06/15/22 GODLINESS IS A BIBLICAL REALITY

06/15/22 GODLINESS IS A BIBLICAL REALITY

BEWARE! Popular teachers and preachers are pushing SINNING RELIGION and masses of people are accepting it. Their premise does not come from Scripture, but from human contrivance based on faulty religion. They refer to Scripture, but they are explaining away the clear and consistent revelation of God by supposedly exposing the hidden, deeper meaning of a passage. Manipulation, deceitful handling of the word of God can seem to make a passage mean almost anything. When the Bible clearly and consistently says hundreds of times that faithful, obedient believers can be pure, holy, righteous, but false teachers will take a few verses OUT OF CONTEXT and twist them to contradict the nature, work and revelation of God.

 

Let me mention the word, the idea, the life of, "godliness" as an example. The Bible makes it clear that God's salvation makes it possible for the ungodly sinner to become a godly person, yet sinning religion openly, erroneously denies the power of God. I refer to New Testament passages to establish that godliness is a New Testament truth. This will include the words, "godly," "ungodly," "godliness" and "ungodliness," as found in the KJV. The same search can be done in other translations, which may state it differently, but have the same meaning. The words relate to the Person and Nature of God. The words, "godly" and "godliness" refer to being like God or to manifest attitude and actions consistent with the Nature of God. Contrariwise, "ungodly" and "ungodliness" refer to being unlike God or being without God.

 

This is not a "word study." I encourage studying the actual Biblical words (from the Hebrew and Greek), which will make the meaning of the passages clearer. However, my purpose in this article is to simply point out that there are verses which use these terms and the passages give context for understanding the use of these words.

 

Pursue and embrace GODLINESS.

Flee from and reject UNGODLINESS

 

PART 1... GODLY and GODLINESS

 

GODLY SORROW

2 Corinthians 7:9-11

(9) Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

(10) For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

(11) For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

 

GODLY JEALOUSY

2 Corinthians 11:2

(2) For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

 

GODLY EDIFYING

1 Timothy 1:4

(4) Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

 

GOD WANTS US TO LIVE IN GODLINESS

1 Timothy 2:1-6

(1) I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

(2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

(3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

(4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

(5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

(6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

 

WOMEN ARE TO POSSESS AND PROFESS GODLINESS

1 Timothy 2:9-10

(9) In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

(10) But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

 

WE ARE CALLED TO GODLINESS

1 Timothy 4:6-8

(6) If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

(7) But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

[8] For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

 

GOD'S WORD LEADS TO GODLINESS

1 Timothy 6:3-6

(3) If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;

(4) He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

(5) Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain.

 

THE MAN OF GOD PURSUES GODLINESS

1 Timothy 6:11-12

(11) But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

(12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

 

TURN FROM COUNTERFEIT GODLINESS

2 Timothy 3:1-5

(1) This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

(2) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

(3) Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

(4) Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

(5) Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

 

THE GODLY WILL BE PERSECUTED

2 Timothy 3:12

(12) Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

 

GODLINESS LEADS TO ETERNAL LIFE

Titus 1:1-2

(1) Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

(2) In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

 

GRACE LEADS TO SERVING GOD IN GODLY FEAR

Hebrews 12:28-29

(28) Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

(29) For our God is a consuming fire.

 

GOD'S GRACE AND DIVINE POWER PROVIDES ALL THAT PERTAINS TO GODLINESS

2 Peter 1:2-4

(2) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

(3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

(4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

 

ALL OF GOD'S GRACES LEAD TO, ENABLE AND PRODUCE GODLINESS

2 Peter 1:5-8

(5) And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

(6) And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

(7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

[8] For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

GOD WILL SAVE AND DELIVER THE GODLY FROM HIS WRATH

2 Peter 3:9-13

(9) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

(11) Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

(12) Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

(13) Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

 

PART 2... UNGODLY and UNGODLINESS

 

God's Wrath And Ungodliness

Romans 1:18

(18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

 

God Justifies The Ungodly Who Believe

Romans 4:5

(5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

 

Christ Died For The Ungodly

Romans 5:6

(6) For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 

THE LAW OF GOD IS FOR THE UNGODLY

1 Timothy 1:8-11

[8] But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

(9) Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

(10) For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

(11) According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

 

TURN FROM ERROR, WHICH PRODUCES UNGODLINESS

2 Timothy 2:16

(16) But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

 

GOD'S GRACE TEACHES BELIEVERS TO TURN FROM UNGODLINESS

Titus 2:11-15

(11) For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

(12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

(13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

(14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

(15) These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

 

THERE IS A CLEAR AND DISTINCT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BELIEVER AND THE UNGODLY

1 Peter 4:12-19

(12) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

(13) But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

(14) If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

(15) But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.

(16) Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

(17) For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

(18) And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

(19) Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

 

GOD SEPARATES AND JUDGES THE UNGODLY

2 Peter 2:4-6

(4) For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

(5) And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

(6) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

 

UNGODLY MEN CORRUPT THE CHURCH AND LEAD MEN AWAY FROM CHRIST

Jude 1:4-8

(4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

(5) I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

(6) And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

(7) Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

[8] Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

 

THE WORLD IN THE DAY OF NOAH WERE, AND PEOPLE IN THE LAST DAYS WILL BE, UNGODLY

Jude 1:14-16

(14) And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

(15) To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

(16) These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

 

BEWARE THE RAMPANT UNGODLINESS OF THE DAYS AHEAD

Jude 1:17-25

(17) But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

(18) How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

(19) These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

(20) But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

(21) Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

(22) And of some have compassion, making a difference:

(23) And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

(24) Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

(25) To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.