When you hear the word “godliness” what (or who) comes to mind?

Really think about this for a moment …what is your paradigm of ‘godliness’? When you read, or hear, the word ‘godliness’ what automatically comes to mind?

Approx. 2,000 years ago (when God was walking around a small, seemingly insignificant, part of planet earth) the prevailing and most popular paragon of ‘godliness’ was the Pharisees. People automatically and overwhelmingly thought that the fasting, decorum, traditions, vestments, and tithings of the Pharisees were the height of piety and holiness. But then Jesus of Nazareth came along and said, “Y’all are sons of the devil! I charge you to STOP to teaching your “doctrines” and traditions! Y’all are hypocrites and fools! You devote yourselves to myths, and endless genealogies, and fruitless speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. You have wandered away from godliness into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what you’re saying or the things about which you make confident assertions. You posture as if you’re fighting for God’s principles but you’re actually fighting for the kingdom of darkness. You may indeed wage the good warfare, if you decisively turn away from your traditions, and instead emphatically follow The Nazareth Rabbi, and hold to wholesale faith in Him with a good conscience. …But by rejecting this, you make shipwreck of your faith; thus you have been handed over to Satan that you may learn not to blaspheme.”

What does it TRULY mean to be a good servant of God, being fully trained in the words of the faith and of good doctrine? The paradigm must either be Jesus of Nazareth or the Pharisees. The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from FAITH IN JESUS OF NAZARETH – by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. And who are these deceitful, demonic, teachers? They are the people who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. Many renowned theologians and religious teachers have promoted silly myths and irreverent postulations that esteem “felt safety” and “hurt feelings” over and above the clear emphasis of Jesus – which is FORGIVENESS and LOVE that covers a multitude of sins! Simply put, to be FULLY TRAINED IN GODLINESS is to model your life after the eccentric Rabbi from Nazareth.

Teach and urge the things of The Nazareth Rabbi. 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. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be popular and prosperous fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money and fame is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.