Thank you, Paul and Clara. Now let's open our Bibles together please to 1 Timothy chapter 6. There are some words that we use that are so familiar to us that we use them understanding what we mean. But they're the kind of words that are occasionally hard to quantify. For example, the word peace. I have peace about that, we say. Really? Well that's good. And we think we know what we mean and we think others understand what we mean, but really what is peace? How do you define?
How do you explain peace? Or we sing as we did this morning, I love you with the love of the Lord. Now there's another word. We use it often. Love. And we have a general idea of what love is, but how do you quantify love? There's another word the same way as a key word in the whole book of 1 Timothy. It is found in our text this morning. It's the word godliness.
Now we hear the word godly or the word godliness and we think immediately, oh yeah, I know what that is, but do we really understand what godliness looks like in street clothes? The word godliness is sometimes defined as piety. That's the way Vine describes it in his dictionary. Now if there's another word that gives me a fit, it's the word piety. It sounds so puritanical, so Victorian. Oh, he's a pious person. Now it's a wonderful word, but it has all kinds of connotations.
Such is the word godliness. The word literally means well-devoted in the Greek language. Well-devoted. It means to be well-devoted to God. 14 times that word is used in the New Testament. Eight of those 14 times in this one epistle that we've been studying. There's another time a word is translated godliness, at least in my translation, in chapter 2 and verse 10. There it's a slightly different word. It means they're God-devoted. It's described as godliness in the English.
What does it mean to be godly? Well, it describes a life that has a right attitude toward God. A godly person properly relates to God in his daily routine. What is godly is what is well-pleasing to God. Godliness is a wonderful and spiritual word, but it's often, as I say, fuzzy and obscure as to what it really looks like, clothed in humanity.
So that's what I want to attempt to do this morning, to describe godliness in street clothes as it is exposed to us in the text of 1 Timothy 6, 1 through 10. Godliness is a way of seeing life. Godliness is a way of seeing life, putting God at the very center of it. Every one of us who is a believer in Jesus Christ is called to godliness. In chapter 4, verse 7, the apostle instructed, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
All of us are called to godliness, and Paul says it requires discipline. So what does it look like when one is disciplined this way, when one has learned to be God-centered? What does his life look like? For you see, a godly person is one who learns to put God at the center, who learns, in other words, how to govern his life by what pleases God, what is well-devoted, well-pleasing to him. In chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, we see that godliness governs how we treat others.
Let all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and our doctrine may not be spoken against. And let those who have believers as their masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren. But let them serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit, that is, of the good service of the slaves, those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles, writes Paul.
Godliness governs how we treat others. One of the most telling measurements of true religion is how it causes us to deal with others in our lives. The measurement of true religion is not how loud we shout, how strict we are, how orthodox our doctrinal statement is, or how ascetic or austere our lifestyle. But a true measure of godliness is how we handle relationships. Here the Apostle Paul points to one of the most difficult of relationships to illustrate the point. For he writes to slaves.
We read about slavery, we hear about slavery, but none of us are slaves, though we may feel like it from time to time. But we're not really slaves. Slaves had no rights, period. Slaves did not belong to themselves. They belonged to an owner. And there are some historians who say that up to half of the people living in the Roman Empire in the days of the New Testament were slaves. You think about that. Up to half of them in the Roman Empire were slaves.
Some of them were very educated and cultured. Some physicians, for example, were slaves. But they didn't belong to themselves. They had no personal rights or liberty. They belonged to someone else. It would be a tough way to live. And so the Apostle writes to those in such a predicament in life. And he explains to them as he explains to us what godliness looks like in street clothes. Down where the rubber meets the road, godliness determines, it governs how we treat other people.
For example, how a slave would treat his master. Or how we today, by way of application, would treat those that are in authority over us at work in our place of employment. That was not an exact parallel. There couldn't be. But there are some applications to it. In the first place we see here that a god-centered person will give others their due honor. A slave is to honor his master. Respect and regard, even for our enemies, is a hallmark of authentic Christianity.
It is a mistake for Christians to attack, malign, and assault those who disagree with them or mistreat them. That is one reason there is such vitriol in our society today regarding some of the social issues. Because those of us who bear the name of Jesus Christ have attacked and assaulted those whose lives, whose choices, are sinful and immoral. Godliness governs how we treat other people. We are to respect others, even those who disagree with us.
Respect is based upon the fact that all of us are created in the image of God. Even those who are ignorant of that. Even those whose choices don't even remotely resemble what God would want. They are nonetheless created in the image of God and because of that they have a certain dignity. We must never forget it. And we who know God, who are authentic Christians, we who are choosing to live with God at the center of our lives, must treat all people with respect, even those we may not like.
