Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion from Presence: Resilient Witness in Times of Retreat and Revival by Jon Thompson.
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There is a word we need in the western Church right now—an idea, a time period, an experience. It is the word renaissance. It’s a word that brings up many images, museums, and thoughts, but what does it really mean? Renaissance refers to a revival of or renewed interest in something. And what do we as orthodox, creed-confessing, Bible-holding Christians need? We need a renaissance; we need a renewed interest in beauty.
Yes, the world is complicated, unjust, and so much light seems to be vanishing. Yes, the world, the flesh, and the devil are large and overbearing. Yes, they are real and their influence is massive, but still,
beauty is everywhere.
If you don’t look for those fingerprints of God, you will be awash in the darkness, and you won’t want to witness and bring more beauty because you will be tempted to give up and say all is lost.
Without seeing the beauty, we either lose hope or just want to burn it all down and start over like some Christianized Thanos from the Marvel universe. We need to talk about how seeing God’s beauty will help us to not grow cold and bitter inside before we move to share that beauty with others! I love what Russ Ramsey said in his book Rembrandt Is in the Wind, reflecting on our deep, core need for beauty as Christians:
We have a theological responsibility to deliberately and regularly engage with beauty for three reasons. First, God is inherently beautiful. The book of Exodus tells us that Moses’ desire to see God was a hunger to look upon beauty. King David expressed the same longing in Psalm 27:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
Moses and David didn’t just want to see beauty. They wanted to see God. They knew there was no greater beauty to see. Second, God’s creation is inherently beautiful. There is beauty all around us, and it points to the glory of God. When God rested from creating, He said the world He made was “very good.” This goodness is not according to the world’s standards, but to God’s word. And in God’s kindness, the fall did not erase the beauty of creation. It’s there to behold, if we’ll only look. And when we see it, it will teach us about the Author of beauty. Third, God’s people shall be adorned in beauty for all eternity. Those who are in Christ will one day be “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Psalm 149 describes this beauty as the glory of being “adorned with salvation.” These verses are meant to draw us a response of praise. We should engage with beauty deliberately and regularly because these are the clothes we will walk around in for all of eternity.1
Thomas Aquinas, while struggling to work out revelation, evangelism, apologetics, and the fall, came to the conclusion that revelation is like a two-story house. You can enter the house (come to know that God exists) through nature, philosophy, reason, beauty, moral experience, and so on, but to go to the second story of the house, you need divine intervention. This is special God-given faith (specific revelation), not just reason.2 Why does this matter for your faith, your hope, and your soul in this very different and difficult moment?
Well, as Christians, we know God personally through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. We know Him up close. For us God is not far away, hidden, obscured, or lost. We have been given special revelation. Even though we know the beginning and the end, we should not and cannot diminish or ignore what God has given all around us. Actually, we need to spend more time on the first level of the house, so we don’t lose hope for our now and be tempted to live only for the “not yet.”
The apostle Paul fights for this, walking us back downstairs with his most famous grouping of thoughts about anxiety, joy, suffering, and beauty. We will get there in a moment, but first, let’s zoom out.
- Hope. It is a small word and a big word. It has become a churchy word, but it is a needed word.
Hope is at the epicentre of the Christian faith. Christian hope creates the environment and the foundation for another rare item—joy. And the reason hope and joy are both powerful, authentic, inspiring, threatening, and life changing is because of where they are the strongest—when God redeems, reuses, and clarifies our suffering. Suffering is where the brightest Christian hope and Christian joy shines.
Christian hope and joy are supernatural, are connected to Jesus, and are gifts. Say that again? Christian hope and joy are unearned gifts. That’s right. Jesus said there would be many troubles in this world, yet we are called to have hope and joy—unexplainable, contagious, outrageous, infectious, unnatural hope and joy. The only way this can happen is when we walk with, under, and alongside of Jesus. What did Jesus promise us if we know Him and obey Him?
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. — John 15:11 ESV
We are not called to live under the weight of our circumstances, nor are we called to live above them; we are called to walk in them, empowered by the Spirit of Jesus day by day.
We cannot avoid fear, worry, stress, or darkness. But we are called to walk with Jesus through them.
This is why Paul not only wrote conceptually about hope and joy but actually experienced them both. I think we need to be reminded sometimes that Paul was just a person like you and me, who struggled, wondered, and experienced life. And his life was actually much more difficult than many of our lives! Listen to what he went through after becoming a Christian and beginning to talk about Jesus to others:
I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. — 2 Corinthians 11:23–29 MSG
Okay, that is a serious list. Paul should be burnt out, angry, jaded, tired, done, hating those he was supposed to love, neurotic, and nothing more than a power-driven shell of a church leader. He should have moved to some sort of agonistic worldview, crying out, “It’s too much to handle! Where are you, God? If this is what I got called into, I am out!”
(At this point you might be saying, Jon, beauty. I thought this chapter is on beauty. Yes, it is, just give me a moment. Back to Paul.)
Despite all of his hardships, Paul is not a destroyed leader or a despondent Christian. Somehow he is living in the environment of Christian hope and is marked by deep joy. And he chooses to express this joy in great detail in the most unexpected place, writing a letter to the Philippians while he’s under house arrest in Rome, two years before he was murdered for his faith.
Paul helped found the Philippian church around AD 50. It was probably the first church established on European soil. You can read that story in Acts 16.3 But it has been ten years since then. Paul is in jail, the Philippian church has grown, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he writes this letter thanking them for their gifts and urging them to keep going. It is a letter of friendship and encouragement, not of persuasion or dealing with false teaching, which is why so many love it. It is one of his most personal letters, if not the most personal, written to a church.
The book of Philippians is only 104 verses long and is filled with grand themes about the centrality of Jesus, the power of the gospel, the call for community, and faithfulness in suffering. But underneath them all is the grand theme of joy. It acts like the foundation, the infrastructure, the bedrock; it’s like an underground river that seeps in and through the whole letter. Joy bubbles up time and time again.
And one of the clearest places he unpacks joy and peace is in one of the most quoted group of verses. These verses have been written on Bibles, on mirrors, journals, printed on stickers, scribbled on sticky notes, and posted on social feeds many times. But—and this is huge—most of us never slow down enough to hear, let alone understand, what is being promised (and its connection to beauty).
Okay, to the famous verses we go:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. — Philippians 4:4–6
Do not be anxious about anything. What a shocking command! But what is anxiety anyway? Anxiety can be expressed in many ways. I still have not been able to recall where I heard or read the ideas below but they are so helpful.
Worry: something that may or may not occur
Stress: strain over a situation we cannot control
Fear: uneasiness over possible danger, evil or pain
Darkness/Fear experience: the actual touching of danger, evil, or pain
Since this passage in Philippians is often preached quite badly, let’s not forget its original context: The section about anxiety refers to persecution—getting beat up or losing a job, experiencing death, imprisonment, or intimidation, losing friends or family because of your public faith in Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke used the word anxiety when relaying how Jesus taught the Twelve to not worry when they would face local religious councils, kings, or governors.
Paul is not talking about normal fear, nor is he talking about anxiety rooted in mental illness. As one author wrote, “Since their present suffering is at the hands of those who proclaim Caesar as Lord, they are reminded that the true ‘Lord’ is near!”4
Since the Lord is near, thank God that you get to suffer as Jesus did and don’t forget to come to Me in prayer, God says. So in the face of real anxiety and mistreatment, pray with petitions and thanksgiving!
And what is petition again? Petition is asking God into situations, asking God for things, asking God’s will into all we face. I love what Spurgeon wrote, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.”5
But it’s not only about asking. Our prayers must be filled and grounded in thanksgiving. We must recall God’s mercy, love, and works done in the past, present, and future. We must express joy to the Lord, thanking God for His faithfulness, protection, and benefits and, most importantly, for the crystal clear and certain future of the resurrection and Jesus making all things right. Another author wrote,
Lack of gratitude is the first step to idolatry (Romans 1:21). Thanksgiving is an explicit acknowledgment of creatureliness and dependence, a recognition that everything comes as gift, the verbalization before God of His goodness and generosity. If prayer as petition indicates their utter dependence on and trust in God, petition “accompanied by thanksgiving” puts both their prayer and their lives into proper theological perspective.6
- The believer should pray, Paul says, about every circumstance and should couple those requests with thanksgiving.
In that, the peace that passes understanding will come:
The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:7
Paul is not talking about the peace we experience between us and God through the work of Jesus—that is right standing. But from that foundation, we receive this peace: God will make all things right. As you read Philippians 1–2, Paul says that in transitional times, in difficult times, in dangerous times, we must work out our troubles with each other because of Jesus’s work in us. He instructs us to be gentle to those who attack us because of Jesus’s work in us. But then he goes somewhere most of us do not. Paul invites us (or really, commands us) not to be consumed by fear and worry because of Jesus’s work in us.
And then he is like, “Just stop. Look up and around and see that God, His work, and His beauty will be found even in the midst of persecution and suffering. All around you there are not just echoes of Eden, but signs of what is to come.” And so we come to these often quoted yet rarely well-interpreted group of verses:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. — Philippians 4:8
Okay, let’s just walk through these one by one.
