The Meaning of Godliness

Godliness may be defined as a lifestyle that consistently reflects the character of God.

And Dr. Tony Evans says there's power and provision to be found there. Godliness means that I am living my life in light of His presence, and that presence is affecting me. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Desiring to live a life of godliness is a noble goal, but like any goal, we need to know what it looks like before we can make a move toward it. Today, Dr. Evans looks at godliness through the lens of Scripture—what it is, what it isn't, and why we should actively seek it.

Let's join him as he begins. 1 Timothy 4, verse 8 says, For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come. He says this assignment, this thing called godliness, is not only good for the sweet by-and-by, it is good for the nasty here and now. He says for this life and the life to come, because every Christian has two lives—the life you now live and the life you will live. He says godliness is profitable, beneficial for this life and the life to come.

So whatever this thing is called godliness, you want it because it has a profit motive to it. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 5, we read these words. He says, Holding a form of godliness, although they deny its power, avoid such men as these. He talks about a form of godliness—something that looks like it but is not it. The Greek word for form is the word that means shape or silhouette or appearance or shadow or outline. When you see the shadow of a person, you see their outline without their substance. In other words, the shadow of a person is not the substance of the person, it's just the outline of the person.

That's the word for form. You can look godly and there'd be no substance. You can have the appearance of godliness and there'd be no reality. You can look the part.

How do you know if you're looking the part versus having the part? He says, Having the form of godliness but denying the power. He says, You know it's not godly when there's no power attached to it, because true godliness has power connected to it. Religion gives the impression of something related to God that's real. I mean, you can look religious. You can wear religious clothes. You can use religious vocabulary. You can speak Christianese.

You can carry a religious book—the Bible. You can hang out with religious people and there be no power. Many of us knows what it is to go to church for years and not be changed. To be in the vicinity of God. And I know better for it, because I was in the form and I was at the location, but I was missing the power. Going to church in and of itself will not have the power to make you more godly, like going into a garage will not have the power to turn you into a car.

The location in and of itself is not sufficient for the purpose. So the fact of our godlessness is demonstrated by our lack of power, even though we still carry the form. The word godliness is used about 15 times in the New Testament. Most of the usages are found in the pastoral epistles—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. And you would expect it to be used there, since that's the assignment of the church.

The pastoral epistles are written to a pastor to tell the pastor what ought to be happening with the congregation. And Paul tells Timothy, you are to pursue godliness. So the assignment, my assignment, our assignment, is to produce an environment where godliness is understood, encouraged, and achieved. That that's our assignment.

All the other stuff we do must be measured by whether we're making the assignment or else we're working on the wrong assignment and we're not getting a passing grade. Please notice in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, verse 3, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine conforming to godliness. He brings up godliness again at the end of verse 5. Suppose that godliness is a measure of gain. He brings up godliness again in the beginning of verse 6, but godliness actually is a means of great gain.

We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about how to make a prophet by being godly. In verse 11, he brings up godliness again. So even in this one chapter, we've seen four times already this word godliness.

The Greek word, decepia, means reverence toward God. Here is the definition of godliness. Godliness may be defined as a lifestyle that consistently reflects the character of God. Godliness is a lifestyle.

It's not an event. It's a way of living, a lifestyle. It's the way you roll. It's how you operate. It is a lifestyle that is consistent with the character of God.

Now, watch this. Godliness assumes you agree with something. Godliness assumes that you agree and do not disagree with God. Godliness means that I am living my life in light of his presence. There is a consciousness of God's presence, and that presence is affecting me. That's why people are not experiencing more of God because they don't live in his presence.

They visit his presence. We've all seen fish that have been caught and put on a boat. You see its mouth opening, its fins opening, sucking air. You know what that fish is trying to do? It's trying to make it. That fish is trying to make it, but it's trying to make it in an environment it wasn't created for. See, it wasn't created for this environment. It was only created to do that in water, but now it finds itself a fish out of water, but yet it's using its instincts to try to make it in a world it doesn't belong to, only to discover that trying to make it in a world it doesn't belong to is gonna kill it. No matter how hard it sucks, no matter how hard or often those fins open and close, all he's doing is adding death because the environment in which it is trying to survive. When God's people leave God out and still try to suck the air of the world, all you're doing is sucking in more death because you're operating in an environment you were never created for.

