Tag: godliness

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1 Timothy Devotionals

Where training in godliness starts

…train yourself in godliness. (1 Timothy 4:7)

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God. (5:4)

I have a mother who is a widow, so these words especially resonated with me. Particularly since she’s going through depression right now.

I live far from her, so there’s not much I can do, but I do keep in touch with her, talking with, praying with, and praying for her. That said, in these times, it’s tough to follow Paul’s words and serve my mom. I truly need God’s grace.

And yet, this is part of my training in godliness.

But Paul’s words are not only for me or others who have mothers who are widows. They’re for all of us.

Practicing godliness starts with our family. We can’t simply practice our godliness at church or at our workplace.

We need to practice it at home with our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our children.

And when we do, it pleases our Father.

But it can be tough at home. Especially at the end of a long day when we’re tired. Particularly when our families start getting our nerves.

But if we want to truly be like our Father who loves us, it starts at home.

Father, I want to be like you. Help me to practice godliness with my mother. With my wife. With my daughter.

I want to please you each day by how I treat them. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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1 Timothy Devotionals

Because we have hope

1 Timothy

In times like these, it can be easy to get tired of remaining faithful to God and living a godly life.

It is easy to let our consciences get seared (1 Timothy 4:2), and to start giving into sin.

And according to Paul, the Spirit explicitly says some will depart from the faith. (1)

But we have a hope that this world does not have. Our God is alive. And he has not only saved us from our sin, but one day, Jesus will return and make all things new. (10)

This is not just a hope. It is a certainty.

So let us not get weary of doing right. Rather, let us train ourselves in godliness (7), specifically in our speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. (12)

And let us not neglect our gifts in these times, but instead use them to bless each other, and to touch this world that desperately needs Jesus.

We have hope! Let us live each day in that hope.

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Titus

A call to godliness

Godliness

This is a passage that is nothing short of a call to godliness among God’s people.

There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians. But as Paul said in chapter 1,

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:16)

You cannot claim to be a Christian and simply live the way you want to. God has called us to be be holy. What does that mean practically? Paul tells them.

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.

Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. (Titus 2:2-6)

All fiercely practical.

Later he gives instructions to the slaves, which are practical for employees today.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (2:9-10)

Then in chapter 3, he gives instructions concerning our attitude toward authority, that we are to be subject to them (3:1).

Finally he gives us instructions on how we are to treat each other, that we are to do good to one another,

to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. (3:2)

And to Titus himself, Paul says,

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. (2:7-8)

In other words, Titus was not simply to teach these things, but to live them that he might be an example to all the church of the kind of life they were to live.

Just as importantly, by living that way, no legitimate reproach could come upon Christ and his teaching.

“But we are saved by grace! These instructions sound so legalistic,” some may say.

Yes we are saved by grace and by grace alone. But what is true grace? Does true grace teach us to live however we want because we are saved by the cross of Christ?

No. This grace,

teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (2:12-14)

Grace wasn’t given us as a license to live unholy lives. Rather grace was given us that we might become holy.

Jesus bought us out of slavery to sin and purified our hearts by his blood that we would become his own people. A people who want to please him and are eager to do what is right.

And this is so important to Paul, that he tells Titus,

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. (2:15)

How about you? Are you using the grace of God to give you an excuse to live how you want to? Or are you so grateful for what he has done for you, that it’s your greatest desire to please him?

As a Christian, you have been called to godliness. Are you living that way?

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2 TImothy

A mere form of godliness

2 Timothy

There are many people in this world who are religious. Who go to church, a mosque, a synagogue, a shrine, or a temple.

They perform religious rituals, praying, reading their sacred scriptures, and perhaps even giving up some of their money. And yet, though they may look pious, they are rejected by God.

Why? Because though they may have the form of godliness, that’s all it is: the outward appearance of godliness, empowered by their own efforts or even hypocrisy.

All the while, however, these people deny the power of God himself in their lives.

Some deny it by denying God himself. They turn away from the truth that is found in Jesus Christ. They follow instead the teachings of Buddha, Muhammad, or other religious leaders.

But while these people may have some truth or some good interspersed with these teachings, they deny Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father.

