December 10, 2023
Peace
Philippians 4:8-9
It was in the 9th chapter of Isaiah that we first heard of the promise of the coming Messiah who would be called the “Prince of Peace”.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
There is no doubt from Scripture that when the Messiah would come, He would come to bring peace with Him. On the evening Jesus was born, even the angels proclaimed He was that very Messiah, and that at His birth there would be peace on Earth. Like we have seen over and over again in Scripture, Jesus did not bring the same peace that the world was expecting. Jesus even said that in John 14:27. We all have different views of what peace is. For some of us it’s an event, for some it’s a location, and for others it could be an activity. But in scripture it’s a person, and that person is Jesus.
The Bible shows us that Jesus brings threefold peace to those who trust Him as Lord. The first peace Jesus brings is the opportunity to have peace with God. Romans 5 tells us that we are enemies with God, that we have conflict with God because of our sinful nature, and that sin is what separated us from God in the first place. We are also told that the wages of our sin is death, an eternal separation from God, but Romans 5:1 tells us that when we put our faith in Jesus we are justified with God and now have peace with Him. This peace with God came through the death and resurrection of Jesus and it was the grandest of ways. Jesus came to fulfill the title “Prince of Peace,” but it wasn’t the only way He did so.
Jesus also came to bring us peace with others, as well as peace with ourselves. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us and while being made right with God, we can now be made right with others and ourselves. While having peace with God required no effort on our part since it was a gift from God, our ability to have peace with others and ourselves is quite different since it does require A LOT of effort on our part.
In Philippians 4, Paul closes out his letter by speaking on the two other types of peace that can be found in Jesus Christ. First, he addresses a disagreement that was going on between two members of the church and laid out some groundwork on how to work toward peace between two women who were having problems. Paul then addresses how we can obtain peace with ourselves, specifically when we find ourselves in a moment of worry and we find that it’s robbing us of our peace. Then, he proceeds to talk about a peace that is not reactionary, but rather proactive. It’s steps that we need to take in order to experience an abiding peace that isn’t dependent upon your circumstances. It’s a type of peace that is a lot like sleep in the sense that you can’t make it happen instantly, but rather it’s something that you must prepare yourself for. So, this morning as we think about the peace that first Christmas brought, I want us to look at the things Paul says we must do in order to prepare ourselves to receive it.
Philippians 4:8-9
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Paul starts by saying we are to fix our minds and our thoughts on a variety of things. It’s no surprise to us that our thought life plays the most major part in how we live our lives. As we walk daily with the Lord, our thoughts are going to play a huge role in that relationship. We need to make sure that our thoughts are focused on the right things. Paul gives Christians eight things, (not an exhaustive list by any means) as a great place to start to make sure our thoughts are focused on the right things in order to best prepare ourselves to experience the peace that only God can bring.
True
Truth is the foundation of the Christian life and that’s why Paul starts by mentioning it. There are many thoughts in our lives that can steal our peace and many things that can occupy our minds and rob us of the peace that Jesus brings. Those things are usually lies. It’s been said that less than 8% of things we worry about could actually happen. Less than that will actually happen to the degree we worry they will. Those are thoughts that come from the father of lies - Satan. When we find ourselves thinking upon those things, we need to focus on the one who declared that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We are to focus on Jesus and His truth. When we do, we prepare ourselves for the peace that passes all understanding because it’s not of this world. Everything in this world will let us down and fail us at some point, but Jesus and His word NEVER fails. When we are preparing ourselves for peace, we need to focus on the one who is the truth. We need to focus on the one who is the Prince of Peace, and we are to focus on Jesus. When we think of Jesus, it will be the greatest thought we will have all day!
