Audio Transcript

On Thursday, we looked at the pressures of living in a world obsessed with wealth, status, money, greed, gambling, and luxury. Today, we look at the pressures of living in a world obsessed with cussing and crude joking. We’ve studied this in the past, talking about cussing: whether Christians can cuss to make a point, or if using profanity makes us more culturally relevant. Much ground has been covered here, as you can see in the APJ book on pages 133–138. The conversation is back on the table today because one of the most asked-about Bible texts in our podcast history is in our Bible reading tomorrow, in the Navigators Bible Reading Plan — Philippians 4:8, a text that looks at the flip side of cussing and crude joking. Here’s the email.

“Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast. My name is Matt, and I’m a 25-year-old trying to navigate the tension between living wisely in a broken world and being transformed by the renewing of my mind, as Paul calls us to. In Philippians 4:8, Paul urges us to focus on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. But, honestly, it’s hard to keep my mind fixed on these qualities when I’m constantly surrounded by dishonor. The news is filled with corruption, entertainment glorifies immorality, and conversations at work or online often celebrate deceit and impurity. I don’t want to be naïve or disengaged from reality, but I also don’t want my thoughts to be shaped by dishonorable influences. How can I protect my mind without becoming isolated or indifferent to the world around me? What practical steps can help me align my thoughts with Philippians 4:8, even when the world’s noise feels deafening? Any wisdom would be much appreciated.”

I am so glad there’s a 25-year-old man who’s posing the question and wrestling with this very issue of how to keep his mind holy, even though he must live (as we all must live for now) in an unholy and impure world. So, this is a bull’s-eye question, as far as I’m concerned: “How can I protect my mind without becoming isolated or indifferent to the world around me?”

And here’s the text that he’s talking about: “Finally, brothers, 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.” That’s Philippians 4:8. So, let me see if I can be of some help to myself, to all of us, and to this young man, with four observations.

1. Fill your mind with biblical reality.

Jesus addressed this very issue of being in the world and not of the world in the very place where he points us to one of the practical ways of accomplishing the very thing he’s describing.

For example, in his prayer to the Father in John 17:15–17, Jesus says to his Father, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world” — so, you’ve got to live in the embattled situation that this young man describes; you’ve got to live there — “but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” And then he says, “Sanctify them” — that is, keep them holy in this unholy world — “in the truth; your word is truth.”

Wow. That is clear, pointed, practical. If you’re talking about this issue of how to be holy in an unholy world, that’s how you do it. That’s the basic answer to Matt’s question — namely, use the truth, the word of God, to keep your mind holy. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Those are the words of Jesus. And whatever else Paul means by, “Think about what is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable,” he at least means, “Fill your mind with the word of God so that you will both recognize and value these things when you see them in the world and in the word. And then respond to them appropriately and keep them there.”

And I bear witness — and I know that you’ve experienced the same thing, Tony, and I’m sure thousands of our listeners do — that sixty years of saturating my mind with biblical reality every day has helped me keep my mind clean, happy in the beauties of Christ, more than anything else. That’s number one. Fill your mind daily with biblical reality.

2. Delight in the delightful.

The second observation is closely related to the first. When Paul says, “Think about these things” (Philippians 4:8), the word for think about is not the word for think in 2 Timothy 2:7: “Think over what I say.” It’s not the word for think in Philippians 3:15: “Let [the] mature think this way.” It’s not the word for think in 2 Corinthians 11:16: “[Don’t] think me foolish.” It’s not the word for thinking in 1 Corinthians 7:26: “I think [one should] remain as he is.”

It’s a word that Paul uses 34 times: logizesthe, which ordinarily means “to count” or “to reckon” or “to think a thing to be something.” It’s the word for being counted righteous (Romans 4:5). God counts us to be righteous. That is, he thinks of us that way. He reckons us to be that way. So, Paul is not merely saying, “Have these beautiful, good, excellent things in your mind,” but “Reckon them a certain way,” “Count them a certain way” — implying, “Evaluate them a certain way.”

