True Godliness

Some people may have trouble wrapping their heads around what true godliness really is. This daily devotional looks at what it is by looking at what it isn’t.

Nuggets

  • True godliness is not expressed by outward rituals.
  • True godliness is not religion.

To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.

We are in for a treat today. At the end of The Gospel and Relationships in the Family, I told you that Steve and I became engaged.

What I didn’t tell you was that he is Pastor Steve. I’ve already picked his brain on some things that I needed clarification on before I wrote them.

Now, Pastor Steve has written this devotion! The only direction I gave him was to write on godliness. Enjoy!

The concept of godliness may seem very elusive for many. After all, there is the old saying “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

However, that could lead the uninitiated in the Bible to think that a person who is a “clean freak” is far godlier than someone who cleans their house once a year whether it needs it or not. I speak in jest here, but the point is, the concept of godliness has absolutely nothing to do with being clean, although that has indications of certain spiritual issues that are outside of the scope of what this post is about.

It is often difficult to determine the difference between true godliness and performance of rituals. True godliness is not shown by someone who outwardly displays rituals as a part of their worship of God, appearing to have godly qualities. What they are displaying is a devotion to their religion, whatever that may be.

True godliness may appear outwardly to be no different from what is godly, but true godliness is an outgrowth of having a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is a part of the relationship we build with the true, living God and an expression of our love for Him. It is not going through rituals that are often performed mindlessly out of religious devotion to a supposed deity.

Let's Put It into Context

'But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ' (II Tim. 3: 1-5 NKJV)

This verse indicates that there are people who go through the motions of the rituals of the religion of their choice, to show that they are devout, even showing an appearance of godliness. Godliness, equated with the Old Testament term fear of the Lord, is reverence in thought, feeling, and conduct that is promoted by walking in His Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments and produces a moral likeness of God. 

However, the reality is, they are not showing true godliness at all. By denying the power, it shows that they have no regard for what true godliness is and are merely doing things to outwardly show that they are godly.

They perform rituals out of devotion to a false belief system. Lacking the regenerated heart that comes with being saved in Jesus, they believe that what they are doing makes them right in the eyes of God, because they ritually do these things. This is a worldly work centered theology that has no basis in truth.

Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.

  • Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
  • The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Glossary

Outward Appearances Are Not What They Seem

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but, on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. ' (Mt. 23: 25-28 NIV)

There is little doubt that the Pharisees and Sadducees were experts at the outward expression of godliness. Afterall, it was their profession.

Person of Interest

However, one would think since it was their profession and they were experts of the law as well, they would have that spiritual change required to be truly godly. The Pharisees and Sadducees were truly religious in every facet of their life.

All throughout the Gospels, Jesus chastised them for their conduct, as evidenced in the above passage. They were not truly godly. No godliness existed in their cold, dead hearts.

They were great at outward appearances of godliness. They wore nice robes, prayed long bombastic sounding prayers in temple or on the street corners to be noticed by the public and receive the accolades for being such spiritual and godly teachers.

All of that, yet Jesus always gave them grief for their hypocrisy every time they were around. Why do you suppose that is? Read Matthew 23:25-28 again prayerfully and ask God to show you why.

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How Do We Apply This?

How can we apply that to our daily walk with Jesus? Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives.

What does it mean to be “clean” on the inside? How can you make sure you’re not being like the Pharisees and Sadducees in your walk of faith? Have you ever considered hypocrisy being equated with lawlessness? How long have you been going to church every Sunday and yet have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Two times in Matthew 23:25-28 Jesus tells the Pharisees and Sadducees that they have gone to the trouble of making their outside look wonderful, but on the inside, they were filthy dirty. They had no true godliness.

How many of us would do the dishes, but only wash the outside of the bowls and plates, but do nothing for the inside where the food goes? Would you eat out of a bowl like that? If not, why? Because you’d likely get sick from eating out of such a bowl.

Do you realize that if you live a life of appearing clean on the outside, but do nothing for your spirit, you are indeed sin sick and don’t even know it? We must be cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus to not be sick from sin that is in our heart!

When I bought my first house, the bathroom had a slight mold problem over the shower stall. Now, being the young fellow that I was, I didn’t know better that you couldn’t simply paint over the mold with mold resistant paint and expect that it would take care of the problem. As I later found out, it didn’t take long for that mold to start appearing again.

This is not unlike what not truly taking care of the sin in our heart will do. We may cover it up for a time, and from the outside, it all looks great. However, without the cleansing of our sin through salvation in Jesus, it will come back out eventually. So where does that leave us then?

The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We have been born into a sin-fallen world, and there is no one who is not in need of salvation.

Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

  • Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
  • Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.

Glossary

We may be a good person and not harm anyone the way we live our lives, but without salvation, we are doomed to eternity in hell. The Bible tells us that there is no one born righteous into this world (Rom. 3:10). So, whether we feel like we are a sinner or not, we are.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

No matter how many times we go to church in our lives, if we don’t have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, there’s no going to heaven for us. Jesus said in John 14: 6, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (ESV).

No matter what anyone else thinks, the only way into heaven is through Jesus. There are no multiple ways of doing it. Just one. Jesus (Ac. 4:12).

What does all of this have to do with godliness? The fact of the matter is, to have true godliness operating in your life, the only way, is to give your life to Jesus.

Ask him to save you from your sins. Then through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, true godliness will become obvious.

It will be a natural outgrowth of who you are in Jesus Christ. The fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) will be obvious in your life. People will be able to see it at work in you (Mt. 7: 16-20).

You see, true godliness is not just an act of our will. It is a part of a renewed spiritual life than comes from knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Heavenly Father, we ask you to show us how we are not living in true godliness. Show us where we need to completely commit ourselves to you, walk in your ways, and seek you in all that we do, so that we do not live in hypocrisy, but true godliness. Thank you for hearing our prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What do you think?

Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

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