The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things (7 page)
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Authors: Jerry Bridges
BOOK: The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things
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FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
All that has been said thus far about the importance of prayer, of meditating on the word of God, and of having a specific time of worship, implies the value of a quiet time. The expression “quiet time” is used to describe a regular period each day set aside to meet with God through His word and through prayer. One of the great privileges of a believer is to have fellowship with almighty God. We do this by listening to Him speak to us from His word and by speaking to Him through prayer.
There are various spiritual exercises we may want to accomplish during our quiet time, such as reading through the Bible in a year and praying over certain requests. But the primary objective of our quiet time should be fellowship with God—developing a personal relationship with Him and growing in our devotion to Him.
After I have begun my quiet time with a period of worship, I next turn to the Bible. As I read a passage of Scripture (usually one or more chapters), I talk to God about what I am reading, as I go along. I like to think of the quiet time as a conversation: God speaking to me through the Bible and I responding to what He says. This approach helps to make the quiet time what it is intended to be—a time of fellowship with God.
Having worshiped God and fellowshiped with Him, I then take time to go over various prayer requests I want to bring before Him that day. Following this order prepares me to pray more effectively. I have thought about who God is; therefore, I do not “rush into His presence” casually and demandingly At the same time I am reminded of His power and love, and my faith regarding His ability and delight to answer my requests is strengthened. In this way, even my time of asking actually becomes a time of fellowship with Him.
In suggesting certain Scriptures for meditation, or certain modes of worship, or a particular practice for a quiet time, I do not want to give the impression that growing in devotion to God is merely following a suggested routine. Neither do I want to suggest that what is helpful to me ought to be followed by others, or will even be helpful to others. All I want to do is demonstrate that growth in devotion to God, although a result of His ministry in us, comes as a result of very concrete practice on our part. We are to train ourselves to be godly; and as we learned in chapter 3, training involves practice—the day-after-day exercise that enables us to become proficient.
THE ULTIMATE TEST
Thus far we have looked at specific activities that help us grow in our devotion to God—prayer, meditation on the Scriptures, worship, and the quiet time. There is still another area that is not an activity, but an attitude of life: obedience to the will of God. This is the ultimate test of our fear of God and the only true response to His love for us. God specifically states that we fear Him by keeping all His decrees and commands (Deuteronomy 6:1-2), and Proverbs 8:13 tells us that “To fear the Lord is to hate evil.” I can know if I truly fear God by determining if I have a genuine hatred of evil and an earnest desire to obey His commands.
In the days of Nehemiah, the Jewish nobles and officials were disobeying God’s law by exacting usury from their countrymen. When Nehemiah confronted them he said, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?” (Nehemiah 5:9). He could just as well have said, “Shouldn’t you obey God to avoid the reproach of our enemies?” Nehemiah equated walking in the fear of God with obedience to God. If we do not fear God, we will not think it worthwhile to obey His commands; but if we truly fear Him—if we hold Him in reverence and awe—we will obey Him. The measure of our obedience is an exact measure of our reverence for Him.
Similarly, as we have already seen in chapter 2, Paul affirmed that his awareness of Christ’s love for him compelled him to live, not for himself, but for Him who died for us. As God begins to answer our prayer for a deeper realization of His love, one means He often uses is to enable us to see more and more of our own sinfulness. Paul was nearing the end of his life when he wrote these words: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). We realize that our sins as Christians, though perhaps not as outwardly gross as before, are more heinous in the sight of God because they are sins against knowledge and against grace. We know better and we know His love, and yet we sin willfully And then we go back to the cross and realize that Jesus bore even those willful sins in His body on the tree, and the realization of that infinite love compels us to deal with those very sins and to put them to death. Both the fear of God and the love of God motivate us to obedience, and that obedience proves they are authentic in our lives.
A DEEPER LONGING
As we concentrate on growing in our reverence and awe for God and in our understanding of His love for us, we will find that our desire for Him will grow. As we gaze upon His beauty we will desire to seek Him even more. And as we become progressively more aware of His redeeming love, we will want to know Him in a progressively deeper way. But we can also pray that God will deepen our desire for Him. I recall reading Philippians 3:10 a number of years ago and realizing a little bit of the depth of Paul’s desire to know Christ more intimately. As I read I prayed, “O God, I cannot identify with Paul’s longing, but I would like to.” Over the years God has begun to answer that prayer. By His grace I know experientially to some degree Isaiah’s words, “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you” (Isaiah 26:9). I am grateful for what God has done, but I pray I will continue to grow in this desire for Him.