Honorable
Next, Paul tells us to think upon things that are honorable. This is a word we see throughout the epistles. It’s usually when it talks about the leadership of the church or those who are serving, or in a deacon’s role. In this context, when it comes to our thought life, Paul is telling us to think upon the things that we would not mind having brought up if others could read our thoughts. We live in a world where sin that used to only be carried out in the darkness is put on display for all to see, so if we are ever in doubt because of the fallen standard we see in this world, we need to compare our thoughts against what God’s Word says. If God’s Word is against it, it’s our thoughts that need to change and be brought into submission to God’s Word. I want to mention another connotation to this word and that’s the idea of seriousness. Sometimes we will make concessions when it comes to sin in our lives, and we know because of James 1:14-15 that sin starts with a thought. When it comes to thinking about things that are honorable, we need to make sure our thoughts are in line because we can be sure that sin, or those dishonorable thoughts, will never bring us peace in our lives.
Right
When we are called to think on the things that are right, it’s the idea of justice being done, but not between God and man. That was accomplished through Jesus and the fact that we are justified by faith in Him alone. Rather, this is justice between people. It’s hard for us to experience peace in our lives when we have relationships that are not right. Our mind will, at times, think about those broken relationships and if we don’t handle those relationships Biblically, it causes bitterness and resentment to set up in our hearts. As a matter of fact, Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24 that if we are bringing an offering and you remember that there is brokenness in one of your relationships, go to that person and do everything as far as you are concerned to be made right with them. When we have relationships that are broken, we will never know peace. We need to make sure to do everything we can to live at peace with everyone. Only then will we be prepared for peace.
Pure
The idea here is holiness. It’s a call to make sure that our mind and attitudes line up with scripture’s higher calling in our thought lives. The old song, “be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little mouth what you say…” is a great way to summarize the command to focus on things that are pure. We are called to be morally pure and that starts with what we put into minds under the guise of entertainment.
Lovely
When Paul uses the word lovely, he’s telling us to think of things that will make us loveable or able to be easily loved. Do you remember your parents saying, “If you keep making that face, your face will stay like that”? That’s what Paul is talking about here when he speaks of thinking about things that are lovely. When we think and focus on the broken things of this world, we cannot help but become sour, crabby, irritable, harsh, bad tempered, and unkind. When these thoughts manifest themselves in our actions and attitudes, these unlovely things make it harder to love you. As a matter of fact, it makes the Gospel you’re sharing less effective. No one wants to hear “Good News” from someone who has focused on things that are not lovely in their lives. It makes the Gospel less believable.
Admirable
We usually don’t have a hard time thinking about ourselves because we are selfish by nature. When Paul calls us to think on admirable things, it’s a call to look at others and to think about things that others do that are worthy of praise. It’s to look for the good in people and think about those things. Again, it’s easy and natural in our sinful nature to look for the worst in people, but when we start looking for the good and the admirable, it’s easy for us to prepare for peace. We will find that people don’t rub us the wrong way as often as they once did, and it becomes easier for us to be the encouragers that scripture calls us to be.
Excellent
We probably all remember the WWJD acronym that was popular for many years. This call to think upon the things that are excellent is really a call to ask ourselves, WWJT – or “What would Jesus think?” It’s a call to bring our thoughts into line with the thoughts of Jesus. It’s to run all of our thoughts through the filter of scripture and truths we find about Jesus. It’s almost an umbrella that every other word in this list falls under. We are called to be holy like He is holy.
Worthy of Praise
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells us to let our good deeds shine before men, not so that they will praise you, but that they will praise God because of what He has done through you. It’s an idea of thinking about the things God has done and will do through you, through your weaknesses, through humility, and through your total submission to Him. These are things that will bring Him the praise He deserves.
When Paul tells us to “fix our thoughts,” it’s not just the idea of a thought experiment, but something that will drive our lives. Just as sin is birthed with a thought, so is sanctification that is realistically lived out in our lives. It all starts with our thought lives and is only accomplished through the Holy Spirit. Just like Paul says in Romans 8:6, the mind governed by the Holy Spirit is life and peace. It can’t just be our thought lives that change – we must put all these new thoughts into practice. Paul tells the church that they need to put it into practice, all the church had heard and seen from Him. They had to be doers of the word, not just hearers. That’s when we will be prepared to experience peace. The same peace promised through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It was realized through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Jesus is peace, but we must do our part in preparing to experience it ourselves, and with others.
