that is pleasing to God. Colossians 1:10: “... that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Focusing on good, wholesome, lovely things is good for us. Focusing on dark, negative, immoral, and spirutally ugly things is bad for us. Data in, data out, as they say. It matters what you focus your attention on!
Sixthly, we are to think admirable thoughts. These are thoughts that are lofty, thoughts that edify, thoughts that lead you closer to God. The thoughts we share with others should be worthwhile and honorable. When we talk with others what we say should be admirable and uplifting.
The last two words--excellent and praiseworthy--have to do with moral excellence, virtue. It is anything that is worthy of being contemplated. For example, take concepts like forgiveness, mercy, love, grace, and redemption. Do you know what they mean? Are they influencing your life? Think seriously on them. Spend some time mulling them over. Take God’s grace, for instance. What does this really mean for you? Where did it come from? Who originated this? How did it get here? Why did it come? In what form did it come? What did it cost God to give us that grace? Do I deserve it? Where would I be without it? How can I thank God for it? God’s tells us to meditate on and contemplate these issues because as we live what we learn we become more like Him.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in God’s sight.” Ask yourself every day, are my thoughts true, noble, right, pure, pleasing and commendable? Now look at verse nine and here is proof about what we have been trying to say all along. In Paul’s case the messenger is the message, especially when it comes to discipleship. However you want to state it, Paul was a role model’s role model. He not only talked the talk, he walked the walk. And he says in verse nine, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice.” Remember something here. The teachings we have in the Bible were not yet put together in the time that Paul lived. All we had was the Old Testament. Jesus referred to the Old Testament–talked about it, referred to it, quoted it. He honored it. But for these people in Philippi, listening to Paul, these words are significant because this is the beginning of the gospel that is going to be recorded for us. Luke and Mark and John and Matthew, they are formulating the New Testament in these days. "So those things you learned from me when I was with you ten years ago," writes Paul, "those things you received or heard from me in this letter or any other talks I have had with you, you saw the way I lived, put that into practice." The way the messenger lives is a message, perhaps the most important message.
If we live according to Philippians 4:8, verse nine promises us a result. “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” If we are responsible for what God gives us, it will make us happy. When he says, “I can do everything God wants me to do,” verse 13, “through him who gives me strength.” And he concludes, verse 21, “my God will meet all your needs.” Paul did not choose poverty. He did not choose riches. He learned to accept either one as they came, when they came. He trusted God’s sovereign wisdom and through it all the God of peace was with him.
Summing up our study of Philippians, the thing that stands out to me is the centrality of Jesus Christ. Chapter one, Jesus Christ is our life. Chapter two, Jesus Christ is our pattern. I hope you remember this. Chapter three, Jesus Christ is our goal. Chapter four, and the whole theme of the book, basically, Jesus Christ is our message. And remember this, we are His messengers. What are we doing about it? Is Jesus Christ central in every one of our lives? Is He your life, your pattern, your goal, your message? If not, I think we ought to make Him that today. Think seriously about that, meditate on it. Live consistent with godly, Christlike character. It should be the Christian way!
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