One of the wonderful things about God is that He is infinite in all of His glorious attributes, so never in our desire for Him will we exhaust the revelation of His person to us. The more we come to know Him, the more we will desire Him. And the more we desire Him, the more we will want to fellowship with Him and experience His presence. And the more we desire Him and His fellowship, the more we will desire to be like Him.
Paul’s heartfelt cry in Philippians 3:10 vividly expresses this longing. He desires both to know Christ and to be like Him. He wants to experience both His fellowship-even the fellowship of suffering—as well as the transforming power of His resurrection life. He wants both Christ-centeredness and Christlikeness.
This is godliness: God-centeredness, or devotion to God; and Godlikeness, or Christian character. The practice of godliness is both the practice of devotion to God and the practice of a lifestyle that is pleasing to God and that reflects His character to other people.
In the remainder of our studies in this book we will consider the Godlike character that we should display. But we can build Godlike character only upon the foundation of a whole-hearted devotion to God. God must be the very focal point of our lives if we wish to have godly character and conduct.
This point cannot be overemphasized. Too many of us focus on the outward structure of character and conduct without taking the time to build the inward foundation of devotion to God. This often results in a cold morality or legalism, or even worse, self-righteousness and spiritual pride. Of course, the foundation of devotion to God and the structure of a life pleasing to God must be developed simultaneously. We cannot separate these two aspects of godliness.
Because of the importance of properly laying the foundation of inward devotion, I encourage you to review the essential elements of devotion (see chapter 2). Then review this chapter and make specific plans for exercising yourself in the area of devotion to God. No one has ever developed a mental or physical skill without a commitment to practice. And no one will ever develop a devotion to God without a commitment to exercise himself in the essential elements of devotion.
The idea of practice may tend to make us think of drudgery, such as dreary drills on piano scales when we wished to be out playing with our friends. But the practice of developing our relationship with God should not be equated with something like childhood music lessons. We are seeking to grow in our devotion to the most wonderful Person in all of the universe, the infinitely glorious and loving God. Nothing can compare with the privilege of knowing Him in whose presence is fullness of joy and in whose hand there are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11, NASB).
5
Taking on God’s Character
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Colossians 3:12
Godliness consists of two distinct but complementary Gtraits, and the person who wants to train himself to be godly must pursue both with equal vigor. The first trait is God-centeredness, which we call devotion to God; the second is Godlikeness, which we call Christian character. Godly character flows out of devotion to God and practically confirms the reality of that devotion.
We may express a reverence for God; we may lift our hearts in worship to Him; but we demonstrate the genuine-ness of our devotion to God by our earnest desire and sincere effort to be like Him. Paul not only wanted to know Christ, he wanted to be like Him; and he pressed forward with utmost intensity toward that goal.
Thus far in our study of the practice of godliness we have concentrated on the aspect of devotion, of God-centeredness. Now we turn our attention to Godlikeness—the development of Godlike character. What are the character traits that distinguish the godly person? A good place to start is with the list of gracious qualities, which Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit, in Galatians 5:22-23. It seems obvious, however, that Paul did not intend to limit the traits of the fruit of the Spirit to that particular list. Any other trait commended in Scripture as befitting a believer is also a fruit of the Spirit, since its evidence is a result only of the Spirit’s ministry in our hearts. So, to the qualities listed in Galatians 5—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—we can also add such traits as holiness, humility, compassion, forbearance, contentment, thankfulness, considerateness, sincerity, and perseverance.
