What to Think

by: Geoffrey Cox

“You are what you eat,” says the nutritionist. What we take in as food will control how our body develops. “You are what you think,” says the Bible. What we think about will direct how our minds and spirits work. Paul gives a positive and practical list of subjects to think about. Spend some time pondering each, since each is under attack or even rejected in our modern society.

• Whatever is true. Even the possibility of objective truth is rejected by many today. But Christians affirm not just that some things are true always and for everyone, but that there are absolutes because there is a God.
• Whatever is honorable . . . pure, lovely. What a contrast concepts such as purity and honor and true beauty represent in a society whose entertainment grows ever more coarse and debased.
• Whatever is commendable . . . all excellence . . . anything worthy of praise. Many today who deny that anything can be “wrong” or “right” do so in order to sin without a bad conscience. Once again, we must affirm that God’s law is absolute.
• Think about these things. How we act will be affected by what we think about.

Our cynical society would rather point out faults than admire; let’s praise more than we blame. Ideals today are treated with irony and laughed at; let’s stand for purity of thought and nobility of conduct.

Remember: you are what you think.