Ungodliness

Based on "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges, this lesson deals with the foundation sin of ungodliness in our lives and what it means. Ungodliness is living your life without any thought of God. Ungodliness is an easy sin to fall prey to, and one which every Christian is guilty of to some extent.

1. Ungodliness Based on Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

2. We are all guilty of ungodliness to some degree. We don’t think of ourselves as ungodly because we are Christians, attend church, avoid scandalous sins, and live respectable lives. Romans 1:18 Paul points out there is a difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness. Ungodliness describes an attitude towards God. Unrighteousness refers to sinful thoughts, actions, or deeds. An atheist or an avowed secularist is obviously an ungodly person, but so are a lot of morally decent people who say they believe in God.

3. Ungodliness means 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. We encounter people every day who lead moral, respectable lives yet are still ungodly because God is essentially irrelevant to their lives. There are people who will attend our church today who will not think about God after they leave here today until next week. Some of us will get up, read our Bibles, and pray at the start of the day tomorrow, but then we go about the day’s activity and live as if God doesn’t exist. James 4:13-15 James doesn’t condemn these people for planning ahead, but for planning that does not acknowledge their dependence on God. How often do you make plans that do not consider God or our dependence on Him at all?

4. We couldn’t accomplish the most mundane tasks of life without some planning. We often make plans without recognizing our utter dependence on God to carry them out. We seldom think of our accountability to God and our responsibility to live according to His moral will as revealed to us in Scripture. It’s not that we are living obviously sinful lives; it’s just that we seldom think about the will of God and are content to simply avoid obvious sins. Colossians 1:9-10 This is an incredibly God-centered prayer! Remember, the Colossians were not super Christians; they were ordinary people living in the middle of an ungodly culture. Paul still expected them – and prayed they would live - godly lives. How does Paul’s prayer for the Colossians compare with our prayers for ourselves, our families, and our friends? Do your prayers reflect a concern for God’s will, God’s glory, and a desire to live a life pleasing to God? Or are your prayers more of a “to-do” list for God to intervene in for family and friends?

5. There is nothing wrong with bringing your real needs to God: it is one way to acknowledge our dependence upon Him. If that is all you pray about, your prayers are human-centered, not God-centered, and in that sense we are ungodly to some degree. Colossians 3:22-24 Paul instructs the Christian slaves (likely a large part of the Colossian church) how to serve their masters in a godly fashion. When you go to school or work, do you “work heartily as unto the Lord” or are you doing your school work or working your job purely for yourself with no thought of pleasing God? I Corinthians 10:31 “All” includes every activity of our lives. We are to drive to the glory of God. We are to shop to the glory of God. We are to engage in social relationships (or social media) to the glory of God.

6. It means doing everything with a two-fold goal. First, I desire that all that I do be pleasing to God. I want God to be pleased with way I go about ordinary activities. I pray over the day before me, asking the Holy Spirit to direct my thoughts, words, and actions so they will be pleasing to God. Second, to do all to the glory of God means that I desire that all my activities of an ordinary day will honor God before other people. Matthew 5:16 Romans 2:23-24 If everyone you interact with in the course of an ordinary day knows that you trust in Christ as Savior, would your words and actions glorify God before them?

7. An even more telling indicator of our tendency towards ungodliness is our meager desire to develop an intimate relationship with God. Psalm 42:1-2 Psalm 63:1 Psalm 27:4 Being moral and upright, or even being busy in Christian service yet have little to no desire to develop an intimate relationship with God is a sure mark of ungodliness. For the godly person, God is the center and focal point of his or her life. Every circumstance is viewed through the lens of God-centeredness. Here’s the question you should be asking if you are honest with yourself: “How ungodly am I? How much of my life do I live without any regard to God? How much of my daily activities do I go through without any reference to God?”

8. Total godliness and utter ungodliness are opposite ends of the spectrum. All of us are between these two extremes. Only Jesus ever lived a totally godly life, and no believer has ever been utterly ungodly. Remember, we are not talking righteousness versus wickedness. We are talking about living a life as if God were relevant or irrelevant. Why do surveys and studies show that there is so little difference in the values of Christians and non-Christians? Most Christians just ignore God apart from church on Sunday morning. This ungodly attitude is one of our most basic sins. How much would your pride be curbed if you always remembered that all that you have, are, and accomplish is by the grace of God? How much would your tongue be tamed (from gossip, cursing, sarcasm, etc ) if you lived every moment in the presence of an all-seeing, all-hearing God?

9. I Timothy 4:7 Exercise here refers to the daily activity necessary to practice and prepare for an athletic contest. It implies commitment, consistency, and discipline in training. You should be as committed to growing in godliness as you are to any physical training. The goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible to Him and dependent upon Him. What would you do differently in your various activities of the day if you were seeking to do all for the glory of God? Pray that God will make your more conscious of the fact that you live every moment of every day under His all-seeing eye. Be as mindful of Him as He is of you!

10. Scriptures to memorize, ponder, and pray over to help in this area: I Timothy 4:7-8 I Corinthians 10:31 Colossians 1:9-10 Colossians 3:23 Psalm 42:1-2 Psalm 63:1 Psalm 27:4