Not once you've been converted, not once you've been redeemed. If you're not a Christian, then you don't have this new environment. If you are a Christian, that is your environment. God is your environment. That's why I'm using the word to become obsessed with God, because it is your new environment. And the reason why we often stay defeated for so long is because we're sucking air in a place we don't belong. Godliness is this lifestyle that becomes consistent with the character of God. That's what it is.

And now I want to give you some really exciting news. There's a profit margin in godliness, and it's a big one. Bible calls it gain.

Gain. But I want to show you something in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3. 2 Peter 1, 3 says, Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who had called us by His own glory and excellence.

Let me read that again. Verse 3 of 2 Peter 1, Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Guess what he just told you? Everything you need to be godly you already have. He says, seeing His divine power has given you everything pertaining to life and godliness.

Dr. Evans will unpack that truth for us when he returns in just a moment. Don't go away. As we anticipate the new year, we want to not only end this year strong, but go into the new year able to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the transformation of individualized, for the building of strong biblically based families, for strengthening churches, and that's what we're committed to do. Your generous financial support will help us to be strong, because we're not going to back down, we're not going to back away, and we're not going to compromise the truth of this book to placate the secularism of the society.

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Here's Tony. Everything you need to become what God wants you to be, you have it already. Everything a baby that's conceived in the womb of his mother needs to become a grown man or a grown woman is already in the DNA. Do you know a watermelon this big comes from a seed this big? How you gonna get all this from Little At?

Cuz Little At seed has everything that is needed for watermelon to become Big This, because it's built in to the seed. When you accept that Jesus Christ, if indeed you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit fertilized your human spirit. The Holy Spirit fertilized your human spirit and quickened you and made you alive. The problem now is your growth cycle, because the job of the devil is to abort the conception.

Satan seeks to abort the growth of the spiritual life within you so that godliness is never achieved or limitedly achieved or periodically achieved. The more God possesses you—you see, his divine power has given you everything, his divine nature. You have a new nature. Let me use another word.

Maybe this will help us. God has given you a new appetite. You have a new appetite.

Your nature defines your appetite. For example, you don't have to teach pigs to like slop. It's in their nature. They have to learn to grow on slop. They gravitate to slop.

It's their nature. The new you that is the redeemed you, the saved you, the new nature in you is hungry for God, starving for God, dying for God, because that's the divine nature. Every true believer has divine nature, and that nature is being starved to death, because God can't get enough of God. God wants all the God he can get so he can grow God in you. He can grow God in me. But if God doesn't get fed God, we wind up weak, because it's his nature in us. So here we go.

Here is my challenge. Oh, by the way, just so you know, everything you need to become godly, what God wants you to be, you already have and batteries are included. You ever go buy stuff for your kids and they're no batteries and you forgot to bring the batteries? That means you have the parts without the power.

I love when I see if I buy something from my grandkids that says batteries included. That means I don't have to go somewhere else to get the power to pull off the performance. God not only gave you the provision, coming with it is the power to be and to live life in a way that explodes godliness. That's why you know your appetite. One of the ways God confirms your redemption is by giving you a desire for him or making you miserable when you don't have it. One thing about a spiritual Christian, they hurt when God hurts. When they make God sad, they get sad. When they make God smile, they're full of joy. Why?

Because God and me on the same page. When you lose your appetite, you're sick. You lose your appetite for an extended amount of time, something wrong with you. Because that's why the doctor always wants to know, how's your appetite? Because your appetite dictates your health. So if there's little hunger for God, for His Word, to spend time with Him, to include Him, if there's little hunger for that, that's because sickness is set in.

Or maybe you're not alive at all and have never been born again. But here we go. Here's my challenge to me, to you, and to us. I want you to work on a godliness degree. Virtually everybody in this room has a high school diploma. Most of the people in this room have a bachelor's degree. Most of the people here are college graduates. Many of the people here have master degrees. They've gone beyond the bachelor and done higher education, got a master's. Some or a few of the people here have doctorate degrees.

