Think on Things that are of Good Report

Let’s turn to Philippians chapter 4 this morning and continue a series of lessons that we’ve been doing on verse 8 of that chapter, and that is, of course, the Think on These Things series that we’ve been looking at each one of these words that we’re supposed to think on, and we’ve talked about a lot of them, but we want to continue and think about the next word that’s in this list of words and think about this morning: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

And so this is a great list of things to think about. And we’ve been thinking about these things in our series here every month or so. And in thinking about these things, it helps us to understand a few things about ourselves. First of all, that we can control what we think and that God expects us to control what we think.

In Proverbs 4 and verse 23, the Bible says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” We have a heart, and the heart isn’t our blood pump, but rather our mind, our soul, our spirit, the Bible heart, We are told to protect it, to keep it as we might protect something that we put in a precious jar or a precious vase or maybe a jewelry box of some kind. We protect it. We keep it. We’re supposed to do that with our hearts. Keep your heart with all diligence. Why is that? And here’s the reason. Because from your heart, the issues of life spring forth. Matters of life.

Things of life, how you conduct your life, how you live your life. All of these things come from within and inside of our heart. And so we need to make an effort to keep our heart. And we do that by thinking on things that are good. And there’s no shortage of things to think on as we have discussed in our lessons.

And so we must think on things that are of good report. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about this morning. Now, the term good report in English, it is, you know, we think about a good report as being someone telling a story of something that’s happened and it’s a good story, you know.

But that’s not exactly what the Greek word means here, and so the translation is kind of difficult in that regard, but it’s only one word that Paul uses here, and it’s translated with two English words, good report. But it’s this Greek word, euphemos, euphemos. And it has the idea of one who has a kindly spirit, or who has good will, or is gracious, or is friendly.

And so this is an adjective. It’s not a noun, as it is in English. In Greek, it’s an adjective. And it’s that which is of good report. Like, you know, we see these adjectives that are being used in the list here. True, noble, just, pure, lovely. Good report. Well, it’s describing something and it’s not a noun in and of itself. The word report, though, we think about that as a noun, right?

And so we think, well, good report. A report is something that you give. And so it’s a good story, a good report. But that’s not really what it means. It’s an adjective. This one word is an adjective. It means to be well-spoken about or to have a kindly attitude or a kindly disposition. And the idea here is a little different than what the English seems to indicate.

So I’ve kind of broken it down into four points to consider. And those four points will be this, that when we are to think on things that are of a good report, so to speak, we are to think about things that are, number one, friendly, friendly. Number two, gracious. And I believe some translations even translate this word gracious instead of good report.

And then, well-intentioned. And then finally, the word itself even has overtones of holiness within it, or piety. And so we’re going to think about those four areas when we think about things that are of good report. So let’s consider those four areas.

First of all, when we think about things of a good report, we think about things that are friendly. Well, what does it mean to be a friend? What does it mean to be friendly toward other people? If we’re going to think about things that are of a good report, then those, you know, when we think about that, we’ve got to think about friendly things.

Good reports come from friendly people and people who are being friends with us. And the Bible has a lot to say about friendship and what it means to be a friend. First of all, friends show kindness. Job 6 and verse 14, Job said, “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend.” And the idea here is that a friend, when they go to visit someone who is sick, they don’t heap a bunch of criticism on them, you know.

They treat them kindly. They treat them well, trying to encourage them, trying to help them in regard to their illness or in regard to their difficult circumstances, whatever it might be. And so friends show kindness to one another. But then notice also what it means to be a friend is that friends don’t talk bad about each other, you know, behind their backs.

I’m not going to take my friend and go over here and assassinate his character to someone else and then say that he’s my friend, right? That’s not how friends treat each other. Psalm 15, verse 3 tells us that. That a friend is one “who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend.”

You know, and these are people who dwell with God, who dwell in God’s holy temple. Psalm 15 has the subject of. And so, you don’t backbite. You don’t do evil to your neighbor. Don’t take up a reproach. Friends don’t talk bad about each other. Friends are faithful to one another.

