True Godliness
John 15:5, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing’.
There are many distractions and a lot of wasting of time, here and there through our day. Sometimes, we struggle with worldly attractions. Let us focus on God’s Word. As we know the song ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into His wonderful face’ – The person who wrote this song is Helen Howarth Lemmel. This hymn was inspired by an article ‘Focused’, by a missionary lady, Isabella Lilias Trotter who worked among women in Algeria. Our life by itself is so dead and lifeless, until the son of righteousness rises on us. In the same way, how the Sun, when it rises, gives beauty to everything that is on the Earth. It is only when we fully and wholly turn towards Jesus, then His light comes through and shines through us and gives life and beauty to us. Jesus says,
- I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit.
- Apart from Me, you can do nothing.
- The things the unbelievers and heathen people can do, the things - we as well as the unbelievers do, cannot be classified as ‘godliness’.
- There are some characters in godly people which we do not find in them, consistently, every day.
- When we ‘see the true faith and true eagerness in a person, towards God and serving others’ and we desire that and we wish we could also attain those qualities, because this desiring, comes out of ‘selfish interests’, that we could have a part in it – for a person who is desiring it, it is like seeking a reputation for selfish honor. And this again cannot be true godliness.
- Our true worship of God, our lives are truly devoted to him. It is true that we will develop true love and joy and will spend time with God. True godliness is when we are truly one with Him and desire nothing less, to serve Him and love Him.