Whatever is True

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.

When we think of truth, the first thing that comes to mind is honesty, truthfulness. And certainly that is part of what is in mind here:

"The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful." (Prov.12:22)

"Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." (Eph.4:25)

"Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices." (Col.3:9)

But truth can also be unholy. Knowing everyone’s sins, for instance, and knowing the degradations of the world, these things are truly happening, but are not necessarily edifying to know about. There is more to "whatever is true" than just what is truly happening out there.

In addition to bare truthfulness, Paul is talking here about that which conforms to Christ, who is the truth (John 14:6). That is, some things that are true actually are enemies of the truth, they are pretenses. For example, when you observe the wicked prospering, that may truly be happening, but it is deceptive. It is Satan’s way of disguising the fruit of sin, to make it look good. The Psalmist was almost deceived (Psalm 73:13-14) by what he truly saw (73:2-12). He saw the wicked fat, happy, proud and at ease. But what he truly saw was false in the big picture, it was only a half-truth because it left out the destiny of the wicked and the consequences of their sin, which the Psalmist finally sees in 73:16-20.

The world is full of dishonesty, and Christians must not engage in such things. But the world is also full of demonic deceptions, which use half-truths to give a false impression. These also must be avoided by God’s people. We want to feed our minds things that point us to the truth of Christ.

Let’s take football, for example. Ordinarily, we would not think of watching a football game as something that is inconsistent with Paul’s admonition to dwell on "whatever is true." But there are many many lies being communicated by a televised football game. (I speak this as a football-fan.) Here are a few obvious ones:

1- The really important thing in life is football.
2- The important distinction in life is between players/fans of this team and players/fans of that team.
3- An outstanding play or a victory is worthy of high exhilaration. A championship is worthy of unfettered frivolity and drunkenness.
4- It is appropriate to smash, endanger and injure another person’s body as long as it is on a football field.
5- God is irrelevant. At best, He can be beseeched to lend support to one’s team to win the game.
6- Beer is what makes life fun.

Now, you may not be discerning these false messages, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. And the fact that they are subtle and indirect makes them more pernicious.

(And that’s just considering the first item on the list: "whatever is true." Think how football would fare if we applied the rest of the list as well: "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" to football.)

I am not condemning football here. And I am not picking on football as opposed to many other things. My point is that there are all sorts of lies and deceptions out there that we might not discern. If we are going to take Paul’s exhortation seriously, we must be more careful and more alert and more discerning.

"Whatever is true" refers to those things that exemplify, proclaim, publicize, call attention to and validate Jesus, who is the Truth. These are the things we should dwell on.

O God of all truth, thank You for the truth You have revealed in Your word and in Your Son. Help me to strengthen my faith by dwelling upon things that help me become more convinced of and more dedicated to Your truth. Help me to avoid lies. Help me not to listen to voices that disagree with Yours. Help me to destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. Help me to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.