Ephesians • Live Out the Treasure of Godliness

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Do you want joyful, successful living? The power for that is already available to you through God’s Spirit who leads you to live out the treasure of godliness in your life every day. Do you want that? In the last article in this series, we looked at the treasure of God’s empowering presence in our lives. This is post #8 in the Ephesians blog series. In this post, we will look at how to live out the treasure of godliness.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from the Seek the Treasure Bible Study covering Ephesians in the New Testament. (8 lessons)

Cooperating with Our Transformer

God’s empowering presence works within us to transform us from the inside out. His goal is to make our thoughts, behavior, and words match up to who we are in Christ. That is our calling.

Ephesians chapter 4 gave us a look at the changes that God’s Spirit power can make in us as we cooperate with Him.

From lying to speaking truthfully.
From stealing to working and sharing.
From filthy, hurtful speech to building others up with our words.
From anger, slander, and malice to kindness, compassion, and forgiveness in relationships, even to those who offend us.

God’s power at work within us can do immeasurably more than all that we can ask or imagine for Him to do.

Then, Paul continued with these words: “Follow God’s example and walk in the way of love.” Following God’s example of sacrificial love and choosing to live life His way leads to something called godliness.

The Treasure of Godliness

Love and gratitude

Godliness is devotion to God expressed in a life that is pleasing to Him.

Devotion to God begins with loving Him so much that you want to please Him with your life. The first half of Ephesians was filled with reasons why you should devote yourself to God and love Him wholeheartedly.

He rescued you from the spiritual darkness that kept you separated from Him.

He saved you because of His great love for you.

God filled your spiritual treasure chest with amazing blessing jewels you have in Christ.

He wants you to know Him intimately and to know that you are dearly loved.

He lives inside of you through His Spirit so you are never along.

How can anyone not respond with love and gratitude for what He has done!

Not without laughter or pleasure

Devotion to God is not cold and austere. It’s not living a life that is boring, colorless, and serious all the time. It isn’t a life without laughter or pleasure. Those are not biblical descriptions of devotion to God.

Look at Jesus. He celebrated weddings with His family. He went on retreats to the mountains with His disciples. He ate meals in the homes of friends and foes. He radiated the joy of the Lord. He was not cold and austere.

Not just following rules

Devotion to God is also not just living by a set of rules. God isn’t interested in outward conformity. He had enough of that with the Jews in the Old Testament. God doesn’t just want us to act properly. He’s interested in our hearts first. When our hearts are right, we will want to obey Him with our thinking and behavior. We will want to reflect Him well because we love Him so much. It’s that loyal love for Him. Godliness begins in the heart and mind then is lived out in words and behavior.

Adorning Yourself with Godliness

New clothes

The Bible uses the image of adorning yourself with godliness. That fits in with Paul’s use of taking off old clothes and putting on new and better ones. We covered that in the last blog.

We as women like to adorn ourselves with clothes that reflect who we are. We discard the ones that don’t fit, that are the wrong color, and that are stained or torn. We get new ones that fit us well, that complement our appearance, and fulfill a purpose. That same concept applies to adorning ourselves with godliness.

Follow Jesus’ example

You express your devotion to God by taking on His likeness—Godlikeness, not becoming God but presenting Him. As you can see in Ephesians chapter 4, His empowering presence in you has given you everything you need to be able to do this. But there is even more help for you—the example of Jesus.

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved childrenand walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Jesus is your example of godliness as a human. As you read through the four books that tell of the life of Jesus—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you get to know Jesus well and see His example of what godliness looks like.

Jesus adorned Himself with godliness through humility, compassion, love, prayer, dependency on God the Father, good works, and many more ways. All those pointed to a God who was good and worthy of your devotion. Jesus loved His Father and felt His Father’s love. He submitted to His Father’s will. His words were in line with His Father’s words. His devotion to God was expressed in a life that reflected God and was pleasing to God.

Read more about adorning yourself with godliness in this blog, “1 Timothy & Titus Theme • Adorn Yourself with Godliness.”