Whatever is true: In Paul, this is narrowly understood. It is fully expressed and defined by God—His gospel and His laws that reflect His truth. It is specific revelation. That is truth.7
Whatever is noble: What is sacred, what is holy, what is majestic—these are things that are still connected to God Himself.8
Whatever is right and pure: That is what is correct, what is moral, what is specifically God-given: His life-giving laws. Since we now have the whole Bible, Paul would instruct his readers to think on, be formed by, swim in all of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. That is right and pure.9
And this is where most preaching and most Bible studies end. Most say, what else do we need? We have God, His Word, His law, His grace, His revelation. That’s enough. But Paul says that it’s not enough, especially not during violent times. Paul goes further. He pushes us to see the world through God’s eyes. Just keep reading.
Whatever is lovely and admirable, excellent and praiseworthy: Paul tells us to think on and look at what is lovely and admirable. This is what theologians call common grace, God’s fingerprints all around us. Yes, we live in a fallen world. Yes, it is totally depraved, but it is not utterly depraved. Much in creation, in humans (including those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus), and in culture is not evil. Some of it is even excellent and praiseworthy. Paul is teaching the church that, as things get darker and more difficult, we must not see evil and retreat, but we must not run into the many forms of an anti-intellectual, anticulture, antineighbour mind-set.10
Here’s my favorite summary of Paul’s list:
Perhaps Paul knows that since the people are being persecuted by the society around them, they will be tempted to reject everything outside the church as indelibly tainted with evil. If so, then this list, with its admonition to look for the virtue in the wider world, reminds the Philippians that, although society sometimes seems hostile and evil, it is still part of God’s world and contains much good that the believer can affirm.11
Let me put it this way:
We must look for and find beauty in God’s world.
Beauty is key to preventing Christians from becoming angry fundamentalists. It does not dismiss the reality of darkness and total depravity. It does stop us from acting as if everything and everyone is utterly depraved. We must choose to look for beauty. It was Rich Mullins, the author and singer, who put it best: “There’s so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see. But everywhere I go, I’m looking.”12
So I would like you to stop and ask yourself: When was the last time you looked for beauty in other people—or in art, nature, or some movie or show that is not Christian? When did you last slow down and look at a painting or a bird and see the expression of God’s beauty? When was the last time you enjoyed a meal or laughed with friends and realized that much of creation is still good? You might not be deeply moved by nature or art like some, but beauty is found in many places. It would be good for some of you to stop and make a list of the many beautiful things besides God and His Word.
Thankfulness is crucial, and beauty is a powerful way of prompting thankfulness. Darrell Johnson once told me that when things got really dark for him, he began this daily spiritual discipline of stopping to name or list twenty things he was grateful for every day. We could all benefit from that.
To intentionally find beauty as Christians is a command of God in Philippians 2. This is not just some nicety or add-on. This command is as strong as “read your Bible regularly” or “worship God properly.” If more Christians would seek beauty and spend less time online attacking others or “doomscrolling,” we would see a massive attitude shift that would at least partially produce the stamina we need to keep going in this transitional moment full of darkness and possible mass renewal. Again, there is no “fun” in the worldview of cultural or religious fundamentalists. That is why we need to keep finding beauty as Christians.
Beauty lets us see God, see hope; it fills our soul. God’s world is full of beauty. Admitting this does not dismiss the reality of darkness and total depravity. Yet sin and darkness do not prevent us from seeing and loving whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure. Finding God-given beauty does stop us from acting like everything is utterly depraved.
- Christianity requires a chosen default setting that is not cynicism.
Find beauty and rest a bit. If we don’t, our presence will be anxious, our presence will be deformed, our presence will not be beauty producing or beauty giving.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. — Ecclesiastes 3:11
God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. — Acts 17:27
This Creator God has not created a hunger for God within humankind only to leave it unsatisfied. ~ James Dunn
1. Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2022), 16.
2. Aidan Nichols, Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Influence (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 24, 37.
3. Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 36–37.
4. Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 408.
5. As cited in Edward M. Bounds, E. M. Bounds on Prayer (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006), 205.
6. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 409.
7. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 417.
8. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 417.
9. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 17–18.
10. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 418.
11. Frank Thielman, Philippians, NIV Application Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 220–21.
12. Quoted in Ramsey, Rembrandt Is in the Wind, 2.
Excerpted with permission from Presence: Resilient Witness in Times of Retreat and Revival by Jon Thompson, copyright Jon Thompson.
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Your Turn
We need renaissance. We need more beauty in our faith walks, don’t we? Christian hope and joy are supernatural, unearned gifts. This world is filled with depravity, but it’s also filled with whispers of God and is full of beauty. Find beauty and rest a bit today! ~ Devotionals Daily