Philippians, a book concerning the experience of Christ, was written by the apostle Paul, who was full of the experience of Christ. Paul said in chapter one that Christ would be magnified as always in his body, whether through life or through death (v. 20), and he went on to say that for him to live was Christ (v. 21). Christ was his inward life and also his outward expression. In chapter two he spoke about how he took Christ as his pattern (vv. 5-11). In chapter three he explained how he himself regarded Christ as the One of supreme preciousness and how he even suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse that he might gain, enjoy, and experience Christ (v. 8). At the end, in the last chapter, he charged and exhorted us with six virtues (4:8). Now we want to see in a practical way the six items in which we experience Christ as our virtues.
In Philippians 4 Paul referred to six virtues: being true, being dignified, being righteous, being pure, being lovely, and being well spoken of. What is described here is very beautiful. To be true is to be without falsehood, without lying, and without vanity, to be real and truthful in everything. To be dignified is to be venerable, noble, grave, and able to fully inspire and invite reverence. To be righteous is to be without anything that is wrong and to be right before God and man. To be pure is to be single, without any mixture. To be lovely is to be agreeable and endearing. To be well spoken of is to be of good repute and to be winning.
These six items stressed by Paul are superior to what most people refer to as “truth, goodness, and beauty.” These six items are divided into three groups: truthfulness and dignity, rightness and purity, and loveliness and being well spoken of. The Greek word for virtue spoken of by Paul in 4:8 denotes any virtue expressed through the development of the inner life. Such virtues are not produced by outward efforts; rather, they are manifested through the development of the inner life. This may be likened to the fruit borne by a tree. The fruit is not something as an outward ornamentation or decoration. It is the issue of the development of the tree’s life. The virtues we speak of are the good fruits produced from the development of the inner life. Verse 8 says, “If there is any virtue and if any praise.” First there is a kind of virtue as the expression of the inner nature, and then these virtues win people’s praise.
The apostle Paul was a person who experienced Christ, and the virtues which he mentioned that should be found in our human living are not worked out by ourselves. If we look at the context of this book, these virtues are produced as the expression of letting Christ live in us. Paul said that regardless of the circumstances, whether through life or through death, he would always let Christ be magnified in his body, for to him, to live was Christ (1:20-21). Since he lived Christ and expressed Christ, such virtues as truthfulness, dignity, righteousness, purity, loveliness, and being well spoken of were produced. All these virtues were developed out of the inner life and were fully worthy of praise. Our goal as Christians is to live out such virtues by living and expressing Christ.
We bring people to Christ not to improve their lives or reform their conduct, but to cause them to have the life of God so that they can live out and express God. The Bible reveals that God Himself is the One who is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. He is worthy of our praise and reverence. He created man so that man may express Him that He may be glorified in man. For this cause, He created man in His image (Gen. 1:26), which is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. When love, light, holiness, and righteousness are expressed, we see truthfulness, dignity, righteousness, purity, loveliness, and the quality of being well spoken of, all of which are virtues worthy of praise.
Due to Satan’s temptation, man sinned and fell, thereby having the sinful nature within. Yet the good nature in man, which was created by God, still exists in man. For this reason, Confucian scholars spent a great deal of time to study whether the human nature is good or evil. Actually, the human nature originally created by God is good and virtuous. However, the sinful nature that came through the fall is evil. Therefore, today all descendants of Adam have both the good nature and the evil nature.
Our own experience can prove this point. After a person is born, he does not need to be taught to pursue goodness. He has a predisposition to strive upward and to do good. When he obeys and honors his parents, he feels at ease inside. If he provokes his parents to anger, lies to them, or disobeys them, he is convicted in his conscience. This proves that there is a good nature in man. In the same manner, after we are born, without being taught and without any learning, we automatically lie to our parents and cheat them, and evil words and thoughts well up in us. After we sin, lie, or do something filthy, on the one hand we feel regretful and sorrowful, but on the other hand we want to improve ourselves. This proves that we have the good nature as well as the evil nature.