Paul’s Great Eight: What to Think About and Why!

By Neil Earle

David chose to remember the good about Saul, his most dangerous enemy. This characteristic empathy suffused the mental posture of the king whom God called “a man after his own heart.”

In the history of the church, two contradictory themes tug at believers across the centuries.

One of them is legalism – trying to please God by rigid obedience to certain standards. This bedeviled the church in the Middle Ages. Today the tendecy is the often unnoticed trend toward anti-nomianism from “nomos” – the Greek for law. Anti-nomianism takes its root from a true principle – God is supreme in matters of salvation, Christ has already paid the way for our redemption. The distortion takes place when Christians assume they can “cruise home to victory,” ignoring the Biblical call to “fighting the good fight,” to discipline, neglecting the good works God expects from his people: “Let your light so shine that they may see your good works,” Jesus taught.

As it happens, we have many inspiring “calls to action” scattered across the New Testament to help show us what God wants us from us and, yes, even what he wants us to think! Christianity is a way of life after all and to his converts in the famous Greek city of Philippi Paul outlined eight character traits for his people to strive towards with the help of the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Comforter (John 16:13). I call then “Paul’s Great 8” and the beauty is they don’t just work for “good people” or church-goers but for all of us at all times, for the lost, the lonely and the lacking from all walks of life.

They’re found in Philippians 4:8 (quoting mostly from the New King James Version).

“Whatever things are true…” gets us started. The word for “true” in the Greek is close to “alethea,” hence the woman’s name “Alethea.” It means something solid and dependable, anything which will never let us down in this often confusing world of twitters and tweets and up and down reputations. Is there anything solid we can depend upon? Think about it – what is there in your life that has been rock-solid? Paul says that this is a good question to probe as we go about our daily lives.

My mother fits this description. Over 90 years of busy life as a music teacher, church organist, choir leader she still retained a strong affection for the underdog wherever she met them. Once when someone was criticizing a food dish left by a poor woman down the road for a church function, mom sprang to her defense like the true-blue kindly and intelligent woman she was. “Whatever is true.” The truth can be painful sometimes but there are people who tell the truth even when it hurts them. In 2008 Senator John McCain did that when he publically defended his opponent Barack Obama against the charge of being a Muslim. That was a rare moment in our public life. Can you think of other people you know who were or are like that? Meditate upon this. It will do your heart good.

Number two: “Whatever things are noble…” The word refers to anything that inspires lofty, majestic thought. This may be a bit harder for us ordinary everyday people to conjure up in our day-to-day lives but majestic and lofty could mean things such as the Rocky Mountains or the Empire State Building, the Northern Lights or a day in the great outdoors. Or the remembrance of a true worthy deed we hear about from time to time.

The Bible is full of such noble case histories. Saul, the first king of Israel, had turned into a paranoid schizophrenic trying to kill his imagined rival, the warrior David. But when Saul died fighting Israel’s enemies David chose to forget the bad and remember the good and composed the most famous lament in history. “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives…they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions” (2 Samuel 1:23). David chose to remember the good about his most dangerous enemy. This characteristic empathy suffused the mental posture of the king whom God called “a man after his own heart.” A man other people could follow. And did. What an example!

“Duty faced, Duty done”

“Whatever things are just…” We usually think of this word as meaning “fair play” or legal equity but the Bible uses it more in the same way we use the word “righteous,” “right standards,” “right dealings.” Barclay writes: “The word is dikaios and the Greeks defined the man who is dikaios as he who gives to gods and men what is their due. In other words dikaios is the word of duty faced and duty done.” Joseph – one of the unsung heroes of the Christmas story – was Jesus’ foster father and husband of Mary. He is praised as a just man (Matthew 1:19). He wanted to treat Mary his pregnant fiancée fairly in spite of the social embarrassment inherent in her hard-to-explain pregnancy. This devotion to duty reveals the solid and steady character of the kind the world often overlooks. Joseph is a key figure in the events of Christmas.

Similarily, the elderly patriarch Simeon was considered “just and devout” and he was chosen by the Holy Spirit to announce the infant Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah to visitors at the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2). Here again the connotation of having a righteous duty to perform and seeing it through is a key to godly character.

Bible students know that the related word “justification” (dikaiosis) is one of the big New Testament words describing God’s actions on our behalf through the atoning work of Christ. Duty fulfilled indeed! Paul uses it to refer to the completed work, the excellence of service and attainment of our Lord and Savior who went to the cross in obedience to the Father’s will. To be just is to be like God and especially is it applied in the sense of having being faithful over time. Good deeds are immensely better than good words and the Christians in Philippi knew this was a trait their neighbors valued highly.

