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Growth in Grace 13 — Perseverance Must Be Supplied with Godliness 2

by | Oct 6, 2014 | Soteriology

The danger of Satanic counterfeiting that was in the back of Peter’s mind when he penned the passage which has occupied this blog for the last few weeks, 2 Peter 1:5-7.  In this post we continue to consider the phrase in verse 6, and (supply) in your perseverance godliness.  I am opening up this phrase with me under three headings:

I.               The Virtue Viewed
II.              The Connection Clarified
III.             The Lessons Learned

Having seen that godliness is according to the Bible (to use Louw and Nida’s helpful definition): behaviour reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  In this post we consider

II.      The Connection Clarified

We have said many times that there is a clear rationale for the order Peter follows here in 2 Peter 1:5-7.  Thus we now ask, What is the connection between godliness and perseverance?  What is the reason for the order of Peter?  Why in particular is it important that perseverance and before perseverance, self-control, be supplied with godliness?

The answer is this.  Self-control and perseverance can turn into a kind of mere dogged determination and proud moralism unless their focus is upon worshipping and rendering service to God.  This is the meaning of godliness.  There were ancient, pagan Greek philosophers who exalted self-control and doing your duty despite all the opposition and scorn of men.  The name of those philosophers is still a part of the English language.  It describes someone who shows austere indifference to joy, grief, pleasure, or pain;  one who is calm and unflinching under suffering.  It is the name, Stoic.  The pagan, stoic philosopher taught an ethic that exalted self-control and perseverance in the face of suffering and pain and scorn.  Some non-Christians show amazing self-control and perseverance.  Yet all of their self-control and perseverance were not the virtues to which Peter had just referred. The true Christian who is out of shape and overweight has more genuine self-control and perseverance than the pagan who has disciplined himself to run 26 mile marathons. The fact that such self-control and perseverance are the genuine fruit of the Spirit will be manifested by their being supplied with godliness.  Christian self-control and perseverance originates from and is pervaded by correct religious beliefs.  We must never allow our efforts at self-control and perseverance in the face of opposition to degenerate into something irreligious, ungodly, and proud.  While we are supplying perseverance in our self-control, we must supply in our perseverance godliness.

Look at it this way.   True Christianity requires that we be in a right relation both to God and man and ourselves.  Self-control describes the right relation to ourselves.  Perseverance describes the right relationship to other men.  Godliness describes the right relation to God.  Where one of these graces is lacking the other two must be counterfeit.  Where there is deficiency in one of these graces the others must be affected.

Lloyd-Jones helpfully articulates the connection between perseverance and godliness.

“In other words, while you are controlling these things within, and while you are going on in the spirit of patient endurance, remember why you are doing it all; remember that it is all for the glory of God.  Self-culture must not be practised for its own sake, and the danger is to be falling back on our disciplined nature in and of itself.  But if we worship discipline we are not being godly.  There is no point in any of these things unless they are centrally related to God.  Godliness, therefore, first.  Before I think of my relationship to anybody else, I must always be certain that my main motive and ambition in life is to honour God, is to glorify God, and to tell forth His praise.” (2 Peter, 30)

Alford adds that perseverance is not “mere brute stoical endurance, but united with God-fearing and God-trusting.” (Commentary, 392)

III.    The Lessons Learned

First, we learn to beware of being deceived by the counterfeit self-ism of our culture.  Even while most Americans manifest an increasing lack of self-control and an increasing inability to stand against the peer pressure of our culture, there are those dedicated to the worship of self that preach all sorts of self-discipline and resistance to the system.  The perfect body and perfect independence are the ideals of this worship of self.  It is possible to be exercising self-control and resisting peer pressure for all the wrong reasons.  Such self-control and perseverance are no evidence of growth in grace.  You should not be happy if your diet is going great and your devotions are going into the toilet.  You should definitely not think you are growing in grace.

Second, we learn the priority of godliness and our relation to God.  Lloyd-Jones said it,   Godliness, therefore, first!  Are you living for God?  No matter how well you seem to be doing in other areas.  No matter how successful you are.  Unless you are living for God, you are completely missing the boat.  One mark of such a life will be that God is given all the glory.  Are you characterized by constantly giving God praise for what you have been enabled to do?  For your success?  For your blessings?  Let us renew our determination to live for the glory of God and to give God the glory of our lives!

