Philippians
4:8 (ESV)
Finally, brothers,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Week Five = Lovely
1) A lovely, relationship God
2) Friendship is lovely
3) Where He is, is lovely
4) We are lovely to God
5) Celebrating is lovely
Heart
verse:
How lovely is
your dwelling place, O Lord of
hosts!
Psalm
84:1
Session
1 – A lovely, relationship God
From
the moment I decided to work through this Scripture in Philippians, I was
intrigued by the inclusion of the word lovely. First of all, let it roll off
your tongue –
Lovely…
Isn’t
it pretty? Isn’t the word itself kind of soft or milky?
It’s
not a word we overuse in our culture. Which is refreshing in itself. It has the
same kind of lilt as words like grace, and mercy. It is much less intimidating
than words like justice and excellence. It is very simply, lovely.
The
Greek is even more intriguing. It’s like the creamy caramel center to the milky
chocolate outer shell.
The
Greek word for lovely, in Philippians 4:8, only ever occurs in Scripture in
this passage. But the theme of it, I think you will see is all over Scripture.
So what’s the word?
Prosphile
– pleasing, acceptable, agreeable, and grateful.
Not
horribly unique, but let’s look at the two roots to this single word.
Pros
– which means extending toward and phileo. Does that ring a bell with anyone?
Phileo is affectionate caring.
Phileo is the Greek word used to express
friendship love. It’s perhaps most famous from John 21:15-19 as Jesus questions
Peter about his affection for Him carried out in the work of the kingdom. (Feel
free to check this passage out, especially using the Biblehub.com/interlinear to
see the difference in the Greek words!)
So
what good does all this “neat” and “kind of cool” Greek language knowledge do
us?
The inclusion of lovely in the Philippians 4 passage, I think gives us a little more
insight into who our Great God is. And that, my friends, is…relational.
Scripture
shows us time and again that relationship matters more to God than anything - our
relationship with Him, the relationships of His people, and relationships or
relating to others to share His love with the world.
God
loves us. Lovely, love. Wait a minute! Lovely is not an accidental word. This
is a purposeful word, with a purposeful place in Scripture and in our hearts. It
is knit together and chosen by God for our hearts.
God’s
love speaks volumes into our lives and into the lives of those around us. One
commentator’s translation* of prophile is “worth the effort to have and
embrace.” You are worth the effort to God. There is a physical affection
attached to our relationship with Him and our relationship with others, through
Him. He longs to pour His affection on you through His Word, His sacraments,
and His people. Others long to be shown an affectionate and loving God through
affectionate and loving people.
Relationships
are hard. They take energy. They take effort, a whole lot of it. But we can be
assured of one more thing through Scripture….
Relationships,
they really are lovely.
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