Help those who have trusted and relied on God to be careful to devote themselves to do good and honorable things. These ways are excellent in themselves, and good and profitable for the people. (Titus 3:8)
This post builds on The Faulty Walnut and God’s Remedy and Think and Practice Whatever Is True
Healthy Thinking and Living is Needed
Dr. Darby Saxbe is a clinical psychologist and professor who researches stress in relationships. She asserts that therapy works best when people come into counseling sessions believing that they can get better, that their problems are treatable, modifiable, and malleable, not fixed. Saxbe says that we have overcorrected from an era when mental health was shameful to talk about. Now people catastrophize normal daily stress and problems. This makes us think there is always something wrong with us that needs our attention, which causes us to pull back from social engagement, which causes even more distress and anxiety.1 What a vicious cycle!
Philippians 4:8-9 teaches that if we dwell on negative or sinful thoughts, our thinking and living degenerates. Feelings of pride, pessimism, selfishness, shame, and destruction tempt us to turn aside from God and His paths of life. But there is hope in Jesus Christ! If, by the Holy Spirit’s help, we fill our minds and lives with Jesus’ holy and honorable ways, healing and health can happen. We begin to see and respond to the world as the Lord does in truth, righteousness, and love.
Noble Thinking and Living
In Psalm 16, the Lord calls His followers the noble ones who He delights in. We are to depend on Christ the Most Noble One and be faithful to Him. We are to be God’s saved-by-grace people with noble character, and high moral principles and ideals. By God’s Holy Spirit working in us, we are to be righteous, virtuous, good, ethical, reputable, unselfish, and self-sacrificing.
In Philippians 4:8, the Greek word for noble is semna, meaning honorable, respectable, decent, and dignified. Christians are to move through life, remembering that we are set apart by the Lord and for Him. All Christians are to live this way, especially elders and deacons in God’s church.2 Likewise leaders in government, businesses, schools, and organizations must never lead in a way that harms those who have put their trust in them. Leaders must be dedicated to the welfare of those they lead, not to enriching themselves.3
Noblesse oblige is a French expression that means people with higher standing must be more socially responsible. Philippians 3:20-21 says: “Christians are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we eagerly wait for Him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like His own.” That’s the highest standing, so Jesus’ followers must be generous, good, and kind toward those less privileged.
Noble Only by God’s Grace
Jesus calls us to remember that few of us were wise by human standards when He chose us, or from places of power, or from upper-class families.4 And even if we come from a place of privilege, we should be humble about it.5 Only by God’s grace are we His chosen people, His royal priesthood, His holy nation, God’s special possession.6 We are like the turtle sitting on top of a fencepost. We didn’t get to our privileged position by our own merit. The Lord put us here!7 Isaiah 2:11-17 says that everyone who is lifted up but does not glorify the Lord will be brought low. Only God’s grace makes us different from the world.8 He called us out of darkness into His wonderful light so that we show Jesus’ light to others.
Nobleness is Fueled by Scripture Truth
In Philippians 4:8, nobleness follows truth. Acts 17 tells of the noble Bereans who were teachable and open-minded in the best way. They received Bible teaching with great eagerness, but they were not gullible. They tested all that they heard by the Sacred Scriptures. Correct and sound teaching is essential to salvation and growth in spiritual maturity, so God calls us to be discerning not foolish. Christians must recognize false teachers and not be led astray. Jesus said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many choose that. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”9
Nobleness Means Living Like Christ’s People
Scripture says:
- Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.
- Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.10
Nobleness Includes Mentoring Others
Pastor Robert Lewis wrote about “Noble Masculinity” urging men to disciple one another.11 Scripture talks also about older women mentoring younger ones and this is just as important.12
Lewis said that men are struggling and need godly men to help and urge them on to live like Jesus. Otherwise they fall back into a dumbed-down masculinity that follows the cheers of the world, obsessive careerism, selfish pursuits, and unrighteous deeds. Lewis mentioned an older man (let’s call him Richard) who felt like he had no purpose in life. Lewis urged him to help younger men to be Christ-like husbands, fathers, workers, and churchmen. Lewis said: “You’ve got seventy years’ experience, and here’s a generation of guys who haven’t had anybody to share real life with them.” At a church meeting, Lewis mentioned Richard as an available teammate and coach in life. Young men wanted to meet Richard, and now he meets with five or six guys a week and has a waiting list of more.
Being a mentor means investing in another person’s life, while still being very imperfect ourselves. If we are saved-by-grace Christ-followers, and are growing in faith and faithfulness to Jesus, we can come alongside other people to help them follow the Lord. Author C. S. Lewis was honest about his own shortcomings and didn’t consider himself an expert, but he offered to help others. He said: Think of me as a fellow traveler who, having been following Christ a little longer could give some advice.
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. (Proverbs 27:17)
Prayer
Heavenly Father, You are rich in grace and mercy to us. We were dead in our sin, but You made us alive in Christ. And because of Your great love, You are transforming us into Jesus’ likeness. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Help us to love the way Christ loves, to humble ourselves as He humbled Himself, and to trust and obey You as Jesus did in all things. Enable us to see people and invest in them the way He did while here on earth and still does. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen
Notes (various Bible translations used): 1 Derek Thompson, “How Anxiety Became Content,” the Atlantic (12-13-23). 2 1 Tim 3:8,11; Titus 2:2. 3 theologyofwork.org/honorable-leader. 4 1 Cor 1:26. 5 Phil 3:7-9. 6 1 Peter 2:9-10. 7 More on this at wohbm.org/haughty-or-humble. 8 1 Cor 4:7. 9 Matt 7:13-14. 10 Matt 5:16; John 15:8; Luke 6:35. 11 Adapted from Leadership Journal (Spring 2002, p. 28). 12 Titus 2:3-4.