Now let's examine that. You get a high school degree, you have a basic level education that's covered a lot of areas so that you have a general body of knowledge. But when you go to college, now they want to know what you want to major in, because now they want to know what you want to focus on because it will affect now the classes you take and it will affect the direction you take and the kind of career you want to have. When you get your bachelor's and you're going for your master's, now they want to know what do you want to become an expert in? Because now you don't want to just know it, you want to be a master of it. Then you go and you become a PhD.

Now you are at the creme de la creme height and you are the sine qua nom. You are the one that people can look to as a major spokesperson and knowledge bearer on that particular area. One of the primary reasons that you decide to keep going after high school and you go to college to keep going after college so you can get a master's and even to keep going after the master's in order to get a doctorate is because of the financial benefit the degree represents. Oh, you may like the study and you may like the subject, but you think about the money.

Come on, I know what you think about. You're thinking about my value in the marketplace increases with either my degree or my experience. My value, I'm gonna be worth more in the marketplace if I have this paper. If I only have a diploma, my value is gonna be low level in the marketplace. I at least today need a college degree and then it will be at some level. If I get a master's, it's gonna be a high level. Lord have mercy if I get a doctorate because now I can demand a certain amount of paper. Gain is your motivation.

I just showed you where God says the godly person gets great gain. So if the prophet motive is a motivation for you, I want to offer you a doctorate degree in godliness. However, the higher you go in your degree, the more things you gotta move out of the way so you can get it. You can't carry on the same program and get a degree unless you're gonna take all your life to do it. You got to adjust some things cuz the degree is worth staying up all night or not looking at this TV show or not doing that or skipping that or not partying over here cuz I gotta get this degree. I gotta get out of here.

In the way of sports language, how bad do you want it? Or do you want to do like some folk who spent all their lives in school and never wind up with a degree? They just pick a class here and a class there. Here, class there, class everywhere, class class. A little God here, a little God there. Here, God there, God everywhere, God God.

But they never wind up with paper that's profitable. There's profit to godliness, he says. He wants you to see him at a level you've never seen him before.

So the question on the floor is how bad do you want it? Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up a message on the meaning of godliness. And he'll come back in just a moment with a final word. First though, we want to encourage you to visit tonyevans.org to request your personal full-length copy of today's message on CD or downloadable mp3. It's part of this year's special compilation, The Top 24 of 2024. As I mentioned earlier, this giant collection is available for a limited time as our gift when you help support the ministry with a generous year-end contribution. In addition to the 24 audio messages, if you contact us right away, we'll also include a copy of gospel recording artist Anthony Evans' new Christmas album, The Greatest Gift. Just visit tonyevans.org today to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are ready to help you day and night. And don't forget to ask about how to upgrade your offer to include a copy of the Tony Evans Study Bible.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Well, here's Dr. Evans with a final word for today. I don't want to conclude our program without giving our listeners a clear opportunity to become a Christian. A lot of people can listen to Christian messages but never have a personal relationship with the Christ, who is the center of that message.

So let me explain it very simply. You and I are sinners. We can't save ourselves, so God came up with a plan to provide salvation for us for free.

He sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to die on the cross as our substitute, validating His purpose by raising Him from the dead. And so all you must do is come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of eternal life, and He will give it away. He will give it to you if you come to Jesus for it, believing Him to forgive your sins.

Do that right now. God has already made provision through the death and resurrection of Christ. You just have to accept that provision personally. When you do, you are born again.

You get to start life all over again. Why don't you respond right now by receiving Christ into your life? If you're ready to do that, take the time to visit tonyevans.org and click on the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus. Tony has more information there about becoming a follower of Christ, as well as some free resources to help in your journey. When faced with adversity, it can become tempting to just throw in the towel. But on the next Top 24 of 2024, Dr. Evans explains how we can tap into God's matchless strength to transform our despair into victory. Be sure to join us for that.