Godly Filtering

4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

This verse has much to say to us, but perhaps the first thing to notice is God’s call to filter what we put into our minds.

More and more people today are installing water filtering systems into their homes to remove the impurities that come with the good water. We need to do the same thing with our minds. Paul tells us here that we must be very concerned about what we allow to flow into and through our minds. It can be far more destructive than impurities in the body.

If we want good things to come forth from our lives, we must put good things in to begin with. If we put garbage into our minds, garbage is what will come out of our lives.

This speaks volumes about what movies we watch, what music we listen to, what radio and television we turn on, what books and magazines we read, what friends we spend time with, what conversations we have, and (especially today) even what news we pay attention to. We are supposed to dwell on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise.

"Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good." (Rom.12:9)

It is not enough to shield children from unwholesome influences. We must shield ourselves. All of us have lower impulses that can be fueled by unrighteous input.

But this verse applies not only to outside influences. It also applies to the thoughts we allow in our minds. We must strive to rid ourselves of unholy ponderings. If we think we can allow evil thoughts but resist evil behavior we are fooling ourselves. The source must be made clean before the outflow will be clean.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt.5:8)

O God, forgive me for being so relaxed about what I think about. Forgive me for caring so much about what people think of me and so little about what You think of me. I try to avoid evil behaviors because I want people to think of me as godly. But I am much less scrupulous about the secret thoughts of my heart. Forgive me, Lord. Help me to fear only You. And make me pure within.