2 Timothy 3:5 “They will have a form of godliness but denying its power.” I stumbled upon this verse during my quiet time. It bothered me and I had to read a lot of versions to get it right. I have my own insights for denying godliness as it is said in this verse and I wish to share it with you.
Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges
What is godliness?
Before we go into denying godliness, we have to know what godliness is in the first place. Ungodliness, according to the book “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges, may be defined as “living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.”
Now that we have that established, let me share to you what God has revealed to me through this verse that applies in our everyday lives as we see today.
We will doubt its power of effect on people
Saying that we will have a form of godliness but we deny its power is saying that we deny or doubt its power of effect on the people we see, we meet or we minister to. Yes we can live godly lives, but we will not think of it much as to be able to change the lives of people. Sometimes for us, we tend to talk more than we act because we already doubt the power of living godly lives in the first place– which is why faith is barely believable for some people. For some, faith is an excuse to be lazy and to fail.
How we see the world today – Christians indulging in the practices of non-christian people, going with the flow, conforming with the norm even if we know godliness and we know the truth – it changes us and in that we deny the power of godliness.
We will doubt its power from God
We know that godliness isn’t a normal way of living. We know that godliness can only be possible to live if you have God in your life. But what we always forget is that it HAS POWER. God has power. He is almighty. The creator of the heavens and the earth and everything in it. God is God and if you live a godly life, you have power through God, your Father, your Savior, your Lord.
Oftentimes we forget that or we set it aside altogether. That is denying the power of God. That is lacking faith. You’re telling God that you can’t walk on water because He has no power over it.
Know the truth
Godliness has power. Don’t deny it. Don’t doubt it. Have faith and know that living a godly life will not go unnoticed by God and it will definitely not go unrewarded.