Godly exercise

Hope you're enjoying these Scriptures on godliness, or if not I hope they are at least provoking a thought or two and stirring something inside...

This one is a double Scripture, as are some of the others that follow, which i think is good - a bit more meat out of the Word :).

1 Timothy 4:7 "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself [rather] unto godliness."

Life is full of "old wives' tales" as I am more familiar to calling them. It is interesting that many little anecdotes, fairy tales and cliches are passed onto us in our youth with such little value in the Kingdom of God. One that springs immediately to mind is "if you eat sandwich crusts, your hair will go curly". Such a myth has no real value to us in our spiritual growth and much like the man in the man, easter bunny & tooth fairy, can in fact cause us to doubt things we were taught from a young age (including God if you had a Christian upbringing). These things are profane - not necessarily foul or vile - but common, worldy things that really don't belong in our speech or thinking. For this reason we are told to exercise ourselves to godliness, the purpose of which being shared with us in the following verse.

1 Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

I think it was Ray Comfort who said "Eat right, stay fit, die anyway". While this is obviously fatalistic, it is intended as a humorous critique of fitness-obsessed people with no regard for spiritual welfare & perhaps has the above verse in mind when doing so. There is profit in physical exercise, but in comparison to godliness it is most insignificant.
Then we see why godliness is so essential to Christian life - it is profitable to all things! In other words, anything worth having or aspiring to will be benefited by a godly life. That's a promise worth holding onto! Furthermore, eusebeia has promise or blessing of our present life and more for the eternal life we shall receive shortly.

All around, godliness pays far greater dividends as we glorify God rather than the body through exercise or human wisdom through old fables.

The Great mystery of godliness

The Word of God often speaks of mysteries - those things which make absolutely no sense to those who lack the revelation of the Spirit.

As we try and grasp the meaning of godliness, it is surely worth our time to look at what the Scriptures call the mystery of godliness.

1 Timothy 3:16 says "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

First we see that among believers, there should not be any dispute as to the greatness of this mystery and then we are provided with the mystery itself.
Many things are with controversy in the church and we must examine carefully to see whether anyone detracts from the mystery of godliness, since if they cannot appreciate it, they must have no possession of it.

Here we have a list that God was a) manifest in the flesh, b) justified in the Spirit c) seen of angels d) preached unto the Gentiles e) believed on in the world & f) received up into glory.
To begin with, we must accept these things as true in order to realise a eusebeian correct attitude and response towards God. We know from 1 John that anything that does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh is of the antichrist (4:3) and so has no part in the mystery we speak of here. We also must be justified in the Spirit as He was and behold his glory as the angels did. It also marks the beginning of a new era with those outside the Jewish nation being able to move into a special relationship with God and man being restored in the created world through faith in Him.

Finally, He was received up into glory, ascended on high. If we again correlate with 1 John, we see in the opening verses of chapter three that "we are the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in him, purifies himself, even as he is pure"(3:2-3). This is a huge clue to our pursuit of holiness and godliness - it is the glorified Godhead in Christ that transforms us into new beings.

Without this revelation of God, we would be merely sufferers of religious hardship, unable to attain the perfect standard of the LORD manifested in Christ.

Quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty

1 Timothy 2 starts with an interesting concept.
In Australia and no doubt many other nations around the world (including the US) there is a large concern over upcoming elections. Christians, while often not wanting to get involved in politics directly, desire assurance that a government will rule responsibly and with respect to the law of God.

While we ourselves cannot determine whether a government rules according to these values, the Scripture tells us "...supplications, prayers, intercessions, [and] giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and [for] all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." (2:1b-2) Therefore the relationship between government and godliness is that we should pray for a nation's leaders to ensure that society is suited to Christians being able to live a quiet and peaceable life and conduct themselves in a godly and honest way.

This gives us another clue about godliness, suggesting that the right attitudes and actions towards God and our neighbour are best cultivated in quietness and peace. In chaos and turmoil one is likely to think more of survival and self-preservation, so tranquility is a much better option for prayer and contemplation. However we should never grow complacent in times of peace, but rather continue to do our duty in praying for the leaders of society and all levels of authority beneath them.

Develop godliness and honesty while leading a quiet and peaceable life. "For this [is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." (2:3)

Pray away!

The Eusebeian Way

Welcome to a new zone of the "Christian blogosphere". Our aim at Eusebeia is to discuss issues pertaining to godliness and correct Christian conduct as suggested in our description, while also providing a networking hub for many other sites that are concerned with the gap between (post)modern-day and Biblical Christianity.

Remarkably the word godliness appears in the KJV Bible within only the pastoral epistles of Paul and second epistle of Peter. But the first time eusebeia appears in the New Testament it is translated "holiness" (Acts 3:12). When Peter and John saw a miracle in the man at the Gate Beautiful, Peter said "You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?"

From this verse we can get both a sense that we need God to be holy/godly at all and that our own virtue does not give us superhuman abilities. Even our Lord Jesus made a point of doing miracles in the name of the Father and speaking only what He heard from Heaven.

But godliness, while not the source of miracles, is nevertheless important in our relationship with God and our brothers/sisters/neighbours. Over the next few weeks to set up our foundations, I hope to look at the fourteen "godliness" verses and what insight and advice they give to living the Christian life.

Don't go away!