Disciplines of the Godly Man

This series of pages gives Bible texts that relate to a small booklet created by R. Kent Hughes titled “10 Disciplines of a Godly Man.”  

These 10 follow an Introduction and are “The Discipline of…”

  1. Purity
  2. Relationships
  3. Mind
  4. Devotion
  5. Integrity
  6. Tongue
  7. Work
  8. Perseverance
  9. Church
  10. Giving

In each category, these pages will show the Bible texts using a particular interlinear format with associated study helps.  The goal is to enable the reader to ‘dig deeper,’ and better internalize what the Scriptures have to say on each subject area.

Caution

There is a danger here with respect to the idea of “discipline” and the accompanying journey toward “godliness.”  The danger is this:  that such will make one “right” in the sight of God.  Pride is always closely following behind any motive, act, thought regardless of the circumstances but is especially a powerful enemy in this discussion.  We need to be ever reminded that Christ is the end of the Law, and our complete and only righteousness before God.

Therefore we conclude that
a man is justified by faith
apart from the deeds of the law.  

Romans 3:28 NKJV

 Yes, we are called to this journey, and empowered, but that is by Grace through Christ alone.

I can do all things 
through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 NKJV

Here are some words on this warning from the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Realize that it [your sins, and sin] has been covered and blotted out in Christ.  Never look back at your sins again.  Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ.’  That is your first step.  Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you.  What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying.  No!  you just begin to say:  
‘I rest my faith on Him alone,
Who died for my transgressions to atone.’
Take that first step and you find that immediately you will begin to experience a joy and a release that you have never known in your life before.  ‘Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.’  
Blessed be the Name of God for such a wondrous salvation for desperate sinners.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, his book on Spiritual Depression,  and the chapter “The True Foundation,” p. 35

Introduction

The key Bible passages that give a context for this study are:

  • 1 Timothy 4:1-10
  • Titus 2:11-14
  • Colossians 2:6-10

A study pdf of these texts is given here:  (Click on the word highlighted “here” just preceding and the pdf will appear in another tab on your browser; this pdf has been formatted to enable printing using the “booklet” option).

Each of the three Bible passages are presented in two parts.  First is the simple text from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and in certain cases also the New King James Version (NKJV).  These texts have been highlighted in bold font at those portions that will be the focus of further study.

Second is the same Bible text in a particular interlinear format consisting of seven lines.  Going from top to bottom, they are:

  • The NASB text itself, thus matching the same text in the first part.
  • The Koine Greek manuscript (mss), meaning the Biblical greek text as one would see it written in a Greek NT, the language of its original writing.  Koine Greek is the dialect of the ancient Greek language in which the NT was written and into which the OT was translated into the Septuagint (LXX) in about the year 200 B.C., and which is widely cited in the NT.
  • The Greek “lemma.”  The mss text of the 2nd line includes all the inflections of the word that corresponding to its textual purpose in the sentence.  The lemma is that same Greek word devoid of all the inflections, as would be used to look up the word in a dictionary / lexicon (a lexicon is simply a dictionary using two languages, in our situation using a Greek work to find an English definition).  An example of the distinction would be the word “running” used in a sentence; running would be the mss form because it is inflected by the “ning” ending to provide a particular meaning (here, a participle form).  The lemma for “running” would be “run” or “to run.”  If we were seeking a definition of “running” we would need to know to look up the word “run” because dictionaries are organized by lemmas not all the inflections of lemmas.  Likewise the word “ran” is an inflected form of the same lemma “run.”
  • The line directly below the Greek lemma is the transliteration of the word into English.  A transliteration is an attempt to give a letter by letter correspondence of the Greek into English to aid identification / pronunciation for a non-Greek reader.
  • Directly below the two lemma lines is the “root.”  In certain cases the lemma is itself a compound word even without the inflections of the mss form.  When that occurs, this line gives the “root” from which the compound occurs.  This can aid in some cases a better understanding of the meaning.
  • The next to last line with all upper cases letters, and numbers, references a coding provided by the Logos Software (R) that provides us the linguistic significance of the inflected mss form.  The recipe for the CODE is given at the end of the pdf.  This will be discussed further later, in the context of the passage under study.
  • Finally, the last line is a three or four digit number that is the Strong’s Number.  This is named after a 19th Century man named James Strong who dutifully, and that’s putting it mildly, created a sequential numbering system for every Greek and Hebrew lemma in the Bible.  Mr. Strong had no idea how useful his numbering would be more than 100 years later when it has become so widely useful to dig deeply into the meaning of a Biblical original word.  The use of these Strong’s numbers will likewise be addressed later.

A discussion of the three Bible texts corresponding to this Introduction is given here: