Week 9 - Godlines

The NET Bible 2 Peter 1:6

1:6 to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance;25 to perseverance, godliness

SWTRBC- Week 9 Godliness

  The Lord’s spirit will rest on him—

a spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom,

a spirit that provides the ability to execute plans,

a spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord. 1

1 Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Is 11:2.

Holy Spirit, give me deep insight and understanding of true Godliness this morning.

Last week we took a look at the instruction we are given by the Apostle Peter to add or supplement our faith in Jesus with Perseverance, or stick-to-it ness.

Like most everything else in this life of learning “how to be “ a disciple of Christ, it’s pretty simple, but not necessarily easy.

Learning Perseverance means you are going to be faced with trials and times of testing. Living a life that seeks to pursue Jesus means that suffering will be a part of that journey.

The old adage “No Pain, No Gain” seems to hold true.

If the mindset you are bringing to your walk with Jesus is one where you are faithful to Jesus, as long as he meets your expectations for a life that is comfortable, blessed and without any real hardships, then you are going be sorely disappointed.

That’s not the Gospel… that’s crap!

Peter tell us here that suffering builds character and that kind of character.... one forged in the fires of trusting God in the midst of trouble.....will soon be accompanied (if not already) by godliness.

That’s what we will be talking about today.

Godliness?

What is that?

I grew up in the Bible Belt.

In today’s over politicized culture, the images of the Bible Belt area of our country invokes images of a bunch of ignorant, under-educated, simple-minded people who are all about God, Guns and Country.

Having traveled a lot in my lifetime, I can tell you that Southern Hospitality is a real thing. And, while We love the idea of God, we are mostly all about Guns and Country, because our collective understanding of who God really is, is pretty poor.

We still say the Pledge to the Flag, one Nation under God

We still stand for the National Anthem.

We get misty-eyed and all goose-bumped up whenever we hear Lee Greenwood or somebody that sings really well, croon “God Bless the USA, but the honest truth is, this nation is not a Godly nation and having “ In God we Trust” on the Legal Tender does not make that a reality.

America is not a Christian Nation.

That’s not meant to sound unpatriotic, just honest about where were are in this great experiment, the founding fathers called The United States of America.

There are countries all over the world, where the Kingdom of God is experiencing tremendous growth and the inhabitants of those lands are far more loyal to our King than those of us who have the good fortune to live in a country where religious freedom is still a reality.

Perhaps the freedom of religion those of us who live in the U.S. of A. enjoy coupled with a Culturally Acceptable Idea of God has blinded us to who Jesus Really IS.

Maybe, If we really understood who he IS, we would all be on our faces right now, crying out for forgiveness and mercy ...for how we choose to live our days...ignore his heart and abuse the good gifts he has given us.

I am surrounded by Good Church Folk, who are as lost as last year’s Easter Egg.

We honor God around here with our lips, but our hearts are far from him.

Jesus, quoting the Prophet Isaiah, who was Quoting ...well Jesus LOL said this in Matt 15:8

This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me,

and they worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Whew!!!!, Can we honest with each other to say that we see this in ourselves and in those around us??

When I was growing up, my concept of Godliness was damaged by good , perhaps even, well-meaning religious folks around here.

My Daddy called them Bible Thumpers, cause they’d whip there leather bound, personalized with Embossed Gold Letters on the front cover, copy of the King James Bible and beat us filthy sinners severely about the head and shoulders with the Good Book.

The claimed they were operating in true Godliness, in true Holiness and the harshness that they showed others and the lack of anything seasoned with Grace was for our own good and was meant to lead us to repentance.

Now, I’m sure these folks were operating in the best intentions and were simply doing what they had been taught to do by men and women who lacked true Godliness.

They were operating in a devotion to what they thought reflected the heart of God and missed it by about 18”.

The Distance from a man’s head to his heart.

Godliness is a heart condition first and when we have the right heart towards God, the thoughts that govern our actions will most assuredly reflected the attitude of Godliness.

Throughout our study of this Letter from Peter, In have used several commentaries and Michael Green’s work on this Letter of Peter’s has been fantastic.

Peter uses a VERY specific and Rare word for Godliness and the purpose once again is so he can take a theological punch at the teachers of Stoicism in his day.

Green says this in his commentary.

“ godliness, or rather ‘reverence’, must be added.

The word eusebeia is rare in the New Testament, probably because it was the primary word for ‘religion’ in popular pagan usage.

The ‘religious man’ of antiquity, both in Greek and Latin usage , was careful and correct in performing his duties both to gods and men.

Perhaps Peter uses it here in deliberate contrast to the false teachers, who were far from proper in their behaviour both to God and their fellow men.

Peter is at pains to emphasize that true knowledge of God (which they mistakenly boasted they possessed) manifests itself in reverence towards HIM (God) and respect towards men.

There is no hint of religiosity here.

Eusebeia is a very practical awareness of God in every aspect of life.

1 Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 89.

What is Godliness?

It’s a day to day, practical awareness of God. An awareness of who he really is. An awareness that causes us to align ALL of ourselves,...our words, actions, thoughts and daily lives in a way that show reverence to God.

That sort of practical awareness, if it is truly aligned with the heart of God CAN”T HELP but spill over into how we treat our fellow man.

Isn’t this what the 10 Commandments teach? How to love God and Love our Neighbor.

Isn’t this what Jesus said was the two laws that everything else hung on...Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself?

That my friends is the essence of Godliness and it starts with a heightened awareness of who God really is.

Proverbs 9:10

  The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord, to eusebia the Lord

and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding.

I love the NET Bible’s notes on this passage which says

“The fear of the Lord is expressed in reverential submission to his will—the characteristic of true worship.

The fear of the Lord is the foundation for wisdom (9:10) and the discipline leading to wisdom (15:33). It is expressed in hatred of evil (8:13) and avoidance of sin (16:6), and so results in prolonged life (10:27; 19:23).1

1 Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).

So Eusebia is a reverential submission to the Will of God and when we are focused on the practice of eusebia that leads us into wisdom.

How the practice of eusebia is expressed is in the hatred of Evil and the avoidance of Sin and love for our fellow man.

So if we are to practice and in so doing ADD to our faith Godliness we must bring a heart of reverent submission to God into our daily practical lives; not our Sunday Go to Meeting lives, but our DAILY lives.

Each day we are called to live in an awareness of who he is and who he has made us to be in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That sort of daily awareness and intentional focus of our hearts on Him, then produces a life that hates evil, avoids behavior that would dishonor our King and ourselves and expresses in action and attitude, love towards of fellow man.

I’ll leave you this week with a thought from another Apostle, the Apostle Paul and his comments on Eusebia-Godliness.

The Apostle Paul wrote his “ Son in the Faith” Timothy and gave him this instruction.

1 Tim 4:8

“physical exercise has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way.

It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.”  

Paul compares the practice of Eusebia with the daily training of the body and says while daily training your physical body has some slight value..it cannot really be compared to the value found in the daily practice of training yourself in Godliness.

You want to add Godliness to your faith, that requires intentional effort on your part AND it’s Not considered Optional.

Whether or not you train at the gym regularly may be optional but if you are in Christ, a daily practice of training in Eusebia- Godliness IS Not.

It’s an expectation and one we will all give an account for at some point in the near future.

This is part of our Mission as disciples of Jesus.

Are you on Mission?

If not, maybe you aren’t smelling what the Rock’s been cooking and it’s time to get ya some this week!!!!

Blessing

Until next week

24 ‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

25 May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

26 May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.’