My ‘whatever’ hand
Intro
The Whatever Hand
I don’t know if you have ever been on the receiving of a ’whatever’ or the hand. This action, this word is used as a defensive weapon if you like. The attacker will come to you with a suggestion for you to think about or take on board and the idea is if you don’t like it you can say ‘whatever’ or put your hand up like this and the attacker recoils knowing that the idea was not welcome. Now whilst you might think these sounds awfully rude and stubborn I do think it has itself someplace in the church and you are going to have to bear with me on this.
You see breaking this thing down is simply this. We all have developed ideas about life and thought about them and they sit in our minds cherished by us like sovereign jewels. The problem comes when someone tries to infiltrate you and your thoughts, which will affect emotions and attitudes with something your strongly disagree with. We protect those things like a fortress and woe betide anyone who dares to change it or is slightly critical, because then we are entitled apparently to put up our whatever hand.
In the olden days of course there were various options to someone dishonoring your name or thoughts. If you were really unfortunate you might find yourself on the end of a pistol dueling range fighting for the honor of your thoughts. You see protecting our thoughts is a very strong ideal.
The ‘whatever’ and the hand then is a way of ensuring we protect our thoughts without infiltration from outside, albeit seemingly rude to some and challenging to others.
Protection of our thoughts
The challenge in the Bible text we will read in a minute is to consider, what are those thoughts we so strongly protect? What are these thoughts we are so desperate to retain as being part of our makeup and are they actually worthy of our protection. The suggestion in the text we will read is that there is only one worthy thought that you should be protecting. The suggestion is that we should clear out our thoughts of unworthy things and replace them with the person of Jesus.
Influence of thought
Why you might ask. The reality of what has come into our minds obviously starts from a young age; it develops through our experiences of life, our lives benefit and is tainted by those experiences. If you have been brought up in a loving home environment, your developed thoughts as you get older might be different from another who has been without parents or had some unfortunate sadness’s at home which can cripple and taint our thoughts even into adulthood.
Our world and culture bombard us with many images and thoughts hoping those ideals will plant firmly in you. I was looking at the Olympic opening ceremony. Rightly the Olympics promote the ideal that sport exalts qualities of ‘body, will and mind’ and who couldn’t be impressed by the results of years of arduous training we see played out in the arenas. But organizations and occasions like the Olympics also promote other ideals and from a Christian standpoint we might question that. You might say Chris don’t be a stick in the mud it is only sport, but the Olympics are described is the largest singular world event and it has major influences on millions of people across the globe.
Young people from an early age as I did act out this desire to have this Gold hanging on their neck.
In the early Greek Olympic of course Greek religion played a major part in the way Olympics were run and still today on each of the medals you find the Greek god ‘Nike’!! The Rio Olympics is hosted in one of the largest Christian countries in the world 91% claiming to not only believe in Jesus but Jesus as the Savior of the world. On the hill outside Rio, lit up the largest statue of Christ standing 30m high on 710 m of granite, but within the stadium and person of Christ or any of the cultural affects that Christianity plays in the life and minds of Brazilians. What you did hear and see was a celebrated potted history including how Brazil/South America was discovered by ships arriving from Europe, Africa and china. We heard much about their culture and what makes them tick but nothing of the person of Christ. It was said though it cost a tenth of the $42m London Olympic ceremony which equally took us through a potted history of our culture in Britain and what makes us tick. Boyle the creator said ‘we will be celebrating a nation but even more so it’s people’. It celebrated punk rock, the queen, our weather, the NHS, Industrial revolution, Shakespeare the Beatles...the list goes on and all without a trace of Christianity but littered with occult, new world order and massonic symbolism.
Before you think I am anti sport I am not, I am currently petitioning for tiddly winks to be introduced as an Olympic sport alongside doughnut eating. But the point is a bigger one.
The truth is we are influenced by all sorts of things which enter our thoughts and we decipher what we find useful and encouraging and what we don’t.