“Saturating my mind with biblical reality every day has helped keep my mind clean, happy in the beauties of Christ.”

So, the implication is that you take something beautiful or good or honorable into your mind, and you reckon it to be beautiful and good. That is, you esteem it, you value it, you reckon it to be as good as God has designed it to be. And Paul is implying that it is beautiful; it is good; it is valuable; it is worthy. That’s what these things are. They have that about them that won’t be just thought about but thought about in a certain affectional way. They’re not just a thing; they are a precious thing. I think that’s what’s implied in logizesthe.

In other words, build into your mental framework increased capacities — now, all of us need to do this, especially young people — for delighting in what is true and honorable and just and pure. Don’t just think about them indifferently as to the way they are, but think about how precious they are, how beautiful they are, how valuable they are. They’re like gold and silver, sweeter than honey.

This is what will keep the mind healthy — not just judgmentally negative, like, “I don’t like dishonorable, untrue things,” but rather cherishing, exulting, and delighting in, celebrating the things that Paul says to keep in your mind. It’s a celebrative, valuing, cherishing mind that he’s after. It’s a healthy mind in that way.

3. Memorize the meaning of love.

This third observation is a very simple strategy based on 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:31, just before the love chapter, “I will show you a still more excellent way.” And that’s what we’re after, right? We’re after an excellent way in this world of ours. What’s an excellent way through the corruption and immorality and dishonorable falsehoods of this world? What’s an excellent way, more excellent than anything we see around us?

Paul answers with chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians and — this is my practical suggestion — at the heart of it is the definition of love. And I just suggest it’s only four verses, 1 Corinthians 13:4–8: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (Now, that links us with what I just said about how we are a celebrative observer of what is excellent and beautiful and true and good. It “rejoices with truth.” It doesn’t just look at it and say, “That’s true.”) “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

So, that’s four verses, and I suggest every Christian memorize that. Memorize the meaning of love as Paul defines it. Prayerfully keep these things near the forefront of your mind, and that will go a long way to helping us practically see what is true and lovely and beautiful, and value it — that is, rejoice in it the way the text says — and protect ourselves from being sucked in to the contamination of the world or to the jaundiced, bitter, complaining attitude about the world. So, memorize the meaning of love, and keep it before your mind regularly.

4. Move beyond disapproval.

And then finally, the fourth observation is that, when you read or see something dishonorable or impure, by all means, think a disapproving thought. Don’t just leave it at that, though. Say, “I disapprove of that.” Paul is saying, “Move beyond disapproval, and set your mind on something that is the opposite of the dishonorable or impure or untrue or unlovely.”

“Replace the dishonorable things that you see and read with examples of what you know to be honorable and beautiful.”

For example, I’m listening right now to a biography of Herbert Hoover. He just got off the phone with Warren Harding, the president of the United States in 1920. He’s the secretary of commerce — I mean, he’s about to be the secretary of commerce. Hoover accepted, on the phone call, the invitation from the president to be the next secretary of commerce. And he gets off the phone, and he goes to a news conference, and he says flat out, “I have not yet accepted the job.” I was so ticked — like, I’m looking for heroes. I was so angry at Herbert Hoover in this biography. I don’t like liars, and I especially don’t like liars who are about to become the president of the United States, which Hoover did eventually.

And that’s the point at which my mind could spiral — oh, how easily today it could spiral! — into the kind of complaining about the present state of political immorality and indecency. Or I could, at that point (I think this is what Paul is telling us to do), call to mind that there are still people — there always have been; there always will be — who lay down their lives for the cause of truth and purity. And I can think about some of my heroes, dead and living, who led lives of great integrity and sacrifice. And I think that’s the strategy that we can take when we encounter impurity and immorality and dishonor and untruth in the world.

So, summary: Saturate your mind with the word of God. Let all your thinking be properly evaluative so that you cherish what is good and just see it as good. Make the beauty of love your aim. And replace the dishonorable things that you see and read with examples of what you know to be honorable and beautiful.