Whatsoever Things are of Good Report

Towards the bottom of the list of approved thinking material in Phil 4:8, the verse says to think on things that are of good report. That means to think on things that sound well.

I can picture that. If I were to utter what’s on my mind, it would sound good to the hearer.

Can you imagine a loud speaker playing your thoughts to a room full of people? I bet no one would come out of that scene unscathed. Does it help at all to know that God knows all our thoughts? (Ps. 94:11) That’s sobering. In spite of it, He loves us. But when He evaluates, he’s looking for good thoughts that go with good lives.

As we’ve seen in earlier blog posts, how we think affects how we speak and how we act. (Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, Matt. 12:34).

I notice that those whose lives are said to be of good report are the ones God chooses to use for His purposes. I’m sure to get God’s approval, those with lives of good report have matching thoughts of good report behind them. Otherwise, those people are hypocrites: thinking one way and speaking/acting another way.

Here are some examples to think about:

♠And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. (Acts 10:22) Cornelius was the vessel God chose to call for Peter to announce that the gospel applied to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. So here, God wanted someone of good report (with a good testimony to the Jews) to be a part of ushering in the transition of the gospel message to include everybody.

♠Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1Tim. 3:7) A life characterized by a good report is one of the qualifications for a deacon.

♠Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. (1Tim. 5:10) This verse applies to the type of widow the church is to support. She must have a good report.

♠Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. (Heb. 11:1-2) By faith, the heroes in Heb. 11 did amazing things for God, and by it, they achieved a good report.

The point of all this is that God takes seriously having an exemplary life—one that is well reported of. If that’s the kind of life God looks to use and get glory from, it has to start with the thought life—thinking things that are of good report in order to do sincere things of good report.

If I want to be an approved vessel for God, it’s going to have to start with my thoughts. I have to toss out those that couldn’t be uttered outloud.

Lord, I don’t want to be a hypocrite who thinks one way and talks and lives another way.

Jody