But it is not all healthy. We only have to switch on the news to know of some who must have developed a twisted thought process to get where they are to do what they do. Before we point too many fingers forward we do well to point some back at ourselves. What dominates my thoughts what have I allowed to be developed in my mind, what is the controlling element.
The text encourages us and warns that the world should have just one answer to this question let us read’
A biblical antidote to unhealthy thoughts
Philippians 4
8Finally, 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.9Whatever 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.
You will have noticed we have been re-introduced to our little friend ‘whatever’ but before we look at that let us put this book into context.
The Example of Paul the Apostle
Written by Paul from a prison cell some years into his ministry. Arrested for preaching the word of God, and ultimately put to death for it too. Previous to this piece of text you will find a roller coaster of emotions suitable for someone in a prison cell, but those emotions do not move him into depths of depression or despair but a roller coaster joy and hope.
One of the subject matters he addresses is the requirement for followers of Christ to be ‘Imitators’ of Christ, to be ‘like him and to act like him’. Paul challenges the reader to take Christ like attributes of humility, forgiveness, long suffering, like mindedness, gentleness and tenderness etc, but then he comes to the reality of that challenge that the truth is most people, even followers of Christ, will find it difficult to be ‘imitators of Christ’ because our thoughts have been tainted by something or other and therefore to suddenly be this imitation of Christ seems almost impossible. So it seems for many. Paul the apostle is not blind to this, how could he be. He himself was in the same situation as us, if not worse. His thoughts some years previous to being a Christian were completely polar opposite; he had a massively different thought on it. Instead of being an imitator of Christ the only thing he wanted to do was to destroy it and its followers. He did a fair job of that too being responsible for the innocent slaughter of many believers in Christ.
He had got to that position by thought process; he had been to the anti Christian seminars, read the anti Christian literature and taken it on board. Hebelieved that Christians were wrong and he was right. Worse still, so strong was the defence of his thoughts that his anger towards the believers spilled out as blood on the streets. If a Christian would have walked up to him and Said “Paul I have to tell you that we Christians are children of the loving God and your persecution of us is wrong”, he may well have put up his hand and said simple this ‘whatever’. The truth is, if he had listened and thought at that time many Christians would have survived the sword. But he took the sword and protecting his own thought beliefshe found a way to block an infiltration of his mind and thoughtsby.
The end game
The text though suggests an antidote for the believer and particularly the unbeliever caught up by their own thoughts. Before we give the antidote, let’s look at the end result of that antidote found towards the end of the passage these words
‘And the God of peace will be with you’
It could have read the God of victory or healing or success or long life or health. But peace? Peace is the very aching of all of us. It is nice to escape the voices of anger or disruption in our lives but this peace allows you to sit amongst that anger and disruption and still be at peace because something has changed your thought process so that when someone comes to give you a hard time of the whatever hand blocking, I am comfortable in what I believe and don’t mind hearing the other. I won’t need to defend my cause or argue the rights and wrongs or justify my positioning or battle to manoeuvre my honour. This kind of peace allows me to keep my arms at my side and enjoy the ride. That’s the kind of peace I would like to enjoy, being secure in what is in your thoughts.
‘Whatever is noble’– astudy
We will pick out just one of these thoughts to fill your mind with and later you can have a go yourself in pairs at imagining what the ‘whatevers’ might look like. Let’s take the second ‘whatever’
‘Whatever is noble’,
Paraphrasing the idea is this ‘think about whatever is noble’.
You might be a person who feeds well from the thought of nobility. You might for example have a real passion for the monarchy and get that patriotic proud feeling we get seeing all that pageantry and feeling like we belong to it or under it. Some even might buy a mug with a royal head on to keep them reminded of that royal day and presence. We do some strange things to feed this sense of something in this admiring the noble acts or positioning of yourself or another.
