Right out of high school I was employed in a factory that made electrical coils. My job was in the inspection department. After the product was assembled it finally reached our department on the assembly line. Before we boxed them up and shipped them out, we carefully inspected the coils to ensure that they passed various tests. Some of the coils had to be rejected because they were defective in one way or another.
When I think of my time in that factory I am reminded of another assembly line in scripture. Philippians 4:8 tells us: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things”. This verse reveals our need to have an inspection department in our mind. Every day thoughts come into our head from various sources. Some of those thoughts are ungodly and dangerous to our spiritual life. Evil thoughts of lust, anger, and revenge come our way. The assembly line will bring in thoughts of our past failures, feelings of unworthiness, or even bitterness toward someone. How can we keep these thoughts from lodging in our mind and leading us into sin and discouragement. We need a filter. Philippians 4:8 can help us to remove ungodly thoughts from the assembly line. Anything that is not true, noble or unjust should be eliminated. Anything that doesn’t meet the standards of being pure, lovely, or of good report should not be allowed in our thinking. Only those things that are virtuous and praiseworthy deserve to have space in our meditation.
The inspection department in my factory was trained to eliminate products that didn’t come up to the company standards. Only the coils that passed inspection were allowed to be shipped out. Evil and ungodly thoughts will attempt to lodge themselves into our thinking. God’s Word is the company standard. Any thought that doesn’t measure up should be thrown off the assembly line.
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