The best way to understand godliness is to look at the contrast between what godliness looks like and what it doesn’t look like. Paul gave us examples in chapter 4 of what godliness looks like and what it doesn’t look like. In chapter 5, he described the stained clothes of ungodliness.

The Stained Clothes of Ungodliness

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:3-4)

Immorality, impurity, and greed

Finally, we are getting to what we expected in chapter 4! Sexual immorality, impurity, and greed are the big 3 sins we usually use to identify people who are in rebellion against God. Definitely ungodly behaviors.

A life that is devoted to God is not identified by sexual immorality, moral filthiness, or greed. Our culture deceives us into thinking that living a moral life as a Christian is unimportant or impossible. Christian women and men are having sex outside of marriage at the same rate as the unbelieving world does.

Why is that? It’s because we aren’t convinced that it matters. We get content living by the flesh. We like to do what we feel like doing rather than what God wants us to do.

Regarding sexual immorality, read this blog, “1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 • Perspective on Living to Please God.”

Obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking

That is true also about the words from our mouths that are associated with immorality and greed—obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking.

Obscenity is dirty, sexually suggestive talk including vulgar jokes. That kind of talk is neither building others up nor benefiting those who listen.

Foolish talk refers to stupid words that waste time saying them.

Coarse joking includes humorous insults and talk that damages someone’s reputation. It is not general joking. There’s nothing wrong with a good laugh at something harmlessly funny. God has a sense of humor and gave it to us.

Obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse joking are substitutes for sacrificial love.

Has this type of talk been your habit? Evaluate for yourself what this is. It is living by flesh power and the opposite of godliness. Stop it!

Follow the biblical process for dealing with recognized sin in this blog, “Pathway #4: Choose Whom You Will Serve.” You can also download a bookmark with the same information.

Call it sin

Let me give a caution here. Ephesians 5:3-4 are addressed to believers. We should expect unbelievers to behave as unbelievers, including using pretty foul language. Can you connect with them without using their obscene language and sexual immorality? The Bible says you can. Focus on their need for Jesus and influence them without trying to change their behavior or acting shocked at their language.

However, don’t let them influence you, especially those in rebellion against God.

Therefore do not be partners with them. … Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5:7, 11)

Paul cautioned believers about the bad influence of people who are against God and living that out in their lives. Paul basically said, “Have nothing to do with their behavior.” Rather, bring that ungodly behavior to light by calling it what it is—sin!

Don’t partner with rebellious people

You as a believer can never be separated from the life of God because the Spirit of God is in you forever. But you can be influenced by ungodly people to harden your own heart towards God. You can lose sensitivity to the Spirit’s work in your life. You can choose to give yourself over to sensuality as the unbelievers do by their sinful nature. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good character.” You’ve seen that happen so you know it is true.

So the Bible tells believers to not be partners with those who are in rebellion against God. That’s not who you are now. Your new identity is in Christ. You have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and are now in God’s light. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:8, live as children of the light. Don’t join with them so that your life looks like theirs. Their influence does not contribute to your godliness.

Read more about not partnering with rebellious people in this blog, “Titus 1 • Godliness Leaves No Room for Rebellion.”

A life of godliness is not a life of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, coarse joking, and rebellion against God. The rest of Ephesians chapter 5 and the first part of chapter 6 describe what the new clothes of godliness look like—that new self, created to be like God (Ephesians 4:24).

The New Clothes of Godliness

A life of godliness is expressed in doing what is right in God’s eyes, and firmly grasping God’s truth. It makes intentional choices every day to follow God’s ways rather than the world’s ways. It is seeking to understand what God’s will is for you, as clearly revealed throughout the book of Ephesians and the rest of the New Testament. And godliness chooses God’s Spirit power over any other power in your life. Doing that leads to being filled with the Spirit.

Be filled with the Spirit

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)

This verse is usually taken totally out of context when it is memorized and taught. The truth is that the exhortation to be filled with the Spirit is connected to all of chapter 4 and verses 1-17 of chapter five. This is obedience, not an experience. And godliness is the fruit of being filled by the Spirit rather than being filled with the flesh or anything the world has to offer.

