Listen long enough to the various forms of religious teachings that are passed off as Spiritual Enlightenment, and you will see why Paul insisted that Timothy:
“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly” (1Timothy 4:7).
If, as Paul asserts, “godliness has value for all things” (1 Timothy 4:8), then why does it find itself a veritable poor cousin to other forms of “Human Development?”
Since the day that Eve snatched the fruit from the tree, human beings have been chasing one distraction after another. How many of us will reach our twilight years regretting the time that we wasted trying to impress others? Here, Solomon sums up the value of an earthward perspective:
“And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:4).
The “value for all things” inherent in godliness is its “promise for both the present life and the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8). Which, of course, must push everything else we value into second place.
Training ourselves to be godly is an out of the ordinary exercise. All appearances point to a larger number of people being in their gyms training their bodies than those being in their inner-rooms training their souls—I pray I’m wrong.
Godliness Training begins in the privacy of your inner room by praying and meditating upon the Word of God. Therein, having been filled with the blessings of God’s grace, you are launched forth into the day to do battle against worldliness.
For it is The Grace of God that “teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12-13).
John Staiger
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