-Approving the things that are excellent, better, carrying through, enduring, eternal even... We are not talking about a passive passing of an opinion on the relative excellence or lack thereof of various things. This is about proving (and loving) their superiority by testing them personally, about being able to choose to be devoted to and absorbed in the things which are proven to be more excellent than other things. Naturally the things we love are the things to which we give our time and talent and treasure as well as our heart. We engage with them, get involved with them, journey with them and include them on our life journey. It follows that we should want to give our time and devotion to things that are MOST worthy of receiving our devotion, and that we do therefore require (from verse 9) the ability to know and to discern which things are worthy and which are NOT worthy of our love and devotion. Paul in fact fills this letter with exhortations towards and examples of being devoted to the things which truly excel beyond any other things which we might prioritize in our lives (cf Philippians 1.18, 1.20-21, 1.24, 1.27, 2.2-4, 2.12-16, 2.20-22, 2.30, 3.7-8, 3.10-14, 3.17-20 - really all of chapter 3 - 4.1, 4.2-3, 4.8, 4.17).
-So, what things are excellent, surpassing, carrying through, enduring? What do we love? Simply put, we love and devote ourselves to Christ, to knowing Him and making Him known, and to people, to helping them know and love Christ and make Him known and also love each other. We give ourselves to and let God pour us out for these things, to the end of our lives, even if it winds up costing us our lives. Or depriving us of comfort. And related to this, we have not been given the luxury of being annoyed or repulsed by people. The stewardship of the souls who have been providentially placed within the proximity of our life’s journey does not allow us the freedom to keep our distance from people. Whether it is one or many, we MUST include others in our lives, at least within range of our devotion to Christ such that they can get a good whiff of Him on our souls.
-Consider some things which would be noteably further down on the aforementioned list: Golf. Fantasy sports. Fishing. Hunting. Money. Working out. Travel and sightseeing. Decorating. Scrapbooking. Face booking. Video games. Movies. Television. The list goes on and on. Oh, the things at whose feet we worship. No, there is nothing inherently wrong with many of these things. But they too often wind up competing with and supplanting our full-out devotion to Christ, our whole-hearted love of the Lord. Our love for and enjoyment of and devotion to these non-surpassing things could probably look like hatred compared to our desire to know and gain Christ and make Him known. Remember, all the things which were gain to Paul he considered manure (Philippians 3.8). These other less excellent things can be leveraged on behalf of Christ, and stewarded as opportunities to build relationships of love with others and help them know and gain Christ, but they must be subjegated to Christ and to His cause. They must not take His place in our hearts.
-It does feel as though in this verse that paul sort of winds up focusing on the avoidance of the negative. Pure is eilikrinés, (roots are helios, sun - and krino, to judge) which refers to what is found or judged pure when illumined by the sun. so it describes being free from what is false. Blameless is aproskopto, which is the negative of the verb for stumbling block. It can mean free from stumbling, or free from causing someone else to stumble. It would be fair to say that we are talking about avoiding wasting the precious life God has given to us through avoiding stumbling over any kind of false idol, i.e. inordinate devotion to the non-surpassing things. So in the end what we are talking about here is worship.
-But note here a second mention of the day of Christ. We begin to see that Paul has in mind a quality of living for these believers that carries all the way through to the end, to that day when Christ returns and 1) their works are tested (1Corinthians 3.13), and 2) God’s great goodness in rescuing and transforming a throng of worshippers is shown off for all to marvel at (2Thessalonians 1.10). Finally and forever we will be approving/worshipping the One Who is incomparably Most Excellent. To this end Paul is intently focused on living in the present in a way that is informed by the reality of Christ’s imminent return (cf Philippians 2.10-11, 2.16, 3.11-13, 3.20-21, 4.5), and in a way that maximizes the showing off of God’s glory on that day. And clearly the way to do that begins now, today, with what I worship and the choices I make regarding the things/people on which I place my affection.
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