Philippians 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.

In Philippians 4, Paul writes a long list of things that he wants the saints there to focus their thoughts on. He uses many adjectives to emphasize that we, as Christians, need to be thinking on godly thoughts. It is these things that should be running through our mind as the day goes by. When we have time to ourselves in order to meditate, we should be thinking about godly things. And yet so often we wind up thinking about things outside of this list.

The world is contantly bombarding us with images. A good comparison might be London during World War II. The Germans bombed the English non-stop, hoping to batter them into submission. We too are bombed non-stop. The radio plays music that often times strays from godly thoughts. Sometimes its crude humor, other times its vulgar language, and often it is just bad or even hateful attitudes being expressed. Television is no better, often adding visual stimuli to the problem. Thrown in those whom we often come in contact with, and we see that there unholy things abound, trying to penetrate into our mind and cause us to surrender.

Despite the sheer volume of the attacks, like the English, we must stay resolute in our cause. We can never surrender. Our mind is the most important battelfield that has ever been fought on. We might think that it really does not matter what we think on, because as long as we do not act on it, it is okay. Not only is this idea false (see the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5), but its misleading. What we fail to realize is that our thoughts become our actions. If we are not careful about what we think about, we will soon be amazed at what we find ourselves doing.

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.