You might have been brought up in a family where patriotism was hugely strong and influential and you could well have been stood in a conversation with an anti monarch person later in life who strongly says to you ‘this country doesn’t need a queen it should have president’ and you might be one of those whose anger rises at the suggestion and you find yourself raising your hand to the person and saying’whatever’, to protect your developed ideal and dominance of thought about this aspect of nobility. Equally you might have taken a Paul view and instead of saying ‘whatever’ you fall head long into an aggressive argument about our country and patriotism and dare I suggest that you might have taken this planted seed even further and been so offended by the infiltration into your developed thought on our nobility that you have either walked away in disgust or opened up a tirade of abuse back to the person as a great defender of your thoughts. I don’t suppose there are any here who would employ any of those tactics to defend their thoughts.
The flawed scar
The Greek artist Apelles was asked to paint a noble person, his name was Alexandra the Great one of the most influential leaders in the early centuries.
Alexander the Great the king of Greece in First Century BC, was held up is almost a God and feared and admired right across the world. When Apelles was tasked to paint Alexandra the Great he positioned him in front of the easel ready to paint. The King was adorned as a great leader would be and the artist was told to paint his suitable greatness and nobility. Apelles though noticed a problem. The king had an unsightly scar on his chest. In an act of protection the artist was told to cover up the unsightly scar, so Apelles moves the hand of the king to cover the scar so he could continue to paint. Great was his name and his nobility from one angle would be seen as great but like the scar on his chest he was littered with flaws.
You see the great noble things you have filled your mind willno matter how noble they are will be scarred, they will in reality have flaws.
When visiting Hampton court the residence of Henry 8th and James 1st I was struck at one moment by a huge reception hall, with gold all over the ceilings and fresco on the walls. A throne had been constructed so that the King could have audience with general public. King James was small and he was not happy that being sat on a chair on level ground meant he felt smaller than his people, so he has this platform built to raise him above the rest and so he could look down on them as they bowed before him.
I wonder if those who love noble ways would do the same, making them feel rather important. These are the examples by which the world often lives, power and influence and strength
The unflawed noble
But let me suggest to you another noble person perhaps who could substitute your admiration for Tudor kings, Windsor castle and Prince Harry. A king before whom all peoples will one day bow but a king who stooped at the feet of dirty disciple’s feet and washed them.
There are no cracks in the person of Jesus, there are no flaws. Wherever you look at him, at whatever angle you will find no flaws. You might say “but what about his physical scars, and yes the ugly unsightly holes in the hands and side were as beautiful a scar you would ever want to see. He did not have them covered up like Alexander but uncovered them for all the world to see, experiences and touch.
When faced with incalculable lies and beatings, this noble Prince, he did not put up his hand to say ‘whatever’ but took himself to the cross for us. When they stripped him naked and divided his clothes as bargaining lots he did not shout insults at them but gently asked his Father to forgive them. Oh his scars, his wounds, not flaws but adornments of this beautiful man.
You can look and look to try and find a flaw in this Saviour and you never will. He would not disappoint as a noble one. If you held him in great esteem and called his name the highest of nobility you would be the better for it. If you held him and his commands in honour it would be all yours to benefit because on making that simple decision you yourself become a prince of his.
The architect of the palace always has a view from it in which he is not entirely happy. Thereis no view of this man Jesus that you would be unhappy with. His life, his words his actions and example are worthy to be held in your thoughts.
Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy fill your mind with these things.
The test and challenge for us
The test is to look at these areas and ask what if anything influences me now in these areas and is it helping my life. Could I benefit from introducing more of Jesus into my thoughts?
That is the challenge though saints, because some of us have little of Jesus in our thoughts but a whole lot of the world and like Paul the apostle we could benefit from a change of mind. The outcome is this peace, not as the world gives but as Jesus gives.
The battle of your mind is Satan's greatest ambition Jesus greatest prize and once he has that he has your body too, it will affect the way you speak, listen and dance. Equally if we choose not to, we are warned of the consequences.
The example of EuodiaSyntyche
There is an example of this consequence in this chapter.
Verse 6, Paul introduces two women Euodia and Syntyche asking them to agree with each other in the Lord.