What is Godly and Godliness? And what does it mean for us to be godly in accordance with scripture?
The use of the word “godly” simply means God focused and driven to be like and emanate. So a life given to Godliness, is one in harmony and compliance to godliness. And this is generally according to scripture. This is the primary purpose of scripture is to re-image us into what God designed for us to be from the beginning, a look alike according to scripture, another represent or re-present the Father who said “let Us make man in our image”. This image was lost “in Adam” and found “in Christ”. That is why you want to be found “in Christ,”.
The word “accord” and “according” means in compliance and in harmony with. As this relates to the God of scripture, we are to be in compliance and harmony, meaning to harmonize and synchronize, with the things written therein. To become one with. As John put it “to know Him even as we are known” is to know Him as we know ourselves.
The book of James says that “we are Begotten by the word of Truth to be a kind of first-fruits of His creation”, or to become a new creation, meaning a harvestable ripe, juicy fruit, just like and “in accordance or compliance to godliness, being re-imaged like God.
Paul put it like this, “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with (agrees with harmonizes and produces) godliness”. This is to correctly use scripture for this cause of our transformation, which is synonymous with transfiguration.
And scripture is not an idolistic notion. An idol is an object thought to possess power. And however scripture conveys power to our understanding that accords to godliness, without the proper integration of this godliness, or an ownership of a god-like-ness, scriptures and the bible itself just becomes idolistic and not idealistic. “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! Idols in escence is falsely placed power. It is that you have the power in yourself to wake up to be like the Father, you own branch of god-like-ness in the here and now, but to idolize is that you give that object, thing or person a power that came from you by subjecting yourself to another. And to idolize God the Father is not a loss of self power like with and idol, but He explains and amplifies some things that are dormant and resident in you, usually tucked in behind fear. With fear being neutered, you are no longer handicapped but more fully opened up for development that accords, or harmonizes with the Godhead body of whom you are called to associate with as your primary reason in exist in a developmental stage. Once you are done in this creation, there are things that can no longer grow and develop. That is why we are called to work on our own salvation with fear and trembling” instead of being an onlooker for another event from Heaven..
And such is the case in our day. People idolize Not so much the the gospel that accords (leads) to godliness”, but seem to be either be stuck in confessions and kneeling at the cross, or idle waiting for a second coming saving Savior to do something for you as though His first saving was on part, but He said at the cross “it is finished” and He didn’t mean just the first chapter. This is a faithless place to be and is akin to any idol worship being any object that you look at thinking that God dwells in that.
The bible and Gods words itself should be viewed as the only thing that can keep you alive and on track. You should consume the content untill it’s NOT second nature but first nature and the new nature because that’s the new you and that’s the truth. You should shred up God’s word and wear it out. That is the only Manual that can instruct you to “put off your old man” and put on your new person imaged like Christ, in true righteousness and Holiness, that accords to godliness.
Like Peter said that ” You do well to pay attention to it as to a light that shines in a dark place (your mind and heart) till the dawning of this age happens and the morning star (being the first light rays of various revelations of Christ) rises in your hearts”. Because “it is with the heart that one must hear and see to understand the things of God”. So there are your tools.
So to be Godly is someone whose focused on God, to become god-like or godly, to emulate and imitate. And some would say, well wasn’t man from the beginning made like God, in an image like God in Adam and Eve? Yes for tutorial purposes only. True godliness would not include a physical “image” to be like God because God has a different composition for us to be like Him we call “spirit and truth”. That is why the root word of “imagination” is to “imagine“, means to develope an image not of stone, but through mental constructs that we obtain from scripture and transfer to the mind, because it is in the mind where the transfiguration into the “image” of God takes place. It has to be etched or scribed (scripture) on your heart. And because “in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.” His words are what we become, but more than just the words, but the things the words describe. Otherwise we would not truely become godly, but just talk about it and recite it with no real change. However if you can talk about godliness with great ease, it is because the author of that word has given you authorization, as long as you don’t attach your old self to it.
This is why “if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, old things pass away and all things become new”. And the “new” is the new image that accords (looks just like) to godliness
Just as Paul taught in Romans 12, be ye transfigured by the renewal of your mind.
And quite differently than like a fairy tale, which generally means tales of fallen fairies because fairies generally have superhuman cognitions that kids are taught about. So the point here is that the image or imaging of God, takes place in the mind and what is called the heart, describing our invisible parts….