This is a rather awesome list of character traits to pursue, and our first reaction, if we are realistic at all, is probably to say, “I can’t work on all of these.” That is indeed true,
if
we were left to our own devices. But these traits are the fruit of the Spirit, the result
of His
work within us. This does not mean we bear no responsibility for the development of Christian character, but rather that we fulfill our responsibility under His direction and by His enablement. It is this divine dimension that makes Christian character possible, and it is
only
this divine dimension that can keep us from becoming frustrated and defeated in our desire to exemplify godly character traits in our lives.
if
we were left to our own devices. But these traits are the fruit of the Spirit, the result
of His
work within us. This does not mean we bear no responsibility for the development of Christian character, but rather that we fulfill our responsibility under His direction and by His enablement. It is this divine dimension that makes Christian character possible, and it is
only
this divine dimension that can keep us from becoming frustrated and defeated in our desire to exemplify godly character traits in our lives.
In the following chapters we will study some of these traits of godliness individually. There are some basic principles, however, that apply to all aspects of godly character.
THE RIGHT MOTIVE
The first principle of godly character is,
Devotion to God is the only acceptable motive for actions that are pleasing to God.
This devotion may express itself in one of several different ways. We may have a sincere desire to please God or to glorify Him; we may do or not do a particular action because we love God, or because we sense that He is worthy of our obedience. However our motivation expresses itself, if it is God-centered, it arises out of our devotion to God and is acceptable to Him.
Devotion to God is the only acceptable motive for actions that are pleasing to God.
This devotion may express itself in one of several different ways. We may have a sincere desire to please God or to glorify Him; we may do or not do a particular action because we love God, or because we sense that He is worthy of our obedience. However our motivation expresses itself, if it is God-centered, it arises out of our devotion to God and is acceptable to Him.
Unfortunately, too often our motives are self-centered rather than God-centered. We want to maintain our reputation before others, or we want to feel good about ourselves. Or we may even seek to live a decent and moral life or to do good deeds because such an ethic has been instilled in us from childhood. But that motivation is never related to God and thus is not acceptable to Him.
When Joseph was enticed by Potiphar’s wife, he did not refuse her on the basis, “If I did that and my master found out, he would have my head.” No; he said, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). His motivation for morality was centered in God, and because of that it was acceptable to God.
I recall once being tempted with the opportunity to engage in a questionable business transaction, one of those gray-area situations in which we tend to rationalize our actions. As I pondered the matter I thought, I better not; I might incur the discipline of God. Now when all proper motives fail, it is certainly better to be checked by the fear of God’s discipline than to go ahead with our sin. But that is not the right motive. In this situation the Holy Spirit came to my aid and I thought to myself,
Now that [the fear of God’s discipline] is certainly an unworthy motive; the real reason why I should not do that is because God is worthy of my most honorable conduct.
The Holy Spirit helped me to recognize the self-centeredness of my initial motivation and to correctly focus my motivation on God.
Now that [the fear of God’s discipline] is certainly an unworthy motive; the real reason why I should not do that is because God is worthy of my most honorable conduct.
The Holy Spirit helped me to recognize the self-centeredness of my initial motivation and to correctly focus my motivation on God.
When God commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, he tested his motive. As He stayed Abraham’s knife from the fatal plunge, God said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (Genesis 22:12). It was Abraham’s fear of God that motivated him to go forward with that supreme act of obedience. We usually associate Abraham’s obedience with his faith. It was by faith that Abraham was
enabled
to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but it was the fear of God that
motivated
him. And it was this Godward motivation that the Lord saw and accepted and commended.
enabled
to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but it was the fear of God that
motivated
him. And it was this Godward motivation that the Lord saw and accepted and commended.
As we look into the New Testament we see this Godward motivation emphasized again and again. Jesus taught that all the Law and the Prophets hang on the two commandments of love for God and love for our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). He was not teaching merely that these two commandments of love sum up all the other more specific commandments, but rather that all the other commandments depend upon the motivation of love for their fulfillment. The fear of consequences may keep us from committing the outward acts of murder or adultery, but only love will keep us from committing murder or adultery in our hearts.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul tells us that even our eating and drinking is to be done for the glory of God. As someone has observed, there is nothing more ordinary and routine than our eating and drinking; yet even this is to be done with a Godward motivation. Slaves were enjoined to obey their earthly masters out of “reverence for the Lord” (Colossians 3:22). All of us are to submit ourselves to human authority “for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13). And our interpersonal relationships—our mutual submission to one another—is to be done “out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). All of our actions, to be acceptable to God, must be done out of a sense of devotion to God.
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