Thinking the Best


2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.


We have before us in this verse an example of thinking the best of others. Paul tells the Philippians that he is sending Timothy to them so that he can be encouraged by the report Timothy brings back about how the Philippians have responded to his letter. In other words, after gently admonishing them in the areas of concern, he tells them that he expects them to take all this to heart and respond appropriately.


This is Paul’s pattern. He is rather hard on those who have already proven themselves faithless (e.g. 1Tim.1:20; 2Tim.4:14), but when he is urging believers to be faithful to God he is always optimistic.


This is in keeping with the pattern of love. Paul tells us in 1Cor.13:7 that love "believes all things, hopes all things." Part of loving is believing the best about others, hoping for the best from others.


This doesn’t mean thinking the best of the devil, for instance. It means within the spectrum of our limited knowledge of another person that we give them the benefit of every doubt and think as highly of them as we can in light of what we know. We can’t see into each other’s hearts or know each other thoroughly. Most of the people we deal with we don’t know very well. What God requires is that we give the judgment of charity to others, that we come to as positive a conclusion about others as we can based on our actual experience with them (and not our mere impression of them).


After giving some very strong warnings, which make it clear that the people addressed in the letter have a very tenuous grip on their Christian faith, the author of Hebrews says to his readers, "But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way." (Heb.6:9)


And if someone says that what we have here is not Paul thinking the best of others, that Paul here was just giving his sane estimate of what he thought would happen, that he just had reason to expect good things from the Philippians based on his history with them, and that we have no obligation to lean in the positive direction in our assessment of others, then I ask that person, Where in all of Paul’s writings does he give a sane estimate that someone is going to fail? There are many times when he speaks optimistically about his fellow Christians, when does he speak pessimistically? I trust that you see my point (see, I can do it too!).


Jesus said to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us. Don’t we want others to think the best of us and not the worst? Let us then do this to one another.


Father, forgive me for how I have so often failed to think the best of Your people. Indeed, forgive me for all the times I’ve thought the worst of my brothers or sisters. Forgive me for being so negative, for always spotting the imperfections in others but missing Your glory in them. Forgive me for my love of elevating myself above others. Forgive me for dwelling on the flaws of others in order to make myself look good. Give me a heart of love, give me the heart of Jesus, that I may look upon each person you bring into my path with a desire to do them good in Christ. Help me be slow to judge and criticize and condemn. Help me to be quick to appreciate and bless and speak the truth in love.