Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is lovely, whatever is good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worth of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. NASB
Maybe it is a little difficult for me to focus on the things that have a good repute. Especially when I live in a culture politically, nationally, and locally that tends to be very critical with high expectations of everyone and everything. Paul’s use of euphemos (Gk) or good repute means: sounding well, good saying, things spoken in a kindly spirit, with good will to others, of good report or gracious. The opposite is gossip that harms.
Wow, and Paul is challenging me to not only dwell on things that have a good report and are praiseworthy, but also integrate that type of communication in my life without getting pulled into any gossip. There’s a challenge!
My Mother said, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” That would encourage compliments or exhortation meant in a good way for people today. But “NO”, we have television sarcasm, insult books, and reality shows based on negative put down type humor, which by the way does very well financially!
My son, who is an elementary teacher, implements a great system to help deter the negativism in the classroom. If he hears a “put down” from a student toward another individual he requires three “put ups.” That sure slows down the insults. Who wants to give all those compliments or good reports to someone, right?
God knew that we would always have the accuser of the brethren whispering negative thoughts in our head as “put downs,” or criticism from so called friends. One of His counter attacks (put ups) is to have His saints prophesy edification, exhortation, and comfort that build up the body directly from Him through the believers.
I guess it is possible to communicate things that are praiseworthy and whatever is a good report, when the thoughts come straight from the Lord! Or here is a novel idea; how about being encouraging?
In His Covenant Love,
Thanks to Dr. Skip Moen for his research, which is represented in the above message.