Third, we learn that we must rehabilitate religion in our thinking.  Religion—godliness—is a vital part of growing in grace.  It is a vital part of Christianity.  Do not let anyone sell you a religion-less Christianity.  A religion-less Christianity is not the Christianity of the Bible.  All of life is worship.  Every day is holy.  Christianity is not a religion.  These are half-truths that are destroying American Christianity!

When we rehabilitate religion in our thinking, we will be able to see how very wrong the casual and informal culture is which we have imbibed.  If there really is a difference between the sacred and the secular, then we will not treat religious duty with the same kind of casual-ness and informality with which Americans treat everything else.  We will reject the lazy and slovenly approach to worship which we see in churches.  We will prepare our hearts for worship, we will try to be early for worship, because we think that religious duty is sacred and holy and to be treated with great respect.  We will practice the three P’s:  priority, preparation, and punctuality as flowing directly out of godliness.  If your reaction to my saying such things is that I am being stuffy, formal, and legalistic, let me reply that the worship culture of many churches is irreligious and profane.  Part of what it means to supply godliness in your perseverance is to purge from your life the prevailing irreligious and profane attitudes I am warning you about!

Fourth, you may be religious and not be saved, but if you are not religious, you will not be saved!  Are you religious?  If you have no form of godliness, you certainly cannot have the power of godliness.  You may have the form without the power, but you cannot have the power without the form.

Fifth, we learn that a mark of genuine Christianity is true religion or godliness.  Do you understand and appreciate godliness?  Are you at home in the house of God?  Are you in your element in the place of prayer?  Do you find delight in the duty of prayer?  Is there a sense in which you find it a blessing, a delight, a relief to pray?  Are you happy to give to the church and to its benevolent causes?  Do you rejoice even in the laws of God that limit your freedom?  His laws about modesty?  His laws about masculine and feminine roles?  Do you delight in the law of God in the inward man?  Yes, I know you enjoy seeing your friends when you come to church.  But the real question is, Do you enjoy drawing near to God when you come to church?

Growth in Grace 12 — Perseverance Must Be Supplied with Godliness

by | Oct 1, 2014 | Soteriology

Satan is the great liar and deceiver.  The most effective lies always have an element of truth in them.  In line with this Satan is the great counterfeiter, and you know that counterfeiting always requires something of real, substantial value to make it worthwhile.  Few would bother to counterfeit some third world currency with an inflation rate of 100% per year, but many find it worthwhile to counterfeit the American Dollar.  It is the danger of Satanic counterfeiting that was in the back of Peter’s mind when he penned the passage which has occupied this series for the last several weeks, 2 Peter 1:5-7.  In this post we take up the phrase in verse 6, “and (supply) in your perseverance godliness.”  In this phrase Peter is attempting to warn Christians against the Satanic counterfeits of perseverance and self-control by telling them that the genuine Christian virtues of perseverance and self-control are permeated by and have supplied in them the virtue of godliness.  Self-control and perseverance barren of godliness, devoid of godliness, are Satanic counterfeits with which no Christian should rest satisfied.

I will consider this phrase over the next few days under three headings:

I.               The Virtue Viewed
II.              The Connection Clarified
III.             The Lessons Learned

The first thing to be considered is …

I.                  The Virtue Viewed

What is this virtue or grace called in the phrase we are studying godliness? When you look at all the places in the New Testament where the word, godliness, and its various relatives occur and also at many of the places where these words occur in the Greek version of the Old Testament in use in New Testament times, the short and sweet definition of this word given by Louw and Nida seems correct.  Here it is: behaviour reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  I want to unpack this definition in three stages.

First, this virtue has to do with religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  In our day and age words like religion and religious and piety and pious are often said with a sneer even by Christians.  You may hear things like l am not religious.  I am a Christian.  It would be a kind of religious slur if you called someone pious.  This kind of dislike of the words, religion and piety, indicates how far we are from a biblical mindset.  Peter in our text calls us to add religion to our perseverance, to supply piety in our endurance.  Therefore, Christians must stop treating religion and piety like dirty words.  Whatever the word, godliness, religion, or piety, meant for Peter.  It was a virtue, not a vice.

