After the Amen

Yesterday, I urged our church family to train themselves to be godly. This will take much toil and striving (1 Timothy 4:7b-10). Those words suggest suffering, hardship, pain, and lots of effort. We are not used to such things as we live here in the United States of Abundance as some third world countries refer to us. We are used to prosperity and not tribulations. We think it strange to have to struggle, agonize, and work to the point of exhaustion for anything good almost.

Godliness is worth all the effort thought because it holds value for this life and for the life to come. Laboring in godliness requires that we fix our hope on the living God who is our Savior.

We can find encouragement from a letter that was written by a pastor named Clement who shepherded God's flock in Rome apparently around 100 AD. Thus he lived around the time of John who died on the Isle of Patmos. He wrote these words

But do not let it trouble your mind that we see the unrighteous possessing wealth while the servants of God experience hardships. Let us have faith, brothers and sisters! We are competing in the contest of a living God, and are being trained by the present life in order that we may be crowned in the life to come. None of the righteous ever received his reward quickly, but waits for it. For if God paid the wages of the righteous immediately, we would be engaged in business, not godliness; though we would appear to be righteous, we would in fact be pursuing not piety but profit.

Clement reminds us that as we train ourselves to be godly, we must have faith. We must be like Abraham "was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10). In the great chapter of Hebrews 11, we are reminded that "all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised" (Hebrews 11:39). We want to see instant results in our godliness and it doesn't always happen as fast as we desire.

Clement's quote also reminds us that it is often the struggles, the hardships, the sufferings that train us best. Martin Luther said, "My tribulations are more necessary for me than meat and drink." Jesus sets the pace for us, Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him" (Hebrews 5:8-9).

Finally, we can learn, as Victor Kuligin points out in his book Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said, that "immediate rewards can cause us to lose sight of the important things we should focus on." We are so willing to trade heavenly treasures for worldly waste. Augustine reminds us well, "There remains the pleasures of these eyes of my flesh. . .Let not these occupy my soul; let God rather occupy it, who made these things, very good indeed, yet He is my good, not they."

We need to keep these things in mind as we train ourselves for godliness!