All Who Desire to Live a Godly Life

“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:10-17 ESV)

Now, to understand the context here, it would be good if you could read 2 Timothy 3:1-9 which the Lord had me write about in the devotion, “Times of Difficulty Have Come.” But briefly, what it talked about there was the last days before the return of Christ and how bad things will be then, which are really now. And it talked about how people will be lovers of self and not lovers of God, and arrogant, heartless, unholy, and immoral, etc. And it spoke of men corrupted of mind, disqualified regarding the faith, who oppose the truth and who lead other people into sin. That is where we are now.

In contrast to that, we who follow Jesus Christ with our lives are to be those who follow the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles and who model our lives after the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. For we are to be holy as God is holy, and to be holy means to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made into the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, by God, via the Spirit, via our cooperation with God’s work of grace in our lives and our obedience to our Lord. So our conduct is to be pure as God is pure, and we are no longer to make sin our practice.

Now the apostle Paul was also a model for us of what the Christian life should look like. But many people today are distorting that to their own advantage and they are accusing Paul of regularly giving into sin and of being the worst of sinners, in the present tense of his time, according to his own words which are distorted and misinterpreted and taken out of context in order for people who profess the name of Jesus to justify them continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. So I am going to link to an article the Lord had me write previously which you can read on that (1).

But let me just say here that Paul could not have taught what he taught and lived the life some people accuse him of living, and he could not, in good conscience, especially based upon what he taught, encourage others to imitate him and to follow his teaching and conduct, and his faith, patience, love, and steadfastness, etc. So we have to read all of Paul’s words in their appropriate context so that we don’t end up arriving at faulty and damaging interpretations of what he said and did. Was he absolutely perfect? No! But he was a godly man who obeyed the Lord and who did not walk in sin.

And he was a man called of God to take the messages of God to the people and to insist that we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. And he taught that if sin is what we obey, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, that we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God. And he gave warning after warning to the churches that they not take lightly the messages of God and that they not think that their eternity is secured on the basis of lip service only. For he taught if sin is what we obey we do not have eternal life.

[Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 9:28; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Okay, so with that said, if we read Paul’s words in the context of all that he taught, we can certainly use him as a model (an example) of what a true follower of Christ should be like. For Paul was sold out to the Lord, and his whole life was dedicated to serving the Lord Jesus Christ and to getting the truth of the gospel out to the people, and to correcting error and teaching the truth. He was so dedicated to the Lord, and so determined in heart and mind to obey the Lord, that he was persecuted severely for his walk of faith, and he spent much time in prison for preaching the truth of the gospel.

And he taught us that if we live holy lives, pleasing to God, in moral purity and uprightness, in faithful service to our Lord, that we can expect to be hated and persecuted as was Jesus and as were the NT apostles. “Indeed”, he said, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Absolutely the truth! So, if you are not being persecuted by anyone because of your walk of faith in the Lord, something is wrong. And you may want to inquire of the Lord to ask him why.

But despite what other people do or how they live or how they perceive us or treat us, we are to continue in what the Scriptures teach us with regard to how we are to conduct our lives and with regard to us surrendering our lives to the Lord Jesus to do what he says we ought to do. We are not to let others persuade us to be less than who we should be just so we don’t offend other people with the truth or so that others will like us and want to be with us. For the Christian life is not easy in/easy out, but it is a hard life of sacrifice and suffering for the salvation of human lives for eternity.

And, although it is the New Testament which teaches us the life of Christ and his gospel message, and which gives instructions in holy living to the church, the body of Christ, we should not forsake all the teachings of the Old Testament. For “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” We just need to read the OT in light of the NT and the gospel of our salvation and what is required of us now in thought and word and deed.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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(1) https://runwithit.blog/2023/05/13/was-paul-a-hypocrite-ii/