The Teaching that Accords with Godliness

1 Timothy 6:3-5 ESV

 

“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

 

In John 10 it speaks of those who enter into the sheepfold by another way other than Jesus Christ. They are thieves and liars. They come in through a back door in a clandestine and underhanded way. They will profess to know Jesus Christ but he is truly not the authority over their lives. For they are serving a different master while they disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, for their goal is to deceive and to lead people astray.

 

They will profess to be teaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ while what they bring to you has been altered, overhauled, and revamped to make it more acceptable and non-offensive to the people of the world and to human flesh. They dress it up to make it look good, to make it look righteous, but while it is filled with the twisting of truth and deceptions and teachings taken from Scriptures taught outside their context in order to deceive you.

 

So, we need to be people of discernment. We need to test everything we hear or read against the Scriptures (in context), comparing Scripture with Scripture, for these thieves and liars abound in today’s modern gatherings of people which they call “churches.” And their lies and their revamped gospel message is what is now permeating the church, and it is what is being largely accepted by the people professing faith in Jesus, too.

 

Social media on the internet is a huge platform for them and their revamped gospel message, too, and the masses are buying into it. They prey on the naïve and the weak and the non-discerning, for they are masters at manipulation and trickery and at presenting their arguments in ways which sound biblical when they are not. And those who do not know the Scriptures will be easy targets for them to convince them that the lies are the truth.

 

They like to pull Scriptures out of their context to make their points. Ephesians 2:8-9 is a favorite of theirs to try to prove that Jesus does it all and that nothing is required of us. But they leave out verse 10 which says that we are the Lord’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which the Lord prepared in advance that we should walk (in conduct, in practice) in them. They ignore all the Scriptures which disagree with them.

 

Another one they favor is John 10:28-30 which says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” And they apply this to anyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ regardless of how they live their lives on this earth. And this is because they leave out verse 27 which says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” And to follow Jesus is to walk in obedience to him.

 

Another favorite of theirs is Romans 10:9 which says, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And so they feel if they make a verbal confession of Christ as Lord and say they believe in his bodily resurrection that they are now saved for eternity, and nothing can snatch them out of God’s hands.

 

But what about the rest of what Romans teaches, beginning with chapter one which says that if you do not honor the Lord with your life that the wrath of God is revealed against you who by your unrighteousness suppress the truth. And Romans 2 where it says that God will render to each one according to his works: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Rom 2:6-8).

 

And how about Romans 6:16 where it says, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Or Romans 8 where it says, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (read Rom 8:1-17).

 

And what about Jesus’ own words when he said that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self and take up his cross daily (daily die with Christ to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him? And what about all the Scriptures that teach that if we walk in sin that we will not inherit eternal life and this one that says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven” (see Lu 9:23-26; Gal 5:16-21; Matt 7:21-23)?

 

1 Timothy 6:11-14 ESV

 

“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

The things that we are to flee are all things which are opposed to God and to his righteousness. They are the desires of the flesh and sinful practices and all that stems from pride and envy and selfishness and self-indulgence, etc. Anything that promotes self and that is not honoring to God is not of God. For, our lives are to be surrendered to Jesus Christ, dying daily with Christ to sin and to self, and walking daily with Christ in holiness and righteousness.

 

So, instead of going after what gratifies the sinful cravings of our flesh, we are to be those who are pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. We are to walk (in conduct) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We are to forsake our sinful practices to follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his ways. For, if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

The Prayer

 

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,

Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

 

I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

And help us to be wise

In times when we don't know

 

Let this be our prayer

When we lose our way

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe.

 

I pray we'll find your light

And hold it in our hearts

When the stars go out each night

Remind us where you are.

 

Let this be our prayer

When shadows fill our day

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqFCbtRz1Z0

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P.S. This is not an endorsement of the singers other than as musicians