Have you ever objectively asked yourself what defines a person as being Godly according to the bible? Subjectively, many people think as long as they don’t lie, steal, cheat, and are kind to others, they are a good person and life is good. In that situation a person is good, but it does not necessarily mean a person is Godly. Before we go any further, the assumption is every person born is good. This post is not written to condemn or in any way be judgmental. It was written to answer a few questions that many people ask all the time – ‘what does it mean to be Godly’? What is the difference between a good person and a Godly person? What does it mean to be holy? There are objective answers to these questions and the answers are written throughout the scriptures. If you have an open mind and objectively look into this subject, you will find God wants to teach us about Him, the Kingdom of God, how to be Godly, and how we can participate in the things He calls holy.
Originally By Default All People Are Good
Very often throughout the course of time, people are faced to make decisions that will lead them either down a path of one of two places; a good or a bad place. From a Biblical perspective that’s referred to as ‘life’ or ‘death’. The way God designed this world is amazing and is quite remarkable when viewed through the lens of everyone having to choose one of those two paths. Everyone is required to decide if they will choose to head down the path of life or the path of death. God told the children of Israel to choose one or the other when He said in Deuteronomy 30:15-16, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess”. Additionally, Jesus said in Matthew 7:14, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few”. The gate Jesus is referring to is the gate of repentance. The path of life is a continual path of humility and correction. Humility to admit you are wrong, and willing to make correction as you come to understand God’s way of life. This is what it means to repent. In Proverbs 3:1 & 18 it states, “My son, forget not My instruction, and may your heart keep My commandments; … It is a tree of life for those who grasp it, and those who draw near it are fortunate”.
Keeping God’s commandments is the path to life. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commands”. If you love God, and choose to keep His commandments, you will realize this path is a lifelong process and a journey that takes effort and commitment.
God uses circumstances in our life to cause us to decide which path we will choose. Many times it is not a single choice that takes us down a particular path, but through a series of many choices we end up where we are in life. Some of those choices are made because of our character traits, and our individual personality. Choices are also influenced by an individual’s environment they live in, the family they are born into, and the friends they choose to associate with. All of these things play a major role in every choice a person makes. Ultimately, the decision to follow God’s path or not to follow His path is made through our many decisions, and each of us is on a path towards life or a path towards death.
Just because a person makes one or two, or even multiple bad decisions in life does not make them a bad person. It means they have made decisions that could potentially lead to death (James 1:15). If a person makes enough bad decisions (without repenting), then that person may find it very difficult (if not impossible) to make correction, and get back on the path towards life because their heart becomes so hardened. Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon”. God is a merciful God and is always giving us an opportunity to get back on the path to life through repentance. God even offered Pharaoh many chances to repent, but in the end when Pharaoh chose not to repent, God hardened his heart even more so he could not repent at all. In this situation God used Pharaoh’s life as an example to the world of what it looks like not choosing God’s path (Exodus 9:12).
Choosing To Be a Godly Person
A person chooses to be Godly, and someone who makes that choice seeks out the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). A Godly person studies the commandments of God that He has given humanity (Deuteronomy 11:19). As they learn God’s commandments, a Godly person applies them in their life (James 1:22-25). Learning and applying God’s commandments is a life of repentance; you are continually making correction as God gives you understanding on how to apply them. This is the path of Life that Jesus was referring to in Matthew 7:14. It takes a lifetime to study and learn God’s ways, and a person either chooses to repent or not to repent. Choosing to repent will gain you access into the Kingdom of God, and that is why Jesus preached to “repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Being a Godly person does not necessarily mean you have to be perfect, it means you are willing to make continual correction in order to know God through His commandments as it says in 1 John 2:3, “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands“.
Life is either about making a choice of knowing God, or choosing to desire the things of this world more than God. If a person is applying God’s instructions in their life, then they are actually knowing God and living a resurrected life now. Jesus said, “this is eternal life: that they know you …” (John 17:3). Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again“. If we choose to be Godly and humble ourselves, repent, turn from our fleshly desires (sin), and apply God’s commandments in our life, then we are living a resurrected life now. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”. Knowing God is living a resurrected life, and Godly people know God.
Holiness Is About Limitations and Blessings
Being a Godly person does not necessarily mean you are holy, but you cannot understand Godliness without understanding holiness. The word Holy in Hebrew is Kadosh (Hebrew: קדוש) it literally means sacred. In the English language it is translated to sanctified, consecrated, or separated. To be holy is to be set apart, and when something is holy it has a formal legal restriction and limitation. In Genesis 2:3 God made the Sabbath Day holy, and He told us to rest and not work on that day because it has been set apart as a holy day. The word Holiness in Hebrew is Kedushah (Hebrew: קְדֻשָּׁה). The term is frequently used to describe God, but is also used to describe physical items that have a holy status such as all the items used in the temple services (Leviticus 8:10). God told Moses in Leviticus 20:26, “You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine”. When something is endowed with holiness, it is set apart for the service of God through regulation and restriction.