Now the very idea of religion or godliness assumes a distinction.  It assumes a distinction between what I will call the religious and the secular, the holy and the common.  Now notice that I did not say the holy and the profane.  Nor did I say the religious and the irreligious.  Rather I spoke of godliness assuming a distinction between the religious and the secular, the holy and the common.  (One definition of secular is having to do with this age or world or temporal rather than having to do with the age to come or the church or religion.)

All of life is, of course, to be lived for God.  Therefore, in a certain qualified sense you may say that all of life is holy.  There are, however, some aspects or parts of life in which we have dealings more directly with God.  Those aspects of life are the arena of religion or godliness.  I trust you live for God at your school or plant or business.  I trust you are living for God on the golf course.  But I also trust that you know the difference between the plant, the golf course, and the church.  I trust that you live for God every day of the week.  But I also trust that you know the difference between Monday and the Lord’s Day.  When Peter refers to godliness and religion, he assumes the difference between the religious and the secular.

Look at a number of texts that use this word, godliness or religion, where this distinction is visible and even clear.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,  There is a difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness.   The wrath of God is revealed against both, but unrighteousness has to do with all deviations from the requirements of God’s law.  Ungodliness has to do particularly with violations of the first four commandments that have to do directly with our relationship to God Himself.

1 Timothy 6:5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.  Ask yourself the question, What is Paul saying?  How could godliness be a means of gain?  Clearly, Paul is talking about men using organized religion to make money.  Godliness has to do with organized religion or religious services.

1 Timothy 6:11 But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.  Here Paul proceeds to instruct the man of God about a number of different virtues he is to pursue.  Of course, all of these virtues are related.  Yet faith and love and righteousness are not the same thing.  Even so godliness is a distinct virtue as well and has to do with observance of the ordinances and institutions of the Christian religion.

Titus 2:12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,  Twice in this text the distinctiveness of religion is clear.  Paul distinguishes between ungodliness and worldly desires.  The one has to do with sins of impiety related to God directly.   The other has to do with a lack of self-control.  In the last part of the verse Paul distinguishes living sensibly and righteously from living godly.  Each refers to a distinct dimension of the Christian life.  Even so in 2 Peter 1:6 Peter distinguishes between self-control and perseverance, on the one hand, and godliness, on the other.

2 Peter 1:3 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.  Here again Peter plainly distinguishes life in general from godliness in particular.  God’s divine power has enabled us to live for God in the whole of life and also and especially in the religious aspect of life.

The virtue referred to in the phrase we are studying this morning has to do with religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  First, this virtue has to do with religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  But …

Second, this virtue has to do with correct religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  In English we have to speak of true religion.  But the Greek word for religion or godliness contains within it—conveys innately—the idea of true religion.  You don’t have to say true religion in Greek because the word itself says it or assumes it.  In this way the Greek word, godliness, is slightly different than the English word, religion.  Peter does not say supply in your perseverance genuine godliness.  He just says, godliness, because the word conveys correct religious beliefs.  Let me show you that this virtue has to do with correct religious beliefs in the rest of the Scriptures.

1 Timothy 3:16 And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Beheld by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.  Paul does not say great is the mystery of genuine godliness or of the true religion.  He simply says great is the mystery of godliness, because the word assumes that the religion or godliness under discussion is the true religion the genuine godliness.  Cf. also 1 Timothy 4:7-8; 6:6; Titus 1:1

In the third stage of this definition of godliness we note that godliness is behavior reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  Here we come to the heart of our study of godliness.  For here we ask the question, What is the godliness exactly that Peter says we must supply in our perseverance and self-control?  There are five texts in the New Testament that I think give us a very clear and full description of what behavior manifests this godliness is.

