In continuing my quest I read John 9, the next occurrence of some form of the word 'godly' in the Scriptures. I posted in my last blurb about the dangers of trying to abstract some philosophy or theology from a particular passage when the person who interacted with Jesus simply believed and that was good enough for him. It should be good enough for us. But, I came to John 9 to find out more about godliness. The word godly occurs in verse 31.
"We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will" (John 9:31).
Again, we find a command and a promise in understanding God, albeit in a slightly different wording. The promise is that God listens to the godly man. The command is doing God's will. So in understanding what it means to be godly we know that we must do God's will. In return for doing God's will He will listen to us.
From this section we learn a little bit more about what it means to be godly. First, it means to do the will of God. Second, we learn that God listens to the godly man. We also learn a little bit about godliness based on who God doesn't listen to. God doesn't listen to sinners. So a godly man is one who does the will of God and is not a sinner. Lord, help me to refrain from sin and to do your will. Show me what your will is so that I can do it. Treat me like the blind man. I am asking Who is he so that I may believe in Him. Hear my prayer my Lord. Bend my will to yours. I want desperately to be godly.
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