Redefining Godly

Do you have a picture of what “godly” looks like? Maybe it’s someone who never loses their temper and is kind to everyone. Or, maybe, it is a person who is selfless. In Bible times, the Jewish people thought godly meant following all the rules to the letter. When Jesus came, he changed everything. He showed people that to try and live according to God’s ways, you must take the rules to heart and try and embody the essence of what they were trying to teach you.

“Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus.” –Luke 5:18-19 NLT

“In his spiritual world, there is no place for smoking, swearing, godly women. He didn’t want to hear otherwise. No exceptions. In the real world where I live, this woman is not an exception and remains one of the most godly women I know.”  (Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. p. 59)

You see, for this pastor, godly looked one specific way and didn’t have any space to look any other. Yet for Mike, he saw a woman after God’s own heart who hadn’t stopped seeking transformation.