2 Timothy 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.  Here Paul teaches that there is a correct, outward form of true religion that even some who are strangers to the power of godliness may exhibit.  Clearly, a merely external form of true religion is no evidence of genuine conversion.  Nevertheless, the passage teaches that godliness does involve a commitment to this form.  I cannot take the time to give you chapter and verse for all that I will assert right here.  I doubt if I need to.  What is this form of godliness to which Paul refers?  Well, a study of the Scriptures shows that true religion involves a number of visible, outward religious actions.  First, it certainly involves attendance upon the corporate worship of God’s people.  Second, piety toward God clearly involves being baptized in the name of Christ, a public sign of identifying with God’s religion.  Third, true religion involves being formally identified with a local church.  Fourth, it involves taking the Lord’s Supper in that church regularly.  Fifth, it involves the religious observance of the Lord’s Day.  Sixth, it involves giving financially to support the church’s worship and its benevolence to the poor.  Seventh, it involves upholding orthodox Christian doctrine.  Now remember doing all of these things does not mean that you are godly, but all these things are part of the biblical form of godliness.

Acts 10:2 a devout (godly) man, and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually.  Here Cornelius is described as a devout or godly man.  Then what this meant is explained.  The fact Cornelius was a godly man meant:  (1)  that he feared God.  His whole life manifested that he lived under the eye of God.  (2)  that he practiced family religion.  He feared God with his entire household.  Whatever else this means, it must mean at least that Cornelius somehow led his household in worship.  You could not be in Cornelius’ household for any time without noticing that they were religious and without feeling a holy pressure to join them in their religious exercises.  (3)  that he practiced charitable giving to God’s people.  This is what it means that he gave alms to the Jews.  Perhaps, he helped support the needy among the Jews.  Perhaps, like the Gentile in the gospels he had given to help the Jews construct or enlarge a synagogue.  (4)  that he prayed continually.  Godliness means that you pray continually.  That is to say, godliness in the heart makes a man a man of prayer.  Such a man lives in a spirit of prayer.  He engages regularly and daily in both stated times of prayer and a constant spirit of prayer.  Godliness is manifested by the behavior of prayer.

1 Timothy 2:10 but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness.  Godliness is manifested by certain, specific behaviors in women.  In other words, there is an outward conduct by women that vindicates their claim to be godly.  In this passage three such behaviors are mentioned.  First, feminine godliness is manifested by a practical commitment to the good works of charity (v. 10b).  Second, it is manifested by a manifest commitment to Christian standards of adornment (v. 9).  The appearance of a godly woman attests her claim to godliness.  Her appearance reflects a rejection of immodesty, impropriety, and showiness or ostentation.  Her appearance manifests that her priorities are set by a desire to please God.  Third, feminine godliness is manifested by a submissive commitment to biblical roles in the church (vv. 11-12).  She does not chafe at, she rather rejoices in God’s ordination of masculine leadership in the church.  She regularly and thankfully takes her place in the church to be instructed by its God-appointed teachers.

2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,  The context of this statement makes clear what Paul means here by living a godly life.  Look at verses 9-11. Godliness means living for the purpose of telling others about Christ and seeing the gospel of Christ spread.  A godly person has embraced God’s holy purpose for the spread of the gospel.  Though we do not have either the calling or gifts of the Apostle, every Christian is to live for the spread of the gospel.  He looks for opportunities to further gospel himself.  He fills his part in the body of Christ to enable others more gifted or with a different calling to do what he cannot do himself.  This is what it means to live a godly life here in 2 Timothy 3:12.

Godliness is: behavior reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes – ‘piety, godliness.’  John Brown very ably summarizes godliness in this perceptive paragraph.

“The worship of God is either internal or external.  The internal worship of God is just the habitual cultivation of the sentiments and feelings we have just been illustrating.  Supremely to love, fear, trust in Him?-to be ever ready to believe what he reveals, because He reveals it?-to do what He commands, because He commands it?-and to submit to what He appoints because He appoints it:  this is to worship with our spirits Him who is a Spirit, and to worship Him in truth.  The ordinary state of a godly man’s mind is thus silent, habitual worship; and he expresses this state of mind in the appointed offices of religion.  He loves the habitation of God’s house, and the place where His honour dwells.  He dares not neglect the holy assembly for divine worship, as too many do.  He goes into His tabernacle; he worships at His footstool; he is glad when it is said to him, “Let us go up to the house of the Lord.”  “The voice of rejoicing and salvation,”?-of prayer and praise “is in the tabernacles” of the godly; and his family is kept beyond the reach of the curse that lies on “the families that call not on God’s name;” and he enters into his closet, and shuts his door, and prays to his Father who seeth in secret.” (Parting Counsels, 100)

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