8/10/08 Godliness

II Peter 1:5-7 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Our Lord loves us more deeply,

more fervently,

more totally

and unconditionally

and inalterably than we could ever imagine.

He loves us with a love

that draws Him to us,

a love that causes Him to seek out

a growing, real, personal friendship

with each of His children.

It isn’t that He needs to get to know us in this friendship, of course,

it’s that we need to get to know Him.

He did not create us

and allow us to run around His world

simply because He likes noise

and confusion in His universe

and we supplied Him with both.

He created us

because He likes us,

He delights in us,

and once the wall of our revolt against Him

is removed through our faith in Christ

He actively seeks

a growing friendship with us.

And to enable us to develop that friendship

He offers each of us certain projects

that we share with Him,

projects that enable us to get to know Him better.

Those projects begin

by His building into our lives

a solid foundation of moral excellence.

He pulls our feet out of the moral muck and mire

that has caused us such pain and bondage

and builds under our feet

rock-solid footing

that enables us to stand secure,

without guilt

or shame

or fear

or self-condemnation.

It doesn’t happen over night,

it doesn’t happen without pain.

But changing lives

is what He does best.

And in the process we discover

the true meaning of grace,

and forgiveness,

and kindness,

and patience,

and love -

HIS love for us.

In other words, we begin to see our God as He really is.

In our study so far

we have walked our way through the first four progressive growth steps

that Peter reveals to us in the first chapter of his second letter.

The first step in our walk with the King

is His building into our lives

what Peter calls moral excellence.

we have defined moral excellence as choosing to live within God’s moral framework because we are convinced it is the only way our needs can be met.

It involves learning to trust what our Lord says

because we trust HIM.

From there

our Lord begins to build what Peter calls knowledge into our lives.

And we’ve defined knowledge as

discovering the basic operating principles of life within the Kingdom of God.

From there

we move into learning self-control -

the ability to choose to do what is right at those times when our emotions are lying to us.

And closely linked to self-control is perseverance,

that ability to exercise self-control as long as our Lord asks us to do so.

The next step of growth

in our walk with our Lord,

and the one we want to look at today,

is what Peter calls godliness.

It is a word that in some respects

is a little more difficult for us to define.

The word literally means ‟Piety”,

or a kind of ‟God-likeness”.

It is directly related to our actions -

our behavior,

to the way we live our lives

on a daily basis.

To help you relate to this growth area

in a more practical way

I’d like to offer you a definition of godliness

that helps me to understand the underlying concept I believe Peter is dealing with.

The definition I would offer you is this:

godliness is the ability to do what is right even when there are no external reasons for doing so.

And let me see if I can explain

more accurately what I am trying to say with that definition.

When our Lord begins His healing

and changing process in our lives,

especially in those areas where

we have gotten ourselves

entangled in habits,

or behaviors,

or approaches to meeting our needs

that are outside of God’s protective moral framework,

and as such self-destructive in nature,

our Lord leads us through

several progressive steps

in His process of bringing us into freedom.

Now, just so you understand what I’m talking about here,

let me explain the type of situation I’m addressing.

I’m talking about those areas in our lives

that we bring with us into our walk with our Lord

where sinful, self-destructive behavior

has gotten its hooks into us

and our Lord needs to bring us through a healing process

to free us from our bondage.

These are areas where we have invested

a significant amount of mental

and emotional energy

into rationalizing and justifying

our own sinful behavior.

The approach we are taking

is not really meeting our needs,

and, in fact, it’s causing more problems than it’s solving,

but it has gotten its hooks into us,

it has become a part of who we are,

it has become a favorite tool,

a favorite weapon,

a familiar hiding place,

in our frantic efforts to protect ourselves

and cope with the pain

or fear

or loneliness

or confusion in our lives.

We have long since ceased to be logical

or objective about it

and allowed it to become

a part of who we are

and how we operate in life.

Then our Lord enters our life

and begins His healing program.

He knows that the approach we have taken in this area

not only does not meet the needs we are trying to meet,

but it actually complicates our life,

creates far more problems than it solves,

and ultimately works to our own destruction.

