The Fourth Wall - Day 5

Whatever is honorable.

Philippians 4:8 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.

Honor is the second concept that we are to look into when it comes to what we are to add to our lives. So what around you is honorable and how do you decide? Here again, scripture gives us some help when it comes to knowing what is honorable.

Most of us would be appalled and embarrassed if all our thoughts were made public. John Milton, a 17th-century writer and thinker, wrote an apt description of the human mind’s inner workings in his classic poem Paradise Lost: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

As Milton inferred, our thoughts are like water; they easily flow downward. This thinking hollows us out by degrading our moral selves. As Proverbs 23:7 (NASB) reminds us, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” How easily sinful thoughts spiral in a gravitational pull toward that which is dishonorable. Mentally, we start in the Sea of Galilee but end up stuck in the Dead Sea.

While our minds may seem like an out-of-control inferno, Scripture urges us to renew them by governing our thoughts. It requires us to think about our thoughts. This thoughtful and directed thinking in the Bible calls for a renewed mind. It is a mental consciousness that strives to harmonize with God’s truth found in Scripture and Christ. It transforms the content and habits of our thinking by aligning our values with God’s will. When our minds are renewed, our desires agree with God that his will is good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom. 12:2).
“Honorable” is a word found elsewhere in the New Testament to describe the character of the deacon and elder in 1 Timothy 3. It is an aspirational life quality for older men in the faith in Titus 2. The root word is “revere” or “worship,” and the sense is worthy of being lifted high and put on display. If somebody exposed our thoughts, would they earn higher respect for their virtue and nobility?

“Whatever is honorable” provides a grid to evaluate my thoughts and raises the question, “Honorable to whom?” Our world often honors the dishonorable, as the glittering honors of any significant media award show verify. The biblical measure of what is honorable is what is honorable to God. We are horrified at the prospect of others knowing our thoughts and ignorant that God knows them all.

The command to think honorably is a grace. As our contemplations marinate in what is true, beautiful, and excellent in God’s eyes, our hearts and lives increasingly reflect nobility, purity, and charity. As our inner selves think like Christ, our outer selves look increasingly like him too. When we fail and our thoughts disappoint us, it is another occasion to marvel at Jesus. He never had a dishonorable thought, and his every contemplation is worthy of our adoration.

1. What in your life is honorable to God? 
2. How can you do more of that? 
3. What changes and decisions do you need to make in order to be closer that which is honorable in your life?