All the righteousness they may have are mere filthy rags to God because they have denied his Son and reject the cross upon which he died.

More, they deny the resurrection power that could transform them and bring true righteousness into their lives.

Others claim to be Christians. They claim to follow Christ. But it is a mere charade.

Instead, they are actually, “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:2-4)

They too have the form of godliness. They go to church. They smile and sing and pray and tithe. But their lives are an empty shell, devoid of the power of God in their lives.

Some of these people are teachers. But Paul compares them to Jannes and Jambres, the two magicians that opposed Moses in Egypt. They boasted great power from their gods, but their claims proved empty when confronted with the living God.

Others are are “learners.” But because they never come to the truth because they have already rejected it. They hear only what they want to hear, and filter everything else out.

You cannot claim true godliness when you have rejected Jesus Christ himself. And you cannot claim true godliness when all you have is a religious show that has no effect on your heart.

Paul said the time was coming, terrible times, when more and more people will be like this. We are here. We are in those times. All you have to do is to look at the world around us and you’ll know it’s true.

And when Jesus comes, he will separate the wheat from the tares. He will separate those who have the mere form of godliness from those who are truly his own, who are day by day being transformed by the power of God into his likeness.

When he comes, what will he find in you?

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1 Timothy

Practicing our faith within our homes

1 Timothy

I suppose our faith gets no more practical than within our homes.

We can hide our true faces from our pastors and fellow church members, but we can’t hide them from our family. They see us as we really are. And what we are at home shows what we truly are in our hearts.

I think that’s one thing Paul has in mind as he wrote these instructions to Timothy concerning the care of widows.

The church in those days took care of widows within their congregation (We see this in Acts 6, for example).

And Paul tells Timothy,

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. (1 Timothy 5:3)

But then he adds,

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. (4)

The ESV puts it,

…let them first learn to show godliness to their own household.

Godliness is not something we are to merely have when we leave our homes, but something we should have within them.

And godliness should not just be shown to people outside our families, but it should be shown especially to people within them.

Paul emphasizes that point in verse 8.

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (8)

Paul is specifically talking here about providing the material needs of our family members.

But godliness doesn’t stop there. It continues in how we treat each other day to day, in our patience, kindness, and love for one another.

The godliness we have also shows in the forgiveness and generosity we extend toward one another.

In short, godliness should show in how we treat our family. For if we are unable to show these things to our family, what kind of faith do we really have?

This is not always easy. As I said yesterday, we can choose our friends, but we can’t choose our relatives.

And family can grate on us in ways friends can’t because there are natural boundaries between friends, namely, we usually live apart from each other. The boundaries are much thinner with family because we actually live with them.

Plus there are obligations we have to family that we don’t have to friends.

But if we are to become godly, it needs to start with how we treat our family, for that is the test of true godliness.

How godly are you?

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1 Timothy

To become truly godly

God's Gym

As I mentioned before, in Paul’s day, there seemed to be people in the church that preached a superficial spirituality through asceticism and through a strange teaching involving myths and genealogies.

But Paul makes it clear to Timothy, “Don’t waste your time on such things. Focus on what really matters.”

Specifically, he told Timothy,

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. (1 Timothy 4:7-11)

The most important thing to Paul was becoming the people God called us to be. To become the people God saved us to be. What kind of people is that? A people like Him. A godly people.

Paul says that godliness has value both in this life and in the life to come.

Why? Because it affects the two things that matter most. Our relationship with God and our relationship with others. When we fall into sin, it breaks both of those relationships.

When it says, “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance,” it actually seems to be pointing to the value of godliness, rather than the fact that we have put our hope in God. The new NIV reflects that interpretation.

But it brings up a point that cannot be forgotten. Our hope for godliness does not come merely from our own self-effort.

Yes, Paul says, “Train yourself to be godly.”

But in order to become truly godly, our hope must be in God, that through his Spirit he will constantly transform us into the likeness of his Son.

And in training ourselves to be godly, the most important thing is to listen to our Trainer: in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

In all these things we are to follow the instructions of our Trainer. And as we choose to follow him, he will give us the power to do what he asks.

How about you? Are you listening to your trainer?