The Beautiful Things

Paul writes that there are things that are noble and worth of praise and these are things that ought to occupy our minds. He makes a list which can be summed up as thinking beautifully. There is beauty in people. Beauty is one of those things that I do not completely understand. To the extent that people are made in the likeness of God they are beautiful. Some are a little more polished that others but all have beauty.

We automatically go to the surface of things. We look at the paint job and are fooled by what is under the hood. Paul is challenging us to see as God sees to look beneath the skin and the appearance of things and find the good, true and beautiful things in the people that we live with.

If I were to ask you to make a list of things that annoy you about someone close to you the pen would fly across the page. What about if I asked you to write down the gifts and abilities and beautiful ways in which that person displays the character of God. Pause… These are things that ought to jump out to us, the things that must become obvious to us if we are to live in harmony and unity among imperfect but redeemed people.

I don’t think that Paul is advocating a blind ignorance in assessing people but a hopeful optimism believing the best, putting arrogance aside and confessing our self-righteous judgments. We do not know the motives of men, therefore we must make mistakes evaluating with the grace of God.