OK, I think there are at least 4 distinct steps our Lord often must lead us through

in His process of bringing us into

true freedom in these situations.

#1. Depending on the situation

it is often necessary for our Lord

to begin with a measure of divine discipline in order to wake us up.

He begins by setting us up for measured amounts of pain

designed to open our eyes to what’s really going on in our lives.

In other words,

He begins the healing process

by seeking to create in us

a FEAR OF THE CONSEQUENCES

of our wrong behavior.

This is the first and most fundamental step

in His healing process.

His love for us is such that He could never

allow us to continue on with an approach to life

that will ultimately be destructive to us

and to those around us

without alerting us to the destructive nature of what we’re doing.

And so, in His love,

there are times when He must set us up for pain.

He will arrange our lives so that we will get caught,

and get discovered,

or get hurt,

or He will allow us to enter into a situation in which

someone we care about

gets hurt because of our actions or attitudes.

We will be running down our familiar

emotional escape route,

or crawling into our favorite hiding place,

or hiding behind our favorite protective armor

and suddenly

rather than it allowing us to escape

or hide

or protect ourselves

it HURTS!

Ever wonder why all those other people got away with it and you didn’t?

It’s because you have a Father who loves you.

Now we need to realize that this “fear of consequences” level

is just the first step in the healing process.

Fear of consequences alone can never bring

the quality of life God longs for us to know.

It is simply designed to serve as an alarm clock,

a wake-up call

to get our attention

and to motivate us to reexamine the approach to life we have taken in some particular area.

From there Our Lord seeks to move us on

to step #2,

asking us to be objective about our actions.

Paul talks about this step in Romans 6:21

21] Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

He is saying, ‟Now, Christian, for the first time in your life you can begin to be honest about your sins.

You are no longer driven by an irrational rebellious inner spirit

that defies your Creator simply to prove

that you can be your own boss and run your own life.

You no longer need to fear God’s judgement for your sins

because Christ has paid your debt in full, forever.

Now, for the first time, you can risk

being honest and objective about your sins.

Do they really meet your needs?

Do they bring fulfillment,

peace,

and true inner satisfaction into your life?

Do they allow you to like yourself better?

Do they help build strong, quality relationships with those around you?

It’s OK, child of God,

you can risk being honest now.”

And at this second level of healing,

this level of being objective about our actions,

our Lord begins to build into our lives

a more mature inner motivation for defeating sin.

This is not just an emotional fear of the consequences of our behavior.

This is honest, intellectual objectivity

about the stupidity of our actions

or attitudes

or responses

or hiding places.

#3. The third step of healing

is one that comes as a result

of our growing friendship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we begin to discover the reality of His incredible love for us,

as we begin to experience

His kindness,

His comfort,

His compassion,

as we begin to literally grow in our own personal friendship

with the God of all Creation,

we will also find within ourselves

a growing heart-desire to approach life

in a way that honors Him.

In other words,

we will find ourselves saying to our Lord,

“You know, Lord, that I feel pulled in this direction.

I know it’s not what You want for me,

and I do so very much want my life

to be honoring to You.

Right now I can’t see how You’re going to be able to meet my needs in this area,

but I’ve seen a little of what You’re like.

I’ve seen Your love for me,

I’ve seen Your compassion,

I’ve seen Your power at work in my life.

And I will trust You here.

I trust You not because I can figure it all out,

but simply because I know You,

and I know You are infinitely trustworthy.”

That kind of inner motivation

that grows out of our knowledge of Christ

and our trust in Him

and our growing love for Him

goes way beyond simply changed behavior

because we fear the consequences of our actions.

It goes way beyond simply being objective

about the actions we are involved in.

It is a righteousness that grows out of love for and trust in our Lord Himself.

As such it is a much more mature

and solid basis of operation in our lives.

But there is a 4th level of maturity as well,

an inner perspective that I believe is at the heart

of this concept of GODLINESS

that Peter is talking about here in II Peter.

Do you know why God does the things He does?

Do you know what motivates Him?

God does the things He does

simply because His actions are an extension of who He is.

