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The Pursuit of Godliness.
Introduction:
Some of you may know that I quite enjoy the World Juniors Hockey tournament each year.
Sadly, this year didn’t work out so well for our country as they were eliminated by Finland.
What I want to point out however, is that each of these players have trained for many years to become the skilled players they now are.
Since they were old enough to hold a stick, they dreamt about someday representing Canada.
To get there, however would need more than dreaming.
They had to sacrifice much time, sweat and endure many trials to get to this point.
In like fashion, a Christian cannot just sit, holding onto his/her bible on their couch and just dream about becoming more like Jesus.
It requires sacrifice, toil and endurance to be godly.
This is what our passage today will be looking at.
The purpose of this part of the letter is to encourage Timothy to continue to pursue godliness through continual training as a pastor.
Godliness is not something instantly achieved once one believes in Jesus.
It is a lifelong pursuit of the Christian to glorify God.
For our passage that we will be looking at today, Paul is writing Timothy to put all these things that he has written before the congregation that he is a pastor to in Ephesus.
The purpose of this part of the letter is to encourage Timothy to continue to pursue godliness through continual training as a pastor.
Godliness is not something instantly achieved once one believes in Jesus.
It is a lifelong pursuit of the Christian to the glory of God.
So my main point today is that as Christians, we are all called to become more like Jesus and we are greatly blessed because of it.
My outline to bring about that point first of all is that godliness requires labour.
Secondly that it is beneficial in this life and the one to come.
Thirdly, we want to look at the reason why we toil and strive for godliness.
Point #1 - Pursuing Godliness is a lifelong labour.
As we discussed last week, the false teachers who were invading the flock were bringing in legalism as a way for people to appear religious on the outside by not getting married or abstaining from certain foods.
Here, Paul addresses Timothy of what makes for true piety in true religion.
Timothy is not to try to make himself as the pastor look good on the outside while still being enslaved to sin on the inside.
He is to be genuine.
Thus (6) he exhorts him that if he teaches these instructions to the church, he will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.
He has been trained by Paul for several years, past tense, in the words of faith and the good doctrine.
Timothy is now to be faithful with all that he has been instructed.
He is to teach the church as he has been taught.
By doing so, he will be a good servant of the Lord Jesus.
Now to give the just weightiness to what has been laid upon Timothy as a pastor, let us consider what failing to do this reveals.
If he who has been instructed in faith and the word of God does not teach this to the body, he will not be a good servant or minister of Jesus Christ.
What a responsibility that is for an under shepherd of God’s flock.
The false teachers spew the lies of their father Satan.
The true teachers profess the truth of the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, Timothy is commanded by Paul to have nothing to do with these irreverent silly old wives tales.
They only lead people to all kinds of speculations and distracted from their mission as proclaimers of who Jesus is and what He has done.
(7b) Rather train yourself for godliness.
He then gives an illustration of what was growing in popularity in their culture in sporting events that we would consider to be like the Olympics.
Athletes that train their bodies to win a crown with a perishable wreathe.
In (8), physical training, Paul says is of some value to health and well being, but it is only for the temporary.
Godliness, however is of value in every way.
He then (7b) Rather train yourself for godliness.
He then gives an illustration of what was growing in popularity in their culture in sporting events that we would consider to be like the Olympics.
Athletes that train their bodies to win a crown with a perishable wreathe.
In (8), physical training, Paul says is of some value to health and well being, but it is only for the temporary.
Godliness, however is of value in every way.
Did you notice something profound in these words?
Here, you have this young pastor who has been trained by Paul in faith and instruction of the word (6).
Now in (8) Paul exhorts this man to train himself in godliness.
One may think “Wasn’t he already trained?”
Yes he was, but his training never stops.
He has a solid foundation through the discipling of Paul but pursuit of godliness goes from one degree of glory to another.
Timothy is to continually train himself through his knowledge of the Scriptures into how to apply it to daily life.
He is to be a model of Christlikeness.
This is what a pastor/elder is to be for the benefit of the flock.
Look at (12) for a moment.
Timothy as the pastor in this flock is to set himself up as an example.
His speech, conduct, love, faith and purity is to be genuine and shown to the body so that they see what a mature Christian is to look like.
It is a constant daily training to be godly.
It is very hard work.
Godliness in essence is God likeness.
Those who are truly born again as the children of God are to be imitators of God in morality.
Now obviously, due to the fact that we still have this indwelling sin nature we will never reach perfection.
But the pursuit of every follower of Christ is to labour in daily training to become more like our Saviour.
Being a Christian is not just that we professed faith, but that we make strides toward and train ourselves to be more holy day by day.
This is only possible because we are Christians.
Since God has given us new life in Jesus, we are now equipped with supernatural power of the Spirit who lives in us to help us become more holy and have God-likeness.
This is not
So to summarize this point, as Timothy is to daily train himself in godliness, we all are to train ourselves in godliness each day.
How does one train themselves?
As Timothy learned the faith and the word, so also let us be attentive learners of Scripture, to know what pleases our Father.
As Paul discipled Timothy how to put faith and doctrine into practical life, so also let us who are even a few days more mature in the faith take other believers under our wing and disciple them in truth.
As Timothy faithfully followed Paul to learn, let us also seek elders and mature followers of Christ and persist in wanting to be trained so that we all grow together into maturity and bring glory to God in the Highest.
Transition:
Therefore, we can see that as Timothy is to continue training himself to grow in godliness, this is applicable for each of us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Now, Paul moves along into how this ongoing pursuit of godliness has great benefit for us today and for all eternity.
Point #2 - Pursuing Godliness gives us present and eternal blessings.
Do you ever feel as though living a sacrificial life for Jesus has any benefit here on earth?
Seeing our brothers and sisters persecuted for their faith in China does not seem like much of a blessing here.
Or why do bad things happen to good people?
So and so lived such a wonderful godly life and God took him/her away too soon.
Is there any good by pursuing godliness in this life?
Well obviously there is, for this is what Paul wrote to Timothy in (8) READ.
To pursue godliness has value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and the life to come.
Jesus says in But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
To seek first God’s kingdom is to pursue godliness.
To be like him in our speech, conduct and faith.
By seeking God in order to be godly, He promises within the context of the Sermon on the Mount to provide for our daily needs.
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