“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
“Godliness” is a vastly misunderstood word, and godly people are vastly misunderstood by the world. People who hate the Christian faith like to sneer at those who are considered godly. They think that a godly person is a self-righteous person, a person who looks down his or her nose at the sinners of the world. A truly godly person will not be like this, because he or she knows that he or she is saved by grace like everyone else who has been saved for the last two thousand years. A godly person might appear to be self-righteous, but he or she is not. Some godly people might act self-righteous, but that is a fault and not a virtue of a godly person. I want to share my view of godly people that I have known. A truly godly person will love you. As I have pointed out in previous articles, Jesus commanded his followers to love people. He did not tell them which people to love, He just said love them. Jesus would certainly be considered a godly person, and He obviously loved people more than life itself. The godly people that I have known would love you regardless of what you did. They would be sorely disappointed in you, and they might even express their disagreement with you, but they would not stop loving you. Standing for Christian principles is not a bad thing as the world would have us believe. Just because the godly person stands for these principles does not mean that he or she hates you. What it means is that the godly person loves you enough to stand for what is in your best interest. The godly person is not being self-righteous. We who are believers would call it “obedience.” In fact, a godly person will be obedient enough, and love people enough, to tell them about Jesus. A truly godly person can be trusted. The godly person takes the commandment, “thou shalt not steal,” seriously. Sadly, we have had some examples over the last few years of famous religious leaders who could not be trusted. They do not represent the true Christian faith. A godly person would not cheat you, mistreat you, or harm you in any way. If a person is truly trying to live the Christian faith, he or she will not lie to you, but will be truthful with you. If the truth somehow hurts you, maybe you need to take note a make a few changes in your life. Don’t blame the godly person for it. If you were walking down a dark, lonely street late at night and you met a group of men walking toward you, would it make a difference to you if you knew that they were coming from a Bible study? Of course it would. This group of men would be more likely to help you than harm you. The worse thing that they might do would be to invite you to the next Bible study. Whether you considered that bad or good would be up to you. Truly godly people do not call themselves “godly.” If a person says “I am godly” they are probably not. As the old saying goes, if a person claims to be godly “hide the silverware.” Godly people are not Pharisees, who claim to have their own righteousness. A truly godly person will pray for you. Some people do not want to be prayed for, for some reason or other. But you can’t stop anyone from praying for you. I know that I have godly people praying for me, and I am glad that they are. These people make a difference in my life. James wrote, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) “Availeth much” can mean some very good things. If you are a person who does not want godly people praying for you, you should be glad that they are. Because of their prayers. “availeth much” might take on new meaning in your life. Do I think that I am a godly person?” I would not call myself a “godly person,” because the moment that I did, I would cease being godly if I was. I do make an effort to love people. Frankly, not everyone makes it easy. I do think that I can be trusted. I know for certain that I pray for people. In fact, I probably pray for you if I know you. The best that any of us can do is to faithfully live the Christian faith and let our “lights shine before (people) that they might see (our) good works and glorify (our) Father in heaven.” Whether we are called “godly” or not is not up to us. It is up to the people who see us and notice how we live. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
9/30/2015 09:22:56 am
Jimmy certainly would not have called himself "a godly man" but he fits the description you have outlined. We included that comment of him in his obituary.
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