That is, they’re going to help out, you know. When circumstances warn it, when circumstances dictate that, friends step up. And Proverbs 17, verse 17 says that. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” So even in difficult times, friends are going to stick with one another.

And so when we think about thinking about good things, we want to think about friendship and that friendship is something that we carry with us and that we are faithful to one another in our friendship. And friends tell each other the truth. And sometimes we have to level with our friends and we have to talk to them about what is right and what is wrong. And that doesn’t mean we hate them. It means rather that we love them and we care about them. Proverbs 27, verse 17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” And so we help each other, we sharpen each other. Iron against iron is a rough thing to do, it’s, you know, sharpening tools and implements requires some force, and there’s sparks maybe even, but we do it because we know it’s for the betterment of that tool.

And it can be the betterment of one another as friends if we will recognize that. So when we think about things that are a good report, we think about things that are friendly, showing kindness, not talking bad about each other, being faithful, and telling each other the truth. And friends are not hostile to each other. Proverbs 18, verse 24, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly.”

And we want to be friendly when we think about things that are of a good report. But then secondly, when we think about things that are of a good report, we’re thinking about things that are gracious in nature. And what does it mean to be gracious in nature? How do we think about that within our life?

Well, first of all, gracious people give. Think about Jesus’ words as reported by the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 and verse 35. When Paul said, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak.”

And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. A gracious person gives. Now Jesus was full of grace and truth, John chapter 1 tells us. And it is more blessed, he said, to give than to receive. And so a gracious person is one who is going to be giving to others. A gracious person is going to speak graciously with others. Think about Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 29. “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Grace here, in this sense, means favor. That is, it shows favor to others by the words that we speak. And we want to speak beautiful words to one another. We want to speak gracious words.

We don’t want our words to be laced with profanity or with curses or with things that are impure and improper. No, we want our words to be gracious. And so to think about things that are of good report means to think about things that are gracious in our words.

And when you think about gracious people, gracious people overcome evil with good. Romans 12 and verse 21 tells us, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” A gracious person isn’t going to return evil in kind, right? A gracious person is going to approach the situation in a way that is going to be beneficial and helpful. And that’s the kind of attitude that we need to have. That’s the kind of thing we need to be thinking about when we think about being gracious.

And gracious people are going to seek to bless others. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9 tells us, “Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” And who was Peter talking about in this context? He was talking about Jesus Christ. And when he went to the cross, you know, He didn’t revile those who reviled Him. He didn’t fight back against those who were fighting Him. He was gracious and He was a blessing to others because when He died on that cross, He blessed us greatly by giving us the forgiveness of sins, Peter tells us in Acts chapter 3. And so gracious people are a blessing. Gracious people give. Gracious people speak graciously. And gracious people overcome evil with good. So when we think about things of good report, we need to think about things that are gracious. But then third, things of a good report are things that are well intentioned. They’re well intentioned. And when we think about being well intentioned, you know, what does that mean? What does it mean to be well intentioned? Well, it means to have good intentions toward others and to think well of others and their intentions.

And that’s very important because, you know, a lot of times when you come to a relationship, people come to relationships with suspicion. They come to relationships with questioning. They push people away before the relationship even begins. Well, we don’t want to approach our relationships like that. We want to have good intentions when it comes to our relationships.

And so, first of all, when we think about being well-intentioned, well-intentioned people assume the best. You know, when we look at the Apostle Paul’s letters, just about all of them start off with assuming the best about those to whom he is writing.

In 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 2 and 3, he says this, “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope.” What if we began all of our relationships with this, with thanking God for this person and making mention of them in prayer and thanking them for their good work? How great would our relationships be if we began with good intentions, right? With well intentions, thinking well of others.

Well-intentioned people begin with trust because they love other people. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 7 says, Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” That’s a person who begins with trust. And we go to that relationship with trust to begin with. And we want to be people who trust other people because we love them.

