Godliness is Profitable
(week 30/09)
Olubi Johnson
1 Timothy 4:8 MKJV For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come.
Here, the scripture tells us that godliness is profitable unto all things: both for this life and the life to come.
Godliness is GODLIKENESS: being like God. So the more godly you are, the more you will profit in all things.
Our calling as Christians is to become like Jesus was in this life time: like Him in our will: humble (Phil. 2.5-13); in our mind: having the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2. 16); in our emotions: having the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5.22-24).
Romans 8:29 MKJV for whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.
Practically, this means that your calling as Christian is not just to be a doctor, lawyer, economist, educationist, engineer etc.
However, the more like Jesus you become, the better a doctor, lawyer, economist, educationist, engineer etc you will be!
So, godliness is profitable for your career, family life, physical health and in fact all things; so the first thing you should seek in this life is to be godly and then success in every other thing is certain.
Matthew 6:33 MKJV But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
Now, how then do you become Godly?
Firstly, by being born-again and secondly by growing into the perfection and fullness of Christ.
Now, to grow into the perfection and fullness of Christ, you must become a disciple of Christ: one who has learned and practiced the disciplines of the Christ life and graduated so to speak therein.
In the natural, when we receive an education, our minds learn and practice a discipline: medicine, law, economics, science, engineering and so on. When we complete this course of study we receive a degree stating we have been disciplined in that course.
Spiritually, after we get born again we are to receive a spiritual education in the revelation knowledge (2 Cor. 4.6) of the perfection and fullness of Christ and then practice this knowledge to obtain the degrees of cleansing (like a Bachelor), manifesting (like a Masters) and permanent (like a Doctorate) perfection.
1 Timothy 3:13 KJVR For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
So, obtaining a spiritual education is even more important than getting a natural education.
Now, to have a spiritual education you will need the foundation of a natural education: literacy (you must be able to read and write to even read the Bible) and a trained mind so the Holy Spirit can explain spiritual things to you through the natural things you have learned (Rom. 1. 20); but afterwards your natural education will then be used by God to fulfill His purpose in your life like He did in Moses and Paul: the two men God used to pen the legal frameworks of the Old and New testaments.
Acts 7:22-23 KJVR And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (23) And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
Acts 7:37-38 MKJV This is that Moses who said to the sons of Israel, “The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet to you from your brothers, One like me; you shall hear Him.” (38) This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living words to give to us,
Acts 22:3 MKJV I am truly a man, a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the exactness of the Law of the fathers, being a zealous one of God, as you all are today.
Galatians 1:11-16 MKJV and, brothers, I make known to you the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. (12) For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it except by a revelation of Jesus Christ. (13) For you heard my manner of life when I was in Judaism, that I persecuted the church of God with surpassing zeal, and ravaged it. (14) And I progressed in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being much more a zealot of the traditions of my fathers. (15) But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and having called me by His grace, (16) to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the nations, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood;
So, we see here God using the natural education of Moses and Paul as a foundation to give them a spiritual education which was now used to fulfill the purpose of God for their lives.
In the same way, whatever natural education we may have we still need to get a spiritual education on top of it to become godly and so profit or succeed in all things and so fulfill the fullness of God’s purpose for our lives.
In our article next week, we will see the time-line of getting a spiritual education using the Lord Jesus as our example.
