The Apostle Paul warns in this passage that anyone who wishes to live *Godly* in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The specific word used for Godly is also translated as “piously” and refers to someone who has great reverence for and devotion to God with an earnest desire and determination to walk in a manner pleasing in His sight. It is used just one other place in scripture and helps to expand its meaning and application: For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and *Godly*, in this present world (Titus 2:11-12).

What is immediately striking about this passage is that he makes a distinction between being “in Christ Jesus” and being one who wishes to live *Godly* in Christ Jesus. You would think it standard that ALL Christians would earnestly desire and be determined to live a Godly and holy life, but apparently the Apostle Paul recognized that there would be many who would not. That many would be satisfied to carry the label of Christian, but not have a sufficient interest in and pursuit of Godliness that would change them and mark them. 

It takes an earnest and continual commitment to a daily walk with God in order to live and maintain a Godly life and walk pleasing before Him. When a believer commits themselves to this path, God marks them and the Holy Spirit will work in them in a new way to empower them, enlighten them and guide them. Their eyes will be opened to who they really are in Christ and what He has made them. Rather than seeing themselves as weak, fleshly beings subject to stumbling, sin and failure, they will see the mighty provision of God given to them to strengthen them and make them an overcomer in this life. Passages like: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor 5:17) and: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Rom 8:37) take on new meaning as they begin to see that God has truly transformed them and made them new. No longer will they resign themselves to a life of stumbling and sin as they “wait for their glorified body” for any hope of successfully subduing the flesh and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, they are on that path here and now and the Holy Spirit gives them the strength to succeed. When temptation comes, rather than professing how weak and fleshly they are and then giving in to it, they remember that with *every* temptation God has provided the way of escape, and they take it. They experience an actual overcoming and a real, tangible walk of righteousness which is the fruit of the Spirit working in them. 

Only those who develop a real and steadfast daily relationship with God, who diligently seek Him, forsake their old manner of life and become determined to live Godly in Christ Jesus, will enjoy this blessing and experience the power of God working in them to overcome. It doesn’t come to the casual comer and goer, but takes a real commitment to put our hand to the plow and not look back and be fit for the kingdom of God as it states in Luke 9:62. 

And what about the persecution that the Apostle Paul spoke of? He doesn’t really go into how that comes about, just that he experienced it in great measure. There is always great pressure upon pastors and preachers to water down the truth of the Gospel and what it means to be a believer to make it easier and more palatable to men. It takes great courage to NOT go down a more acceptable, easy-believism path. This is why Paul followed up a few verses later and told Timothy to: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Tim 4:2-4). You can be sure that the preaching of Godliness and the narrow road that leads to life will bring opposition, scorn and persecution from those who no longer endure sound doctrine and would rather have and promote a light, counterfeit form of Christianity that widens the road and fits itching ears.

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Because of the fall of man under Adam, mankind is by nature subject to the corruption that is in the world through lust. When a person comes to Christ and becomes His disciple, they are freed from that bondage and given power through the Holy Spirit to escape that corruption and become partakers of the divine nature. 

This is not just a figurative or “positional” escape, but a real one and must bear the fruit of a changed and transformed life in order to be valid. We do not just get stamped with a label and considered “escaped” irregardless of our behavior as Christians, but are given power by the Holy Spirit and expected to employ the tools given us to actually make that escape. In other words, it is not automatic. It takes a steadfast faith and patience in yielding to the promptings of the Spirit, resisting temptation and fleshly desires, and to walking in the Spirit. That is what it means to “escape the corruption of the world” and is the mark of a true child of God. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom 8:13-14).

We are told in Heb 6:12: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Once a believer commits themselves to this charge of escaping the lust of the world and walking in the newness of life, the Holy Spirit works in them to see it through. They will see and joyfully recognize the power of the Spirit working in them to that end. How do you know that you’ve made that escape? You no longer participate in the deeds of darkness, you will have a real and tangible sense that you have put them behind you and are on a new and glorious path that leads to eternal life. To them who by *patient continuance in well doing* seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life (Rom 2:7).

If you profess to be a believer, but still have a continual sense of your own ongoing “wretchedness” and corruption, then it’s possible that you are still under bondage to sin and have not yet made the escape. As it states in Rom 6:16 – Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? It’s remarkable that modern day Christendom practically celebrates ongoing corruption as almost a badge of honor and humility, it is not. Our testimony as believers should *not* be one of continual stumbling and failure, but one of progressive victory over corruption as we faithfully yield to the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life (Rom 6:22).

Apart from Christ, our righteousness is “as a filthy rag” but once we are in Christ and are walking by faith, our practice of righteousness is no longer a filthy rag, but becomes a blessed and needful fruit of our redemption. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matt 5:6). 

As the title verse implies, becoming a “partaker of the divine nature” is predicated on escaping the lust of the world. It is imperative that we each individually make that escape so that we take on the divine nature and then Christ be formed in us. That’s the goal of our redemption, to restore our fellowship with God and to be conformed to the image of Christ. Much is said today about Christianity being a “relationship” rather than a religion. Which is true, but we have to be careful that we don’t lose sight of the fruit that this relationship should naturally produce. We can talk all we want about intimacy with Jesus, but if it doesn’t produce a stark hunger for righteousness, godliness and a literal transformation of our character, attitudes and demeanor, then we’ve missed it altogether. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18).

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