And so well-intentioned people begin with trust. And well-intentioned people don’t support wickedness. That’s not to say that if somebody is doing something wrong that we support that. No, not at all. We want to begin with trust. We want to be well-intentioned, assume the best. But if somebody is doing something they shouldn’t be doing, we’re not going to support that.

1 Peter 3 and verses 10 and 11 says, “For ‘He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.’” And so, well-intentioned people turn away from evil so that they can do good. We want to do good toward others.

Well-intentioned people, therefore, don’t support wickedness. Well-intentioned people want good for others. And Jesus said as much here in Luke chapter 6, in verse 35, when He said, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”

Now, if we’re supposed to love our enemies and be kind to the unthankful and evil, how are we supposed to treat our friends? Even better than that, right? And so when we think about being well-intentioned, well-intentioned people want good for others. They don’t support wickedness. They begin with trust and they assume the best. And that’s part of thinking about things that are of good report.

And then finally, as we think about things that are of good report, we’ll be thinking about things that are holy as well. Certainly, holy things are of a good report, just as well-intentioned things are of a good report, and gracious things are of a good report, and friendly things are of a good report. We want to think about these holy things.

When we think about holiness, what are we thinking about? What does it mean to be holy? Well, first of all, holy people want to worship God. And that is one of the key things that the Father is seeking out of holy people.

Jesus said in John 4, verses 23 and 24, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

And so holy people are people who want to worship God. Holy people keep their lives pure. Think about what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7, in verse 1. He said, He said, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Perfecting holiness in the fear of God means cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Now, that’s what the Word of God says, not me. Now, I know there’s a lot of people who don’t agree with that in the religious world today, but that’s what the Bible says.

And that’s what we’ve got to believe when it comes to perfecting holiness and the fear of God. Yes, part of that process is keeping our lives pure and clean. And that’s very important to God. Perfecting holiness and holy people are people who want to see the Lord. Hebrews 12 and verse 14 says, It says, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” And so, we want to see the Lord. And what does that mean? It means we have to pursue holiness. And when we’re thinking about things of a good report, we’re going to think about holy things, things that are clean and pure and good. And holy people want to be like God.

Now, Peter says this in 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16, “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” Holy people desire to be like God. They desire to imitate God. And because they desire to imitate God, they want to be holy within their lives.

And so as we think about things that are of a good report, we’re going to be thinking about things that are holy. There are so many things that we can think about that are good. And when we think about things that are of a good report, we should be thinking about things that are friendly, things that are gracious, things that are well-intentioned, and things that are holy.

Well, maybe this morning you need to start on the path of thinking about these things. Think about these things is what this verse says. There’s a lot to think about and you need to inform your mind with those things to think about by studying the Word of God, hearing it and believing it. And then as you come to believe it, you’re going to want to repent of your sins.

Those unholy things, those things that are not good, those things that have been occupying your thoughts for so long and you need to put away, you can be forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ through hearing His Word and believing it, repenting of your sins, confessing Jesus as the Christ. You know, Jesus is the source. He’s the author. He’s the one who gives us good things to think about. If it weren’t for Him, we really wouldn’t have a lot to think about.

By way of good things, but He has done so much good for us. And the story of Jesus is the story, the best story of good report that we can be thinking about. And so we confess Him as our Lord. And then we’re baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins, is what the Bible tells us to do.

And there’s no better thing to think about than to think about one who had been in a life of sin and now turning that life around and bringing it to Christ and being baptized to have his or her sins forgiven.

Now that’s worthy of thinking about. That’s something of good report. And maybe this morning someone’s here who would like to do that today. If that’s your situation, we’d be happy to help you with that. Maybe you need prayers. Maybe you need to help in thinking about good things, thinking about these things, and prayer can help us on that path. If that’s your situation, we’d be happy to pray with you and for you. And if you have a need this morning that you’d like to make known, you can come forward and do that right now while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!