I’ve heard this scripture a thousand times but it isn’t the easiest to obey. Our minds are always filled with something. Thoughts may just pop into your head in one moment and in another moment you realize the thought wasn’t good to entertain.

In the Greek, Paul is addressing the brethren or “brothers” in the faith as “the rest” or “the remaining” brothers. Elsewhere in this letter to the Philippians, he sometimes addresses particular people.

True

Thinking on things that are true, means thinking on God’s Truth or any Truth that someone else demonstrates as the same attribute of God. This  is righteous thinking. As I mentioned in another article in this series, there can be nothing more true than God’s Truth. Anything exalting itself above the knowledge of God is not true at all.

Thoughts that are “true” are upheld with integrity, credibility and reliability.

Honest

This word in Greek is referred to as “honorable”.  Not everything that is true is honorable, except as it relates to what is true in God.

It may be true that I’ve done wrong, but that is not an honorable truth about me.

It is also true that God forgives my wrongs and that is an honorable truth.

Thinking about your own failures or someone else’s failure may be true, but it is not honorable.

Therefore, it doesn’t fall into the category of something we should think on.

Just

This is referring to our relationship with God and encompasses concepts of righteousness, justice and the upright nature we receive by faith in Christ Jesus.

Pure

These thoughts are holy, clean, pure from every fault and modest. This certainly doesn’t match the kinds of thoughts that I have sometimes.

Yet if we think on Christ and Godly things, we realize that the purity of Christ will begin to affect our behavior and conduct.

This is about renewing our mind so that our first thoughts that tend to drive our reactions will produce Godly reactions.

Lovely

The word lovely here refers to Godly thoughts that are acceptable and pleasing to God. It also can refer to how you endear yourselves to be “beloved”  by others through your words.

When we realize that our thoughts have a direct correlation to the words we speak, hopefully we will learn to better control what we think so we can then control what we say.

Good Report

Thoughts that are of “good report” are considered admirable or gracious. These are attractive thoughts that describe a moral character.

Virtue

We are to think on things that reflect the virtues of God. Does this mean our minds are to be filled with rainbows and unicorns and sunshine and happy chirping birds? Of course not. That simply isn’t possible.

Yet if we discipline ourselves to spend time with God and focus on His character and His attributes, and those things which align themselves with this scripture, we will see a definite change in our thoughts and actions.

People choose to think on negative things and evil things. When those thoughts present themselves to us, we can either choose to entertain them, or cast them down.

Think of these thoughts as uninvited guests to a party. You can either sit them down and entertain them and they will be emboldened to bring more uninvited guests later, or you can turn them away at the door and give them no place in your thought life.

Sometimes we have to speak against thoughts that attack us because trying to overcome them with positive thinking will not work. The positive thought comes from the same mind as the negative thought. This is where we need to remind ourselves we have the mind of Christ.

Praise

The word “praise” here can refer to recognition or approval, specifically from God. As we think upon God’s approval of us and how much He loves us, we realize that the approval of men is not important. There is certainly more that could be said about how we seek the approval of men, but it is truly the approval of God that we should be after, and then we may find that we receive the approval of men as a result of that.

As we think on who we are in Christ and how accepted and beloved we are to Him, we train our thoughts to be positive, overcoming negativity whenever it shows itself.

When it says to “think” on these things, it means to “consider” with emotion and feeling. Emotional attachment in thoughts can tend to bring about a lasting effect much greater than just casual passing thoughts. If you think about when you remember something negative that happened and it makes you feel sad or angry just remembering it, you can also feel happy, blessed and loved when you think upon better things. The lasting effect of these thoughts can then have an impact on your day to day living.

While each of these characteristics of thoughts that we are to “think” on may seem separate, they are all qualifiers together. They all point to thinking on the “things above” and not on just the “things below” or the things on the Earth.

Again, this isn’t an easy thing to accomplish. We are constantly bombarded with what the world wants us to think and thoughts that challenge us from our schools, jobs or just life in general.

Yet I believe if we spend some time with God, focusing on Him and His thoughts about us we will find more peace and strength to overcome contrary thoughts when they show up.