holiness and godliness

I heard Rick Warren once say that there are approximately one hundred seventy thousand words in the English language, and over twenty million words between Greek and Hebrew. Ever since hearing that, I’ve made a habit of researching the original Greek and Hebrew (thank you blueletterbible.com) whenever studying scripture.

Growing up in church, I’ve always heard people use expressions such as “godly” or “holy” when referring to another man who was obviously living a life that was acceptable to God. Not perfect, but definitely closer to God than your average Christian. Until just a few years ago, this status was a personal goal of mine. I wanted so badly to earn the title of a godly man, but more often than not this unfeasible goal would discourage me from even trying. I realized that every effort in achieving a status of “godliness” or “holiness” was just an inevitably failed attempt in sanctifying myself.

Several years ago I heard my brother once say “Focus should not be on becoming a ‘great’ man of God; but rather on being a man of a ‘great’ God.” That phrase has really stuck with me through my spiritual journey and has helped me immensely in my spiritual growth. Scriptures say that even our wisest of all wisdom is just foolishness to Him, and that all fall short of His glory. Of course nobody is faultless, and the Bible clearly tells us to “be holy as He is holy.”( 1 Peter 1:15) But this seemed so out of reach; that is, until I looked up the Greek meaning of “Holy” in the context of this verse. It’s taken from the word “Hagios” which means “to venerate; reverence in awe.”

All this time I thought 1 Peter 1:15 was telling me to live by an impossible Godlike standard, and it was actually just telling me I should worship Him. Wow! This is such a revelation for me; the burden and stress of living up to a divine standard has completely been lifted. So what about “godliness”? All throughout 1 Timothy we are instructed to “follow after godliness” and “exercise thyself unto godliness.” Transliteration for this word is “Eusebeia” which means “reverence, respect, piety towards God.” I like how Mike Donehey puts it: “We are free to struggle; not struggling to be free.” The cross of Jesus totally paid my past, present, and future sin debt. Because of that I WANT to worship him, I WANT to please him.

My pastor said last week that if you ever get over God’s grace, you are in a dangerous place. I complement by simply saying if you ever get over His grace, there’s no way you could possibly have ever been under it. The grace of God is so incomprehensible that if we truly took the time to examine it, the only possible response would be genuine, unadulterated worship.