8687429 © Schakal79 | Dreamstime.com
What do people think they see
when they take a look at me?
A pious, clean exterior
or a holy, pure interior?
Am I set aside for God
or content to merely plod
along at my own pace,
even stumbling in the race
to confirm my own high call?
No! I’ve given him my all!
Attached to him, I grow
more like this Lord I know!
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Pet. 1:3 NIV)
I had never realized the treasure of teaching that Peter put in his letters until I was faced with the challenge of translating them into Nyarafolo. As often happened in that work, it was hard to find easy equivalents for some of the vocabulary. Here, it was “godly” that stumped us for a bit. What does that word mean, anyway? I realized that I had always pictured “godly” to refer to someone pious, perhaps an older person who was a devoted church attendee, known as a strong Christian, who always dressed appropriately and did not indulge in bad habits.
It turns out that this is a common American English understanding of the term! Here is the definition given in Collins Dictionary: “A godly person is someone who is deeply religious and shows obedience to the rules of their religion. Synonyms: devout, religious, holy, righteous.”[1] And “godliness” is “a word which has sadly disappeared from the vocabulary of many Christians.”[2]
The common understanding does not adequately match the meanings of the Hebrew and Greek words that are usually translated as “godly” in our Bible versions. So there are translations that are trying other solutions, for example:
Love the LORD, all you faithful followers44 of his! The LORD protects those who have integrity, but he pays back in full the one who acts arrogantly. (Psalm 31.23 NET)
Here is the translation note for “faithful followers” in the New English Translation (“godly” or “saints” in other versions):44 tn A “faithful follower” חָסִיד), khasid( is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God.
Yes, a faithful follower is someone who stays committed to Jesus. That does apply! In the New Testament, the word translated “godly” (εὐσεβής ) is explained this way in the Gingrich Greek New Testament Lexicon: devout, godly, pious, reverent. These words round out the meaning, but they did not help us find an equivalent in Nyarafolo!
Then, when we got to 2 Peter 2:9, we ran across another way to express it. In the Bible en Français Courant, there is a rendition that made sense in Nyarafolo and also to my seeking heart! If you know French, you will understand how they did it:
Ainsi, le Seigneur sait comment délivrer de l’épreuve ceux qui lui sont attachés, (2 Pet. 2:9 BFC)
. . . then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, (2 Pet. 2:9 NET)
The “godly” are those “attached to the Lord”! It made so much sense to us! Think of what Jesus said:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remainsin me – and I in him – bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplishnothing. (Jn. 15:5 NET)
When a branch is actually living in (remaining or abiding in) the vine, it must stay firmly attached to the trunk. Otherwise it sags, breaks off, withers and dies.
So if I am attached to Jesus, I am fed by him (like sap to a branch) and am able to become increasingly like him! Peter really digs into this as he continues his introduction. He himself had experienced huge transformation in his faith-walk, changing from a fearful denier to a truly faithful follower and emissary of his Lord. In the following Scripture passage I have substituted “to live firmly attached to him” in place of “for godliness”:
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need [to live firmly attached to him] through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through [these promises] you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Pet. 1:1b-4 NIV)
What could that mean, to “participate in the divine nature”? The NIV Study Bible has a good explanation: “Share God’s holy character, especially qualities that help Christians resist sin.”[3]
He has promised to listen to his faithful ones, to protect them, and in the Old Testament he also tells them not to sin by being unfaithful to their spouse or by straying off the right path:
But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him. (Ps. 4:3 ESV)
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. (Ps. 32:6 ESV)
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking?Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. (Mal. 2:15 ESV)
You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. (Deut. 5:32 ESV)
When I contemplate what it means to stay firmly attached to Jesus, I realize that I am dependent on his nourishment, like sap flowing from the vine’s trunk into the branches which then can produce fruit. And it is clear from Peter’s words that this growth comes from knowing him, repeated three times in 2 Peter 1:2,3, and 5. This does not mean just knowing about him, but truly becoming intimate with him—firmly attached, living in him. Then we get what is needed to become like him. We develop the qualities increasingly, joining in the process by “making every effort” to focus our maturing process on what matters to him:
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. (2 Pet. 1:5-9 NIV)
So becoming “godly” is not just a matter of appearance and outwardly devout church attendance or legalistic rule-keeping. It is knowing Jesus, walking with him constantly, making every effort to know what matters to him and then to pursue that. It is like the process of getting to know a spouse: you learn who they are, day in and day out, what truly touches them, what they care about, and you build unity in purpose. Without that a marriage gets weak and dissipates.
Think about the sequence of characteristics that matter to our Lord Jesus, starting with goodness and knowing him, moving through perseverance to that secure attachment (“godliness”), and ending with those two kinds of love. Wouldn’t the community of brothers and sisters in Christ be truly delightful if we each would determine to put our all into this transformation? It is up to each and every branch to be firmly attached, producing fruit through that relationship with the source of strength, the trunk!
[1] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/godly
[2][2][2][2] Prior, Kenneth. The Way of Holiness: A Study in Christian Growth. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1982), 16.
[3] Douglas J. Moo, “The Letters and Revelation,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 2250.
Linnea's Lines 