NEXT TO GODLINESS

NEXT TO GODLINESS

William Andrew Dillard
Parson to Person

There is an old saying often heard a generation or two ago: “Cleanliness is next to godliness!” If applied to one’s spiritual life, there may be something to it, but most often it was understood to apply to the physical body. Maybe that was due to the weekly bathing most did due to a lack of running water, especially hot water.
As the idea applies to the body, I never did believe the old saying was true. However, there is much to be said of it when one applies it to the spiritual life.
Sin is always represented as vile, filthy, reprehensible, etc. Even the goodness of natural man is that way in God’s sight. Notice His estimation of man’s righteousness in Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
On the other hand, true righteousness is represented as cleanliness. It is here that the old saying finds it true meaning. As the Lord chastened His people through the prophet Isaiah, He admonished: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isa. 1:16-17.
In New Testament times when Jesus was rebuffed because His disciples were eating without washing their hands, He taught quite plainly that it was not what entered the body that defiled a man, but what came out of it. Matt. 15:11, 20.
It should also be noted that the apostle Paul explained to the church at Ephesus that His church was so loved by Jesus that He gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Eph. 5:25-26.
The apostle James doubled down on this great truth by stating,”. . . cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:8. Presented here as the essential action to be close to God, he introduced the idea by saying, “Draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you. . . “
Obviously, it is essential for every person to repent of sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as the only personal Savior, but perhaps the appeal is most often written to God’s own people to enter the strait gate an walk in the narrow way. How that is done is pointedly revealed by the ancient psalmist in Psalm 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy Word.”
Truly, a clean body smells better than a dirty one, and it is often essential to good health. But the cleanliness that is next to godliness must reference the very heart to be realized as true. How clean is your heart?

APRIL 6 – Great Things For God

APRIL 6 – Great Things For God

2Ki 5:13  And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 

All too often we want to do some great thing. Great and grand ideas and desires are not God’s way or God’s plan. Ask a child to clean their room and the make it seem as if it is the worst drudgery in the world. Tell them you can paint the room any color you want and then creative juices are flowing. They have grand thoughts and schemes and plans. The reason for that is a carnal nature bound up in excitement and emotion.

Naaman was a carnal man that needed to be cleansed of leprosy. A little girl mentioned the Lord’s prophet. Here was the answer. Naaman’s preparation was to buy a cure. Is that not natural with a man? Buy a cure. Slay the dragon for a cure. Do a difficult, hard, and dangerous deed for a cure. A man wrapped in his carnality will approach God in the wrong manner every time.

This is the way with salvation. How is a person going to go to heaven? Give me a formula. I do find one thing amazing about being born again. A persons’ difficulty in simply repenting and accepting the free gift of salvation. I talk with people and show them the plan of salvation that is in God’s Word and it seems as if they don’t understand. I preach to lost people Sunday after Sunday and wonder about their comprehension.

Satan is working full time to distract, distress and dismiss the simple plan of salvation. God looks for obedience and not innovation. We have many innovators in what I would call a religious society. People are attracted to innovation and that is why we have different people offering different ways to get to heaven. We must, of necessity and call tell others the simplicity of salvation.

It is a gift from God, paid for by His Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.