What does it mean to be a godly man or a godly woman? Does it mean submitting to all authority and following the rules set in place? Does it mean chasing after what the world deems “right”?
I believe the sphere of godliness is a much more complicated realm than these questions can answer in a yes or no response. There are hundreds of attributes of a godly person – such as purity, life-bringing, trustworthy, gentle, just, uplifting, unwavering, generous – and though these are very much the goal, in reality the only person in the history of the world that has perfectly demonstrated these qualities is Jesus Christ Himself. I think us as Christians often mistakingly put these qualities on the pedestal. We see these as the end-all, be-all and have an unrealistic expectation upon ourselves that we cannot physically be while still living in the flesh. In essence, we idolize the results. But truthfully, these are all just fruits. They aren’t even the basis of what the plant is. An apple tree is still an apple tree even if it hasn’t ever produced apples. An orange tree is still an orange tree even if it hasn’t ever produced oranges. At its core, it’s DNA is unique to that species of tree, regardless of whether or not it has produced the fruit yet. The fruit is not what makes a tree a tree. They are just a vessel used to spring forth more trees. In the same way, we are still children of God regardless of the fruit of our lives.
In the past few weeks, the term godliness has come up a lot for my squad. We’ve discussed what it means to be a godly man or a godly woman, and we’ve explored the different traits of such a person. With all this talk, however, comparison made its secret dwelling place in a lot of our hearts and festered unworthiness. I for one fell into the trap of elevating the fruit and saw such things as the source of worthiness. Somewhere along the way, I switched from “Jesus is enough and He loves me and I am a good Christian because I follow Him” to “I need to be enough and He loves me if… and I am a good Christian if…”. I moved the emphasis from what He did to what I need to do. I slipped back on the slippery slope of works and performance. I put the fruit above the Father. I made the fruits of the Spirit as the goal, rather than the walking in the Spirit as the goal. Unintentionally, I was living to please and living to be the fruits, bypassing the most important step. At the end of the day, I can’t be anything or do anything without the transforming of my heart and the renewal of my mind without the Spirit. Jesus should continue to remain the example as to how to live a godly life, but if I put the expectation over myself that I have to be (insert quality) to be good enough, then I am setting myself up for failure. I’m missing the entire point of the cross and that’s that I’m not good enough, but Jesus is so He took the cross for me. He took all of the fleshly qualities that I exhibit on a daily basis and still deemed me worth it. He took the beatings and still deemed me lovable. He took all the lashes and still deemed me forgivable. The fruits of the Spirit are honorable and noble and should always be actively worked on, but at the end of the day, they aren’t the goal. Jesus is. He loves me just as much before I had any love or joy or peace or forbearance as He does today because He didn’t die for me because of those things. He died for me because I’m His daughter and He loves me. Christians can’t keep pointing fingers at each other and themselves for not being (insert quality) because we will all mess up on every single one of them eventually, and they aren’t even what truly matters in our relationship with Christ. They are FRUITS of the relationship, but they are not, in and of it themselves, the relationship. Therefore, the church as a whole needs to stop making unrealistic expectations to be something or do something when, at the end of the day, Christ loved us right where we were at. Fortunately, He loves us too much to leave us there, but it’s solely the job of the Holy Spirit to transform us and that comes from deeper intimacy with Him. Not striving. Striving causes stress but the Spirit causes restoration.
“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.”
Psalm 15:1-5 NIV
-A