Some examples of things that are holy and set apart are the appointed times, i.e .the Sabbath, the Festivals, and times of prayer which all have to be done on specific days and during limited periods of time. Another example of things that are holy are the sacrifices. Animal sacrifices are generally divided into four categories: the burnt-offering (olah), the sin-offering (chatat), the guilt-offering (asham), and the peace-offering (shelamim). Some of them are considered to be a dinner (kind of like a family BBQ where the priest gets a portion, the people offering it get a portion, and where God gets a portion), while other sacrifices are to be completely offered only to God. There were sacrifices of animals, grain, oil, wine and other substances. Sacrifices were done in a specific location (in the Temple), performed by specific people (the Priests), could only be specific types of meat (only five types of animals could be brought as sacrifices), and can only be eaten by people in a specific spiritual status (those who were ritually pure).
According to Torah, holiness is about restrictions in time (Sabbath), space (Temple), relationships (sexual), and food (how to be kosher). God also makes things holy by placing boundaries on specific areas, separating groups through distinction, and declaring specific places to be separated. As an example, a restaurant could be considered holy that serves kosher food because it provides a place for people to follow God’s instructions (eating kosher). God requires certain laws to be done by Kings, others by Priests, some by women and others by men. Some laws are only for Jews and others for non-Jews. Some laws are only to be done in Israel, and others only when there is a Temple standing. The entire creation story is about separation. The book of Genesis starts out by saying, “and God separated the light from the darkness”, “separated the waters from the waters”, “separated the day from the night”, and God “separated the light from the darkness”. God created the earth through separation and when He was done, He even separated the final day and called it Holy.
God provides us blessings through holiness. As an example it says in Isaiah 58:13-14, “If you … call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways … then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth…” God promises an additional blessing to non-Jews who keep the Sabbath when He says in Isaiah 56:6-7, “foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…” All the things that God declares as holy becomes a benefit to those who honor them. Joshua 1:7-8 says, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success“.
God has set specific things as holy to produce a blessing to all of humanity, i.e. God’s instructions, the Priesthood, and His people. As it says in Psalm 1:1-2, “Blessed is the man who … delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night“. God gave the nation of Israel the Torah (the Instructions), and He created the Levitical Priesthood to explain and show what it means to be holy as it says in Ezekiel 44:23, “They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean”. In addition, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:22-24, “you worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews … God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Holiness is declared by God in His Torah. The Torah explains to us the truths of what holiness is, and how God wants us to worship Him. God decides what the path of life is, and what the path of death is. We choose if we will follow life (knowing God by keeping His commandments), and if we do choose this path, God will bless our life and give us success (Joshua 1:7-8, Psalm 1:1-2).
God Promises To Dwell With Godly People
God’s ultimate goal is to have a dwelling place among His people, but He wants us to decide if we want to dwell with Him. Revelation 21:3 says, ” … Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” The first command received from God to Moses when he ascended the mountain for forty days and nights was to build a tabernacle, and make God a sanctuary to dwell (Exodus 25:8). In addition to that command, God gave Moses all the instructions on how to live a life where He can dwell with His people. Then God said in Leviticus 26:1-11, if the people would choose to obey the Torah, then God will dwell with them. Later on in Leviticus 26, God said if they choose not to obey the instructions, there would be consequences. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul speaks of a spirit that God has given us to help us with self-discipline and is used to choose God’s ways and His instructions. The Rabbis call this spirit the ‘Godly Soul’ and there is one in every person. It is a piece of God that He gives each one of us to help influence us to choose God’s path of life. Peter also speaks of this in 2 Peter 1:3 where he says, “… His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him”.
The Rabbis also speak of an ‘Animal Soul’ that desires this world. Paul calls the ‘Animal Soul’ our sinful nature. In Romans 7:15-25 Paul explains that by default the sinful nature is under the law of sin and death, but a person is no longer under that law of sin and death when they repent. The Jewish teaching about the two souls has been around for many years, and both of them are what is used to influence us to choose God (life) or choose the ways of the world (death). Paul eludes this in Romans 7:22-23.
A Tale of Two Kings
The Rabbis teach a parable about the Godly soul and the Animal Soul in the form of being two Kings fighting for control over a city, and that city represents you. Both King wants to control the city and have complete sovereignty over it. In the same way each person has two inclinations that are working to influence them, a Godly and worldly inclination. The two Kings are each fighting to rule over their city, and in the end one of them will win. James the brother of Jesus says in James 1:14, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire”. God said in Genesis 4:7 “… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it”. The Godly Soul wants you to follow the Torah, and surrender to God’s will in order for you to know Him. The Godly Soul wants you to be a Godly person. Being a Godly person is someone who knows God, and someone who knows God, keeps His commandments. Proverbs 28:9 says, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction (Torah), even their prayers are detestable”. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “… Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil”.
During your entire life, it is ultimately your choice whether the Godly Soul or the Animal Soul wins. It is your choice if you want to know God, and you know God by choosing and following His commandments. The path of life is knowing God. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, ” Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Lawlessness is not following God’s commandments.
To learn more about knowing God through His commandments read The Torah – God’s Instructions.