by Edwin Crozier

As Paul continued to instruct the Philippians in the wake of calling out Euodia and Syntyche, he addressed two important aspects of maintaining harmony.

First, recognize that a great deal of disharmony comes from anxiety. Let’s face it. Viewing others as more significant and prioritizing their interests over our own can make us anxious about our own. If we always put others before ourselves, we might lose out. Anxiety starts to build. When we get anxious about something, we start to get defensive around it. When we are dominated by fear, we start to circle the wagons to protect ourselves. Further, we lash out at others who tread on our anxieties. How often does internal fear come out in relationships as external anger?

Paul explains how we are to face our anxieties. Bring them to God in prayer. Jesus told us God is a good Father who knows what we need and will provide for us (see Matthew 6:8-14, 25-34; 7:7-11). Therefore, when anxieties begin to take hold of our minds, we can turn to God in faith. He will care for us. He will provide for us. Trust Him.

Second, recognize that much of the disharmony comes from our mental fixations. Like anxiety, we can let our minds run away with us. Whether talking about our perspectives of other people or our outlook on situations, we can start to play out the future like a videotape full of envy, anger, despair, and fear. By the time we are done with this kind of fantasizing, we see ourselves living under the bridge down by the river, homeless and friendless.

In addition to prayer, we need to learn to redirect our thinking. When the enemy's whisperings cause us to fixate on dishonorable, unjust, impure, or base meditations about other people or our life situation, we need to exercise our ability to redirect our thinking. We must attack the lies of negative fixations and fantasies with the kind of thinking Paul directs in Philippians 4:8. We must fill our minds with what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

This redirected thinking can play out in multiple ways. First, we need to redirect our thinking to meditate on God and His ways. No one and nothing fit the description of Paul’s meditation instruction better than God. Second, as we consider our circumstances, rather than fantasizing about all the awful things that might happen, we should meditate on the blessings of God and His presence in our lives. Where will His blessings lead us? Third, as we start to negatively spiral in our minds about other people, we need to redirect our thinking to the excellent, pure, lovely things about them.

Let’s not take Paul’s instruction further than the context intended. Paul wrote in the context of congregational disharmony between sisters. As we deal with these interpersonal struggles, we should rejoice, show reasonableness, pray, and redirect our thinking. Paul does not mean we should gloss over the negative and dangerous realities of circumstances and people with mere Pollyanna-ish positivity. For instance, if we have lost a job, our fears about where our next meal will come from should drive us to look for work and to pray and meditate on God’s blessings.

Further, Paul is not asking us to ignore serious and harmful sins by telling us to pray about them and think more positively. No doubt, had the disharmony between these sisters been caused by one of them committing sexual immorality with the husband of the other, Paul’s instructions would have been quite different (recall I Corinthians 5). At the same time, prayer and God-focused meditation would help through those difficulties.

If we pursue the harmony Paul proclaims in this letter, we will not fixate on our anxieties. Instead, we will bring them to God in prayer and direct our thoughts to what is good, beautiful, and excellent. In so doing, the God of peace will guard us and our relationships.

Praise the Lord!