The Pursuit of Godliness.
1 Tim 6:11b "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness." To pursue is to go after. That means these things do not come naturally to us. When we focus on these things it fundamentally changes who we are to the core. When our core changes, our values change; when our values change our thoughts change; when our thoughts change our actions change and when our actions change then our destiny is changed.
Every day companies spend millions trying to get our attention. They sell us on the fact that we need something. To sell us they first have to make us feel like something is lacking in our lives and that only their product can fill that need.
The media, including movies, TV, reality shows and the news are trying to sell us a new morality. In this morality everything is circumstantial and there is no right or wrong. In fact, the only wrong is when you disagree with their morality. Words like intolerant, judgmental, bigoted and phobic immediately surface as accusations. Altogether it is enough to drive one to distraction and really get sour on life.
On the other hand, if we focus on what is really important we don't get drawn into discussions to try to prove some moral superiority on our part; we stand for what is right out of love for a fallen world. When we pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love endurance and gentleness we model for the world what it really means to be a Christ follower.
As we pursue these things, the Holy Spirit empowers them in our lives so that they become beacons of light to the lost. These are not the way of the world and they stand out when someone truly pursues them and lives them out in their daily lives.
This is truly a radical way of living. Righteousness balanced by love and gentleness is not arrogant but rather it holds out hope for those who see it walked out. Endurance shows that it is the same day after day and it is not dependent on everything going just right. Godliness and faith show that the origin is not in and of ourselves but that it has its beginning and sustenance from, in and through God.
The starting point for most of man's philosophies is that man is basically good. The flaw is that it is based on a wrong premise. If history shows us anything is that, left to his own devices, man is basically evil. After the fall of Adam we are all tainted with sin and this sin creates enmity between man and God. It is only through Christ's work on the Cross that the gap is bridged. When we confess Christ as our Lord and savior we become a new creation.
Col 3:10b "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
We need to be renewed, born again, because we were first born into the kingdom of this age and need to be born a second time into the Kingdom of God. The words, "being renewed" means that it is an ongoing process that is not complete until Christ comes back and establishes His kingdom fully.
Until then the journey continues and we pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness because they are elusive. To not pursue them is to die a slow death. To pursue them is to be transformed into the image of our Creator.
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