Not many people want to be godly. That’s a shame, but it’s also understandable. Very often apprehension about godliness has to do with our perception of godliness. Perceptions of godliness are often fuzzy, and when they are, it is difficult to focus on being godly, much less desire godliness. One reason we might not be clear on godliness is because of the kind of people we associate with godliness.
Prudes and Punks Distort Godliness
One kind of person or misperception of godliness is that to be godly is to be a prude. Prudes are excessively devoted to appearances and isolate themselves from anyone or anything that interferes with their ideal appearance. They love cultivating character. They are joyless, holier-than-thou people who make others feel uncomfortable by separating themselves from community.
Another misperception of godliness is that to be godly is to be a punk. Punks, instead of being excessively concerned with their own appearance, obsess with others’ appearance. Punks like to point out character flaws in others. Punks are joyless, hard-nosed people who make others uncomfortable by judging them.
Clarifying Godliness
What then is godliness? Godliness isn’t devotion to character; it is devotion to God. The prude and the punk are excessively devoted to character, perhaps spirituality, but not to God. Prudes and punks are superficial. But true godliness is deep. It gets below the surface. It is devotion to God not to character.
True godliness is God-centered, not character-centered. This deep devotion to God results in an overflow of god-liness. If we possess deep, below the surface devotion to God, we will become like him—compassionate, kind, gracious, humble, joyful, righteous, truthful. But if we possess devotion to an appearance of godliness, we will become holier-than-thou prudes or hard-nosed punks. So how do we avoid these misperceptions?
Making Progress in Godliness
In First Timothy, Paul calls us back to sound doctrine, the doctrine of God. He’s trying to help us put spectacles on that clarify who God is, to see him as he is, to be God-centered, not self-centered. And good, God-centered vision clarifies godliness, which is why Paul refers to sound doctrine as the “doctrine that accords with godliness†(6:3). So sound doctrine has a way of clarifying God and producing godliness.
What is this doctrine? According to Paul, it’s the doctrine of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1:11). Another way to translate this is: “the good news of the gloriously happy God.” In other words, doctrine doesn’t just change how you think; it changes who you are. Sound doctrine sweeps us into the joy of a God who is never-ending glory. The first way to make progress in godliness is to get your heart happy in a right teaching of God, not just to get the right teaching.
Another way to make progress in godliness is through gospel training: “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way†(4:7). Train yourself for godliness. Are you training for godliness? Are you disciplining ungodliness so you can cultivate godliness? Or are you focusing more of your training on what your body, resume, bank account, character or spirituality looks like? We don’t stumble into godliness anymore than we stumble into a great body, successful business, a college or graduate degree, or a great piece of art. Like anything worthwhile godliness takes training.
We get the English word “gym†from the Greek word for training. The gymnasium of the Greeks was radically man-centered, much like modern sports. They sculpted their bodies based on a Greek ideal of beauty. If we are to get the right perception of godliness, we will need the biblical ideal of beauty, of godliness. Where do we get that?
Godliness is Jesus-centered
Paul shows us godliness in a hymn he refers to as the “mystery of godliness†in 1 Tim 3:16:
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed in the world,
believed upon by the nations,
taken up in glory.
He was manifested in the flesh,
How is the mystery of godliness revealed? Who is the subject of every line in this hymn? Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ideal godliness. Jesus is the ideal image of God (Col 1:15). As Alan Hirsch says: It’s not just that Jesus is God, but that God is Jesus. Godliness is clarified by sound doctrine that is Jesus-centered.
Jesus is godliness both in substance and example. He shows us godliness–dining with sinners, laying his life down, healing the lame, teaching social outcasts, fielding questions from cultural elites, and being at odds with the religious right. We should follow him, emulating is sinner-attracting godliness. The problem is that we can’t. We fail. We act like prudes and punks instead of like Jesus. This is why we need Jesus in substance. We need him, not merely as the example of godliness but as the giver of godliness. Jesus becomes our godliness by faith. Godliness isn’t character-building; it is Jesus-worshiping. It’s training ourselves for godliness, while also resting in the mystery of godliness.