People Who Imspired Jesus

“Whatever is pure.” Hmm. That might seem a scary term for most of us. We well know we are sinners who are always falling short. But Jesus explained it was important to be “pure in heart” – that is, our attitudes and goals and intention at least can be pure. Pure in attitude. That is a fruit of the Spirit in us to highly desire. The pure in heart, Jesus added, will get to see God.

Lucky are you if you have people like that around you. This is why Jesus prized the attitude of blunt Nathanael and zealous Zacchaeus and studious Mary of Bethany. Nathaniel was tactless but Jesus saw his heart (John 1:43-51). The whole city of Jericho hated the scrawny little tax collector Zacchaeu, but Jesus knew there was more to him (Luke 19:1-10). Mary chose listening to the Master rather than being busy fussing with “women’s things” (John 12:1-8). Jesus loved the pure in heart. Continually on his journeys there were people who inspired him, people who meant business, who prized truth and wanted to hear more of it. The pure in heart are fervent, single-minded searchers out of the things of God, people like the man in the parable who found the pearl of great price and left everything behind. God promises to aid us in developing these great traits and to strengthen them in us.

“Whatever is lovely.” This is the only place this word is mentioned in the Greek New Testament It carries the meaning of anything pleasing or attractive. It’s been said that when we admire a great painting or a well-performed piece of music, it reveals more about us than the object. It shows what is going on inside us. When the town prostitute washed Jesus’ feet with her hair or when Mary was criticized for pouring an expensive bottle of alabaster upon his head – anointing him in advance for his burial – their single-minded devotion and purity of heart shone through. Those were lovely gestures – things worthy of admiration like a beautiful painting.

Jesus saluted this trait in people then and he values it highly today. People who are pure in heart may not stand out in the crowd but they will ultimately be recognized for their inner life, their heart’s private devotion, even though they don’t seek out fame or acclamation.

Lavish with His Praise

“Whatever is praiseworthy…” Oh how stingy we moderns are about giving praise and appreciation. It seems we let this calloused world encase us in a shell of hardheartedness. Praising God or another human being, hpwever, is very therapeutic. It brings us out of ourselves. It unlocks a flow of good feelings and generosity perhaps we’d forgoteen we had. When we admire a great athlete or a good deed performed with no strings attached it is we ourselves who are blessed. It is like Shakespeare explained about the quality of mercy whiuch rejoices in praise:

“It is twice blessed; it blesses him that gives and him that takes…it is an attribute of God himself.”

The ability to praise noble effort shows we possess empathy, a capacity for recognizing the good in others and improving the moral tone around us. Paul often praised his churches, even those to which he sent corrective letters. The Corinthians were singled out for their giftedness, the Thessalonians for their faithfulness under persecution and the Philippians for their generosity. Jesus often doled out generous praise to his loyal associates: “Blessed are you Simon bar-Jonah,” “Oh, woman, great is your faith” or “I have not found such faith in Israel.” Good character has a way of touching God's heart for no one is more pure in his motives than our heavenly Father.

Jesus’ openness and expressiveness revealed his healthy inner life. He was not wrapped up in himself and as the saying goes, someone wrapped up in Self makes a small package. Cultivate that gift of sincere appreciation. Jesus the standard for praiseworthiness in a day and age when savage criticism and sneering disapproval and questioning motives is often the norm. Television was one thing but the new social media can be something more formidable indeed and its misuse as bullying has driven people to their death. Handle these tools wisely and avoid the trap, the curse of negativism. God’s people cannot let the world rub off on them like that.

Those are six great traits we would be glad to see in our neighbors, right?

Going On to Excellence

But there are eight, we claim, and they are rounded off with Paul’s summary appeal to his converts to highly value anything excellent or praiseworthy. Excellence or arête was almost the cardinal Greek virtue. It usually referred to excellence in the games, or in war or in letters or philosophy. Greek history was pervaded with it – whether the heroic resistance of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae or the willingness of Socrates to die for his principles. Paul uses arête here only once but it was so very relevant to his hearers who lived near where the Olympic Games began.

In Philippians 4:8, then, Paul summons his people to be the very best they can be, as we say today. “Draw upon the best of your past and present.” Become that "living sacrifice" Paul urged us to be in servitude to godly excellence of character (Romans 12:1). The light we shine may help spread even more the hopeful message of salvation to a darkening world amidst so much despair. This will make us “praiseworthy” before God and men, as was Jesus. It will help keep us in God’s grace as his ambassadors of peace, wholeness and holiness. We are called by the Gospel to live in such a way as to summon forth the best results from those around us, in spite of our own manifold sins and weaknesses.

All of this is accomplished by God’s grace, our responding to him in prayer and thanksgiving. But we’re not to be so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good. Paul wanted his new converts in Philippi to elicit praise from those around them, to remind people that the way of God is still abroad in the land. Indeed, Paul’s great eight are almost a mini-curriculum in Christian living, as true and relevant and as worth our attention today as when they were first written.