Godliness today, godlessness tomorrow: Any nexus with salvation? – Part 3

Unhealthy rivalry and running of people down
This happens most times, when people are running for the same position and rather than discussing issues, they run themselves down. While this is more pronounced in the secular world, it has now found itself in the church of God. People now spread information they heard from the third party about their rival, for character assassination and to whittle down the person’s value.

The children of God, who are expected to champion the process of saving the souls of those, who might have committed one iniquity or the other, will now join unbelievers, who enjoy sharing evil and derogatory information and unverifiable ones at that, about people.

Another dimension to it is that immediately we do not belong to a particular church and we hear negative things about the leader, we, who claim to be born again Christians, will be the ones to start spreading the news, as if that will save the soul of the man of God concerned. Most of these, we may not notice, but in truth are acts of godlessness.

Exaggeration and Boasting
We most times say some things and add other things that are not true, just to make people appreciate us more. We exaggerate our achievements and capabilities, just because we want to get men’s honour, while we unconsciously drift from godliness to ungodliness. Exaggerating things is not of God, but of the devil. Many among us do this and believe we are still born again Christians.

Boasting is another thing we do subtly, with the intention of expressing our achievements, without knowing we have ascribed the success to ourselves, rather than to God. We boast of the number of parishes we have. We boast about the number of countries in the world, where we have branches. We boast of the number of vehicles and aeroplanes we have. We boast about “when we were talking, many people were falling down to receive the Holy Spirit.” We boast about “without us, that church would not have grown to that level.” We boast about our academic and theological qualifications in a way that will devalue others. Basically, we boast about almost everything. The truth of the matter is that exaggeration and boasting are elements of godlessness and are encouraged by Satan, man’s enemy.

Personalities that shift from godliness to godlessness and vice versa
King Solomon: This was a king who survived the onslaught of Absalom and trickery of Adonijah (1 Kings 2:13-25), his brothers, who themselves, were interested in the throne. He started very well and sought wisdom and understanding from God, which made him very popular among his subjects and nations beyond. He ruled the people of God righteously, but failed when it matters most. His love for many women without borders made him to have many wives and concubines, who then brought idolatry into Jerusalem (1 Kings 11), and in the latter days of his life, godlessness became his trademark.

King Asa: He was a great grandson of King Solomon and he was also the father of King Jehoshaphat. The Bible recorded that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord (1 Kings 15:11; 2 Chronicles 14:1-3). A message from God, even came from Azariah to Asa saying, “…Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:1-2). However, when it remained about four to five years for him to end the 41st year of his kingship, he forsook godliness for godlessness.

It happened in the thirty sixth year of Asa’s reign that Baasha, king of Israel brought a fight against Judah, and King Asa solicited the assistance of Benhadab, the King of Syria, against his own sister nation. Even when God was displeased and sent Hanani, the seer, to ask him why he forsook God to seek help elsewhere, King Asa refused to ask for forgiveness, but put the seer in prison.

Thereafter, he became the oppressor of his own people, diseased in his feet and died as a friend of Satan (2 Chronicles 16:1-14).
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