Queen's Road Cell

5. What is the power of godliness (v.5)? Power refers to the present, effective working of God in and through the lives of believers. It encompasses the Holy Spirit's work in purification, unification, revelation and empowerment. We are given new life and the sustaining power to live out that new life in victory against the world, the flesh and the devil. We are fruitful (Gal 2:22-23), authentic p, sensitive to God’s leading, desiring God’s will and word and teaching with moral authority   'Christlikeness' is a good summary of what godliness is. He not only ministered to others with power, but also lived a sinless life. What power that must have taken - to face the full strength of temptations and to overcome them. 6. What does having a form of godliness but denying its power tell you about the kind of religion the depraved ones practice? What is to 'deny' the power of godliness? It may mean that one says that 'such a thing does not exist' or to reject its t...

Edmund Chan says that modern-day discipleship must be re-grounded in Christ-centredness. Christ is not merely to be a figurehead monarch or symbol, but truly the Lord - the one who makes the decisions. Christ must have authority and give Him full ownership over our individual lives. Paul's Christocentricity is seen in Colossians: Christ is the prototokos (firstborn, 1:15). Not a created being, but the One through whom all things are created (1:16), who has all the privileges and rights of a firstborn son ("I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" Ps 89:27). Christ is also the eikon (image, 1:15) of the Father, just as we are called to be in His image (1 Co 15:49, 2 Co 3:18, Col 3:10). All things were created by Him (1:16), through Him, and for Him (1:16). He existed before all things, and he sustains the universe 'by the word of His power' the pleroma (fullness/completeness, 1:19). He is the One in whom all the fullness of Deity dw...