Now that respect doesn't imply that we agree with them. It doesn't signify that we are going to compromise on issues where we differ greatly. But it does mean that we are going to respect other people to the glory of God. A God-centered person will give others their due honor. Secondly, a God-centered person will concern himself with God's reputation in the world because you see that's what's at stake. That's what Paul points out here to these slaves.
He says, you honor your masters so that the name of God and our teaching may not be blasphemed and spoken against. Is it not amazing that the God of the universe so identifies with us that the way that we treat others risks the reputation of His name? Our actions will either make God famous or infamous to people in the world. Now there are many texts and scriptures I could turn to to undergird that, but I'm not going to this morning.
I'm going to basically leave it at that point and say that a God-centered person will concern himself with God's reputation. He will treat others in his life in such a way that God's reputation is enhanced and the gospel of Jesus Christ is glorified and magnified. Even if it's an owner and you're a slave. Thirdly a God-centered person will not presume upon other believers. Some of the slaves apparently were saying, well my owner is a Christian. My master is a believer.
Therefore I should have special privileges. He ought to treat me in a certain way because he's a Christian too. Because we think that about our bosses, don't we? Well he's a Christian, how can he do that to me? I'm a Christian too, why doesn't he give me special privileges? But Paul says a God-centered person will not presume upon other believers. We should not get special treatment because of who we are, that's wrong. We should follow the golden rule spoken by Jesus.
If all of us just did that, it would revolutionize our relationships. A God-centered person like these slaves he speaks to in verse 2 will not presume upon other believers because of that special relationship in the family of God. Will not presume upon them. Now if they initiate it, if they give it, then that's wonderful. We should not presume or expect it. So when we think of godly living, and we think of what godliness is, let's put it down here in street clothes.
And understand, as wonderful as it sounds and as a spiritual term as it is, it means that we will treat others in a way that honors the Lord. And sometimes that's tough. Secondly, godliness governs how we value truth. The apostle continues writing, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness.
He is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Godliness determines how we value truth. A God-centered person discovers what truth is, and discerns what error is.
Do you know we're living in a day when people don't really much care, even Christians? When we talk about truth, or we talk about doctrine, or we talk about teaching, it's one of those subjects that a lot of people just shrug off and say, well, you know, so what? A godly person understands and values truth. The apostle describes truth here as the teaching that conforms to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He implies further that it's more than teaching, it's also a lifestyle that conforms to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in the epistle he said, great is the mystery of godliness. He was revealed in the flesh. What he's saying there is that godliness was dressed in street clothes in the person of Jesus Christ. When he walked on the earth, you and I had the opportunity to see what godliness is in human form. He was revealed in humanity once and for all in the incarnation.
And now truth is whatever conforms to him, to the standard that he set. The standard of his lifestyle. The standard of his words. A god-centered person seeks to discover what truth is and brings what he hears, brings the way he lives before Jesus Christ and says, Lord, you shape it, you mold it, you cut off what shouldn't be there. He discovers what truth is as measured by Jesus Christ. But then also a god-centered person discerns what error is.
And that's really the main point that Paul is making here. He warns that there are those who advocate a different doctrine. Literally he says a hetero doctrine. He means a doctrine of a different kind that does not conform to Christ. So has a lifestyle that does not conform to Jesus. He is talking apparently about some who knew the truth and then turned from it. You know when you reject healthy doctrine, it inevitably results in spiritual sickness.
And he says such a promoter of false doctrine is characterized by conceit. It's puffed up, literally he says. Someone has said you can pick out actors by the glazed look that comes to their eyes when the conversation turns away from themselves. A false teacher is that way. The arrows point inward. And because of that conceit in his mind, he understands nothing, says Paul. There's a morbid craving on his part for controversy. And for word wars. That's literally what he says.
Not Star Wars, word wars. Have you ever met anybody like that who likes to dispute words? I have occasionally run across people even in churches whose greatest love is controversy. If there's not a controversy they can get involved in, they start one. Because controversy is what they live for. That's what they identify with. And they love to bicker and argue about words.
Be careful, says Paul. He says this all results in envy and strife, in abusive language, in evil suspicions, and in constant friction. Word constant friction means to rub together so as to irritate. Have you ever been around people and you rub up against them and the result is just irritation? It doesn't feel good at all. Just constant friction. Paul says that characterizes a false teacher. Furthermore he says that they imagine that they're going to make godliness a means to wealth.
That somehow they're going to gain money or fame or power or some kind of personal gain out of religion. That's what they're about. There's no value of truth. What they are espousing has one purpose and that is to benefit them. And he says that these are to be rejected. Benjamin Franklin said, arguing is a game that two can play. But it is a strange game in that neither opponent ever wins. Here we have a person who likes to argue and he argues out of error.
