“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9 NIV
Reflection: what biblical truth are you currently practicing?
There seems to be a disconnect for many Christians between what the Bible is teaching, and what they do. Most people know the Ten Commandments, regardless of their religious convictions. In fact, much of the western world has built their societies, laws and governments, on a biblical foundation, and specifically on the Ten Commandments. And without even knowing what the Bible is teaching, most people think it is wrong to murder. Wrong to steal. Those are pretty clear and universal. But most people even think it is wrong to lie, to cheat on your spouse, and to bring false testimony against someone. And perhaps even most people think we should honor our parents, the older generation.
But are we Christians leading by example here?
Do we take all of the Ten Commandments as commandments from God, or mere suggestions? How about speaking truth; not with a split tongue or deceptive language? How about being faithful to our spouse? How about gossiping and smearing others (false testimony)? How about honoring our parents and elders? What about taking God’s name in vain? No false gods or idols? Of course, these 10 commandments that God established for the Israelites 1000s of years ago are only the baseline for godly living. As Christians, we have so much more, revealed throughout the Bible.
It seems to me as if Christians often blend in too much with a very secular life. Making an argument that “we are all sinners”. That Christ already died for our sins, so that it doesn’t matter what we do. But that is not at all what the Bible is teaching. The missing part is repentance, turning around from a sinful life, and actually following Jesus as the Lord. As the teacher he is. If we agree that sin is bad, then we must commit to turn away from it. All of it. To stop idolizing people or things. To stop lying. To stop cheating. To stop swearing. You get my point.
Paul has been teaching the Philippians to live a life worthy of the gospel. Worthy of the calling to become a follower of Christ. To imitate Christ (seriously!). And with this thought of imitating the Master, we need practice. Lots of practice, as we have to do with anything difficult we want to achieve, right? I am in the middle of learning French right now, and have recently completed 300 days of practice. And the tool I am using keeps introducing more and more words and complexities all the time. Can I speak French yet? No, but I am better than when I started. I just have to keep it up, to keep practicing.
We see Paul call to practice in the focus verse today, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9 NIV. What he has taught them, he wants them (and us) to practice. As an example of something to practice is what he mentioned right before, saying “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 NIV. To train our minds to think about good things, and reject throughs by the enemy.
I don’t know where you are at. Perhaps you are struggling with even some of the fundamentals, such as lying or being deceptive. Or being negative. Wherever you are on the journey of “sanctification” (becoming more and more like Christ), realize it is a journey and it takes commitment and practice. The Bible gives us instruction and tools to help us, so that we can practice and be “the light of the world” as Jesus instructed us.