But that too does not refer to your physical heart that goes thump, thump, but your seat of emotions, because that too is invisible like the seat of your thoughts called the mind, so that your thoughts and affections, being your heart and mind, these are the components you have now to clearly associate, ruminate to articulate and manifest the will of God
So then to become godly and god-like indicates that a person has obtained the mindset and emotions that come from a relationship with God, as God relates to us internally first and then eternally then externally.
This is why Christ warned us in scripture of those who scattered his flock, “they will say, look here and look there, DO NOT go after THEM but behold, the Kingdom of God is within you”. And if you can think, ponder and construct these concepts in your mind with scripture, to conseptsualize God’s things in this way, then you’ve made a suitable home for Gods word and Holy Spirit. Even as Christ said in the book of John “if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you can ask what you want and it shall be done for you.” And “we will come to you and make our home in you”. This is abiding “in Christ” and Christ abiding in you.
This is the oneness, the koinania 1 John describes of being one with God through Christ. The word koinania is Greek and also used for intercourse. “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship/koinania with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
If you remember God made all of creation in 6 days. Therefore God cannot be a creation as such, because Creation is something that is made after God by God. And if God is of this creation of created things, then who made this god you are referring to?
A designer, fabricator, maker and maintainer existed prior to creation. And that one said “Let there be light” first, because that light existed with God before anything of creation was made. So light was thing that came from God because every other mandate for creation was “let there be” and it was so . So light is the first from the source as a delivery mechanism from the eternal almighty God.
John says that Christ was “the true light that cometh into the world”. And even the Testimony about John the Baptist was, “he was not that light, but he was sent to bare witness of that light, He is the true (original) light that shines in the heart of every man.” Something the sun can’t even do.
So if Gods first expression was something, and the one and only thing that came forth from the Father, and that expression is light, then truely “God is light and in Him is no darkness”. And because God is light, then the Son who was and is a byproduct of the Father, who was in the beginning, is light Himself, and this rightly so. For this reason Christ said “those who’ve seen Me have seen the Father”. This shows us that both the Father and the Son from the beginning are light. Even as it also says that “He is the light that shines in every one’s heart”. From this we can understand that we are not speaking about a light such as we have, or even like the noon day sun. Those rays can’t shine in a heart. That’s the wrong composition because light rays of Earth’s realm fray and diffuse.
So when Saul/Paul was blinded by a light brighter than the noon day sun, where do you suppose that came from? That is right. And it did not fray and diffuse because after all that time it converts the souls of willing observers even now.
From these we can ascertain that God is light, but not like the light of this age but far superior and brighter. This is what God was like. This is what God is. Even as it is told that Gods Jeru-shalom has “no need for the sun because the Lamb is it’s light.” So even the sun has no place in this place we are inviting you to because it is other worldly. It’s made up of things eternal that were really not made but just exists.
Now then, when we’re asked, what is Godliness? Like all of Gods work it starts with light, but like all of Gods elements and features, the carnal man cannot understand them for “they must be spiritually discerned” and NOT carnally assimilated. Even as Paul said that “the gospel I preach to you did not come from man, nor was it taught by man but by revelation of Jesus Christ”. Therefore we can understand that the word “revelation” is associated with That Light whom we know as Jesus Christ. Not so much that revelation is that light as much as revelation is what happens when Gods light shines into your heart and mind, which are escentially referring to our invisible part that cannot be seen by anyone else, because “eye has not seen, not has ear heard the things that God has for those who love Him, but God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, yah even the deep, and hard to understand, things of God.
It is God alone who truely knows what is in the hearts and minds of everyone, including the data crunchers and info gatherers, forecasters and predictors of the day.
Paul said in his beginnings, for we know in part and we see in part and we prophecy in part but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be taken out of the way, and then we will know even as we are know. And that which was “in part” was not referring to creation but your old carnal understand. That we will know (God) even as we are known. This is absolutely correct. “We beholding as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord are being transfigured into His same Image, from the Glory to the Glory as by the Spirit”? This has absolutely nothing to do with creation as you know carnally. We have a different knowing, a different understanding and a different assimilation and activation than such is common to man outside of scripture.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is [d]perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now (being unperfected) we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part and I see in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Yes, to know God as we know ourselves.
As said Paul so say we, we are “a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,
This is the gospel completed in us that accords to godliness, to be a duplicate and re-presentation. Amen!