Spirit baptism

As we have learned in Ephesians, every person who trusts in Christ receives the Holy Spirit. This is called Spirit Baptism. Spirit Baptism occurs once, at salvation. At Spirit Baptism, the Holy Spirit connects you with Christ so that He is with you and in you forever. Every Christian is permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit and added to the Body of Christ. Both of these actions are related to salvation, done once for all time through Spirit Baptism. You have all of Him, not part of Him.

Read more about Spirit baptism in this blog, “Acts 2 • Spirit Baptism.”

Spirit filling

What is this filling of the Spirit? Being filled with the Spirit is not getting more of the Spirit inside of you. It is also not something magical or mystical. You won’t hear any kind of gong when you are filled with the Spirit.

The filling of the Spirit occurs when you choose to be more influenced by Christ than by yourself or anything else.

Paul used an analogy in Ephesians 5:18 to explain the contrast of influences on us.

Do not get drunk on wine, … Instead, be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)

This is the favorite verse of many Christians who like to point fingers at anyone who enjoys a glass of wine or beer. But this verse is not talking about drinking a glass of wine.

Choice of influence

Paul took something from his culture which if done in excess will take control over your behavior from the inside and produce behavior that is the opposite of godliness. He compared being filled with the Spirit to drunkenness. So “filling” is a metaphor (picture) of control by an internal influence. It’s still an issue of power.

As we have seen in Ephesians 1 and 3, Christ wants to fill you with Himself. He can do this as you choose obedience to God and His ways in all those areas of life described in Ephesians 4, 5, and 6. Godliness is the fruit of being filled by the Spirit rather than being filled with the flesh or anything the world has to offer.

An issue of power

What powers are you letting control you? We look at alcohol or substance abuse and easily recognize those controls. But what about other things that take control of us and produce not-so-good results?

You and I can become addicted to social media, shopping, and gambling. We can also become addicted to work, filled with an obsession to work that produces stress and neglect of family. We can be filled and controlled by fleshly desires (like what alcohol does), or we can be filled and controlled by the Spirit. Those are the choices.

Being filled with God’s Spirit is an issue of power. We can be too full of substitute powers. I’ll go back to my earlier question. What things have you allowed to have influence over you? What have you embraced as a substitute for Christ?

Ask Him to give you the strength to let it go. When you yield to Him, He will fill you with His Spirit and help you learn how to let go of those other influencers.

Read more about Spirit filling in this blog, “Acts 4-6 • Spirit Filling.”

Pursue the Treasure of Godliness

Pursuing godliness requires making choices. It may seem like hard work to recognize the wrong influences in your life and delete them from having power over you. So why do it?

I can think of at least three reasons why you and I should pursue godliness in our lives.

Pursue godliness for God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ because of your love for them and gratitude for what they have done for your salvation.

Pursue godliness for yourself and your fellow Christians because godly behavior is good for you in every way.

Pursue godliness for others who are watching because godliness makes the teaching about Christ attractive and draws unbelievers to the God you know and serve.

When you choose daily to yield to the Spirit’s influence over your own self-dependence, the Holy Spirit fills you with spiritual power so that Christ is the dominating factor over your thoughts, words, and behavior. As you approach life God’s way, you will please God and become the visible representation of the invisible God to those who are watching. It’s a win/win.

But your willingness to let Spirit power control and transform you requires you to recognize that you are weak to do anything of spiritual significance on your own. That goes against the western mindset that you must be strong on your own, stand on your own two feet. But your weakness is more useful to God than your self-determined strength.

The power for joyful, successful living is already available to you through God’s Spirit and leads you to live out the treasure of godliness in your life every day.

In the next post, we will learn how to stand firm against anything coming against us because of our treasure of victory in Christ.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with the confidence that the treasure you have in Him is more powerful and valuable than anything you could substitute for Him.

All of the above information is covered in the Seek the Treasure Bible Study covering Ephesians in the New Testament.

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