The keys to a godly life are God’s Spirit, God’s Word, and God’s people. Living to honor God doesn’t depend on willpower. Just as we started our relationship with God by grace, we live every day by grace. God has already given us everything we need: his Spirit to empower us, his Word to guide us, and his people to help us along the way.
A Life That Pleases God
Following Jesus is a lifelong journey of finding out what pleases God and doing it (Ephesians 5:10). Over time, our lives are marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). That’s not a checklist. It’s a picture of the kind of people we are becoming. So how do we get there?
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
You already have access to everything you need for a godly life. To experience it, you’ll need three keys.
1. God’s Spirit
The Holy Spirit isn’t an impersonal force. He is God himself, the third person of the Trinity. When you trust Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in you and begins empowering you to please God (Ephesians 1:13). God promised this long ago.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Before you followed Jesus, you had one nature: the sinful nature, or the flesh. When you trusted Jesus, God gave you a new heart that is responsive to him. Your old nature didn’t disappear, so you can still sin. But now you have a choice. Paul describes the battle.
Galatians 5:16-17 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
When we become Christians, our hearts change immediately, but our habits change gradually. The Spirit transforms us from the inside out, step by step.
Galatians 5:24-25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
If you struggle to honor God, you’re not alone. The battle is normal (Romans 7:21-25). Over time, you can learn to keep in step with the Spirit.
2. God’s Word
If God had only given us his Spirit, the Christian life would be completely subjective. Anyone could claim the Spirit told them anything. But God has also given us his Word. The Bible is our final authority for what we believe and how we live, and it helps us test everything we think the Spirit is saying.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Bible teaches us what’s true, rebukes us when we believe lies, corrects us when we’re wrong, and trains us to do what’s right. It’s tempting to pick and choose which parts of the Bible we accept. Jesus called out that kind of hypocrisy.
Luke 6:46-48 Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
It’s easy to accept Jesus as Savior while ignoring him as Lord. A godly life is built on hearing his words and putting them into practice.
3. God’s People
We don’t just need a new power source and a new way of thinking. We also need a new community. Other believers help us live out our faith, especially when we fail.
Galatians 6:1-2 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Nobody’s perfect. We’ll all lose the battle with our sinful nature sometimes. When that happens, God’s people should respond gently. We’ve received grace from God, and in the church that grace flows to one another. But a healthy community also offers correction and accountability, helping us get back on the right path.
The Takeaway
A godly life isn’t about willpower. It’s about relying on God’s Spirit, God’s Word, and God’s people. Godliness is a lifelong journey of learning to trust God more than yourself, and we live it every day the same way we started on day one: by God’s grace. In Lesson 9, we’ll look at practical habits that help us grow.