And thus evidence is that he is not god-centered. Because you see a god-centered person values truth. And he causes that, he evaluates and measures that truth by the Lord Jesus Christ in what he taught and how he lived. And because of that measurement of truth he is also able to discern error when it comes. Now we think when we read the Bible like this, well he's talking about false preachers or televangelists who are on the tube raising the bucks or whatever they're doing.
Well he's talking about that sort of thing. But let me tell you the greatest, the most prominent kind of error today doesn't come from a preacher or a televangelist. I'll tell you where it comes from, its sources are many. It comes from advice columnists in the newspaper. As often as they're right, they're dead wrong. It comes from self-help books and magazines that you pick up everywhere. You say what's wrong with that stuff? Most of it leaves God out of the center of it.
That's what's wrong with it. You measure it by the Lord Jesus Christ in what he taught and how he lived and its error. But it is the hottest thing selling in America today. Not just shelves, but whole stands of this stuff appears in bookstores, grocery markets, error. You hear it on TV talk shows or radio talk shows. Just espoused all the time. I mean there was a terrible tragedy that occurred because of a television talk show a few days ago. A man was killed.
But just think of all the error that goes out all the time and that the audience applauds on those programs. And the louder the applause, the more the general population says, oh that must be true. That must be the right thing to think. That's what I should do. That you measure what has been said by the guest or by the host or by the applause against the Lord Jesus Christ, his words and his life. And 99 times out of 100 it will probably be error. A godly person discerns that.
A godly person doesn't just listen to that stuff and take it in and act on it. He measures everything that he hears. Because a godly person values truth. He discovers what it is in Jesus Christ and then everything else is measured against that. And he discerns the error and doesn't participate. Every now and then there's somebody that I'm talking to who is facing a crisis in life. This doesn't happen all the time by any means, but every now and then it happens.
And in the course of our conversation the person tells me what some of his or her Christian friends have said to do in this time of crisis. And I slap myself across the side of the face and I say how in the world can a Christian ever give that kind of advice? And people who are in crisis are often vulnerable. They're looking for help. And here's a Christian brother or a Christian sister who just gives them error. And if they choose to follow it there's tragedy and heartache.
But a Christian told me to do this. You see, and error doesn't just come from liberal churches and from the new age books out there. It's just so everywhere prominent that we can take it into our own lives almost without realizing it and spout it back to others. We have to measure carefully what truth is. And that truth is always measured against the Lord Jesus Christ, his words in life. That's how we discover what is true. And that's how we discern what is error.
A godly person knows how to value truth. His God-centeredness governs the way that he values truth. Truth is important. Number three, godliness governs how we appraise things. Verse six. He says, godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich, that's the emphasis there.
Those who purpose, those who choose, those who set it as their goal to get rich, fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang. As we think about godliness in street clothes we want to observe that godliness governs how we appraise things.
The world knows the worth of everything but the value of nothing. The godly person knows that things do not satisfy the soul and understands what is of true value. He knows where things fit in his ranking of what's important in life. A godly person seeks to practice the law of contentment, says Paul, verses 6 through 8. The law of contentment. The word contentment here was a word that was picked up from the literature of that day and it means self-sufficiency.
Now because of its connotation in our world today, I think there's a better way to define contentment. Contentment is soul-sufficiency. It is soul-sufficiency. It is an inner-sufficiency that is independent of outward circumstances. It's a rare word in the New Testament used only here and in 2 Corinthians 9, 8. Inner-sufficiency. How can we practice the law of contentment? By doing two things. First of all by remembering what I call the zero principle. The zero principle is very simple.
It means that we come into the world with zero. That's what's on the ledger. And through life we add and we lose, hopefully add more than we lose. We build up all this profit or loss and we come to the end of life and we die. And what's on the books? Zero. Because we enter the world with nothing and we leave the world with nothing. Now if we will remember that, it will help us to be content. We get very wrapped up in what goes on in the ledger books in between the two zeros.
It's easy to get caught up in living for those things. But let's remember the principle of the zero. That just as we enter the world with our hands open, we leave the world with our hands open, holding onto nothing. Let's remember what's really important. But we will also practice the law of contentment by defining the idea of what needs are. The stoic philosopher Epictetus said, contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants. It's a good statement.
Contentment is learning to live with what we have because true wealth is measured by the number of things that we can do without. We define our needs very, very broadly, don't we? And our whole advertising system in America is geared to help us make it even broader. We need all of these things. You and I will learn to practice the law of contentment if we will define the idea of needs the way the Bible does. And they're said right here, food and covering, shelter, period.
