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BRAVER THAN LIONS
Sam Stringer
Jan 2, 2025
But reject profane and old wives'; fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For
bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of
the life that now is and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 4:8
So I had a moment last night while watching YouTube videos with one of my daughters. A guy
was going to bed, shut off his lights, a chair moved by itself and what looked like his (wife?)
came from another direction in the dark. He was spooked, she touched him and he freaked out
all the more, and proceeded to take off his shirt and to start punching and kicking in karate
poses. I’ve always been baffled why a lot of guys out there, especially those who have learned
to handle their problems with their fists, remove their shirts when they’re going to fight. I played
hockey years ago and some enforcers in higher leagues wouldn’t even wait to see how much
jersey got pulled over their heads; they just took the jersey and pads off before the first punch!
Maybe you’ve seen this, maybe you have no clue what I’m talking about. Just smile and nod.
In all these instances, I think they were removing their shirts in a way that is actually pictured in
these verses as it relates to the word “exercise.” Paul commands Timothy to exercise (Greek
gymnazo) himself toward godliness. The word gymnazo is where we get the English terms
gymnasium, gymnastics, and words of the like. It actually meant at the time of writing not only to
train, but to train completely unclothed. Why on earth would they do this? They believed that all
of those things were hindrances to their performance, so they trained naked, yes, naked. That
was the Olympics of old; thankfully, that’s not the Olympics of today. Can you see the point Paul
is trying to make here? They didn’t train for a race with a donut in one hand, a smart phone in
the other, bulky headphones on and a parka with boots. They did so with nothing, nothing,
possibly resisting doing their best.
Paul draws a comparison and contrast here: exercising physically has little profit. Perhaps the
translation might better read “limited” because it’s contrasting the fullness of godliness’ profit.
Now, he’s not denouncing any profit, but he is saying that it has limited purpose. Paul’s
comparison says that while exercise has limited profit, godliness is profitable for all things, not
just those present but those to come in eternity. My body will age and decay and die, but
godliness will not lose its returns; it will do me well both in this life and in the life to come.
By the way, what is godliness? It comes from the Greek word eusebia (you-see-bee-uh) and
refers to being devout or pious. Jerry Bridges, in his book “Respectable Sins,” speaks to the sin
of ungodliness by defining it as such: “Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life
with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on
God. You can readily see, then, that someone can lead a respectable life and still be ungodly in
the sense that God is essentially irrelevant in his or her life. We rub shoulders with such people
every day in the course of our ordinary activities. They may be friendly, courteous, and helpful to
other people, but God is not at all in their thoughts. They may even attend church for an hour or
so each week but then live the remainder of the week as if God doesn’t exist. They are not
wicked people, but they are ungodly.” 1
If you and I are honest with ourselves, quite frankly we are ungodly most of the time when
considering this definition. Bridges calls the sins he speaks towards “respectable sins” because
these are sins so common that no one even thinks of them as sin, nor would consider those issues as worth punishment. Think hard about this: within the framework of the holiness of God,
if the only thing you did was not put God forefront in your thoughts continuously, it’d still be
enough to send you to Hell off of that alone. God does not grade on a curve; He deals with all of
us in relationship to His holiness, not our morality versus some genocidal tyrant. God’s holiness
isn’t messing around; we’ve never seen purity of righteousness like that of God. If using that
definition, then, we could also conclude that growing in godliness is growing in the awareness of
God’s presence more and more, bringing Him into the room if you will. He’s there, but we’re just
not registering that and most of the time aren’t even making an effort. We’re comfortable. He
doesn’t live and exist off of belief power, by the way; He doesn’t need anyone to believe in Him
for Him to continue to be Who He has always been and always will be.
Train yourself for godliness by removing the restraints and distractions and also finding ways to
live in a greater awareness of God for who He is, not who you hope He is or what you want Him
to be. A Bible is a great and foundational place to start (not marginally visit) if you’re going to
grow a higher view of our Holy God. There’s nowhere else God has disclosed Himself more fully
and articulately than Scripture. Let a life of awareness of Him permeate your thoughts, words
and actions, because it will; in fact, it’s often a spiritual scale for us to see that our words,
thoughts and actions do very much reveal how much He is in our thoughts.
If you will be brave in Christ, you must be godly and if you would be godly, you must exercise
yourself for it. Be blessed.
Sam Stringer
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
1 Bridges, J. (2017). “Respectable Sins”, p. 48. NavPress.
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