Now I really do hope you won’t doze off on me here.

I’m not trying to open up some fruitless philosophical discussion about the nature of God,

but I want us to see something

that I think is crucial to this whole understanding of godliness.

We are accustomed to actions and behaviors that are motivated by situations

or circumstances

or consequences outside of ourselves.

We do so much of what we do because of the results our actions will bring.

It will make us feel good,

or look good,

or help us to avoid pain,

or enable us to meet some need in our life.

That is not the way God operates.

God does what He does

simply because of who He is.

He doesn’t reach out to us in love

because He’s lonely and is hoping for a friendship with us,

He reaches out to us in love

because Love is at the very core

of Who He is,

He IS LOVE,

and His actions of love

are simply an extension

of Who He is.

Whether we respond to His love or not

is never the issue.

In the same way,

God does not choose to be honest

because He finds it works best

in His dealings with His creation.

God is honest because total

and complete

and absolute honesty is at the center of Who He is.

That’s what John is talking about in I Jn 1:5

when it tells us that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

He does not choose to be honest,

He is absolute Honesty -

and His actions simply flow from

His own nature.

OK, now, lets go back to that definition

I suggested for godliness

in II Peter 1:6

Godliness is the ability to do what is right even when there are no external reasons for doing so.

In other words, godliness becomes a part of our lives

when what we do

begins to flow out of a growing knowledge of who we really are in Christ.

You see, the other three motivations we’ve looked at for changed behavior,

• fear of consequences,

• being honest about out actions,

• even trusting the Person of Christ

all flow out of our response

to external stimuli.

But as we grow in Christ,

and as we begin to be more deeply renewed in our thinking processes,

and as we begin to discover

who we really are in Christ,

we will discover a whole new basis

for changes in our lives.

As we begin to hear our Lord’s voice

telling us that we are now and forever more His HOLY ONES,

His Saints,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

- as we begin to see ourselves as His ambassadors,

His special designated representatives to this world,

- as we begin to understand that we have become royal priests of God,

those who stand between a world encased in death

and a God who offers eternal life,

- as we begin to see ourselves as joint heirs with Christ,

and future rulers with Him,

-in other words, as we begin to gain some small insight into our true, new, eternal identity in Christ,

we will begin do discover a subtle

but oh! so powerful change

taking place within us.

We will find ourselves confronted with some old behavior,

some old hiding place,

some old coping technique,

some sin from our past life,

and find ourselves saying,

“No, that’s not who I am any more.

That behavior fit fine with the person I once was,

but that person has died,

and I am now a new Creation in Christ,

a child of God,

His holy one.”

In other words,

just like God Himself,

our actions will begin to flow out of

a clear and correct knowledge of who we now are.

And our purity of life will become

a logical expression

of who we have become at the deepest level of our being -

Holy sons and daughters of God Himself.

Central to the whole concept of godliness

is godly behavior that is not dependant upon external circumstances for its motivation,

but rather it is godly behavior that flows

out of a growing knowledge of who we really are in Christ.

And obviously I’ve applied this whole concept primarily to our moral choices,

but it goes far beyond that.

It goes to the very heart of how we choose to invest our lives

and why we do the things we do.

At the spirit level of our being,

because of the recreative work of God within us

we have become people of absolute integrity

with tremendous significance,

people who have within us

the ability to reshape our part of the world for good,

and the potential to profoundly impact the lives of those around us.

We have the ability

to literally be the physical body of God Himself on this earth.

But when we come to our King

that remarkable recreated spirit within us

is encased in massive lies imbedded in our reasoning processes and emotions,

lies we learned from the earliest days of our life on this planet,

lies that tell us we are tiny, insignificant people,

whose lives matter very little,

people who are powerless to make any significant impact on our world.

So much of our Lord’s work within us

is done for the purpose of freeing us from those lies.

It is His goal to give us eyes to see the truth about our real identity,

to show us that we are sons and daughters of God Himself,

created in absolute righteousness,

filled with His Spirit,

perfectly equipped for the work He has for us.

And to the degree that our actions flow from that understanding,

to that degree Godliness has become a part of our walk with the King.