Jesus said basically the same thing in Matthew 6 verses 31 to 33, and He says, your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these basics, but seek Him first and all these things will be added to you. But we are suckers for the advertising industry. It is possible to be content with but little. Possessing much does not guarantee contentment. A godly person seeks to practice contentment and will do so by remembering the zero principle and by defining his needs biblically.
But secondly, a godly person seeks to avoid the danger of money love. There's a danger in loving money, and He explains what that is in verse 9. He says it brings irretrievable loss. One who wants to get rich, who loves money, will time after time fall into temptation and a snare, and also many irrational and harmful desires. That's because the things that money buys do not satisfy. The love of money will damage one's character.
It will destroy spiritual desires, and it will dissipate the energy of life, the danger of loving money. He goes on to explain in verse 10 that the love of money is a root sin. It is a root sin from which springs up all kinds of evil. It causes a person to compromise his morals. It causes a person to steal, to swindle, to plagiarize, to gamble, to murder. All of these things come out of the root sin of the love of money. And notice the consequences.
He says that because of longing for money, there are some who have wandered away from the faith. It wasn't a direct detour, it was a wandering. It just slowly happened. And he says they pierced themselves. It's like falling on your own sword to love money. They pierced themselves through, he says, with many a pang, that is many a pain in life.
If you think of some of the wealthy, wealthy families in our area, in our country, I think of one family in particular that I'm not going to name, has been very involved in our national life. And tragedy after tragedy has come to that family. And you begin to investigate how the money was made. It was made in sin and in leading others to sin and to waste their lives. And it has brought nothing but ruin to that family, though they are today fabulously wealthy and very prominent in America.
The tragedy of loving money. A godly person appraises things lightly, as merely temporal and as but means to the end, which is a life lived to the honor of God. There are some questions to help us measure our godliness. The first question is how do I treat others? How do I treat others? Do I treat them with respect and honor or do I denigrate and malign them? Do I serve others or do I use others?
Is God's reputation strengthened by the way that I treat others or do people blaspheme God behind my back because of the kind of person I am in my relationships? How do I treat others? The answer to that question will measure how godly I am as a person. How do I value truth? Do I adhere to it? Do I follow it? Is my lifestyle conformed to Jesus Christ? Do I discern what is error out there and avoid it? The answer to that question, how do I value truth, will tell me how godly I am.
And how do I appraise things? Are people or things more important? Am I content with what God has provided or do I crave more? What am I willing to give in order to have more? Asking myself the question, how do I appraise things, helps me see how godly I really am. The ungodly person uses people, ignores truth, and loves things. But the godly person loves people, grows in truth, and uses things for the glory of God.
So as we think about godliness in street clothes, I want to ask a question of all of us. Are you godly or ungodly? You say, well I'm sort of in between. No? You see either we are living with God at the center of our lives or we're not. We are either godly, and the degree of that varies, but we are either leading a God-centered life or we're not living a God-centered life. We're either godly or we are ungodly. The key to the answer to that question of whether we're godly or not is our will.
It's whether we choose to put God at the control center of our lives. Or we just ask Him to come along for the ride. God is not content with that. God is not content to be anybody's co-pilot. God will be pilot, period. And when He is, when there's God-centeredness in our lives, then things and people and truth that all begins to fit into place. Oh God, give us a hunger to be a godly people. Let's pray. Well, are you godly or are you ungodly? It's a rather stark question, isn't it?
A blunt question. But I think a legitimate one is certainly an important one. Are you godly? Is God at the center of your life? Is He at control center or is He somewhere on the fringe? He's not content to be on the fringe, nor will that produce the kind of a life that will be satisfying. Or we live to the honor and glory of God and mean something when you die. And so my request of you today, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, is to be sure that God's at the center.
The godliness is something you're willing to discipline yourself for. You're willing to let godliness govern you. God-centeredness govern and control your life in every dimension. Are you? If you would say today, Pastor, that is my desire, that is my desire, whether you've lived that way up to this point or you haven't, but you're saying that is my desire, would you just say that that's the case by lifting your hand?
For some it will be a decision, a turnaround today, but for others it's going to be the trip you've been on for the last period of your life. But you're saying by the lifted hand, I want to live a godly life, a God-centered life. Yes, God bless you. May it be true of all of us. Oh Father, I pray in Jesus' name that we will be a godly people. We live in an ungodly world, and so easily do we become ungodly.
May a god-centeredness about us be revealed in the way that we treat people, in the way that we value truth, in the way that we appraise things. May the result of that be your honor and your glory. As we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.