Thoughts on 1 Timothy: Godliness

A good friend of mine has described a coat hook that he has for each book in the Bible—one word to identify a major theme and to secure a workable mental summary of the themes in these 66 books. For him, 1 Timothy’s coat hook is godliness.

Does that word mean anything to you? It does not mean much to me. Tell me to pursue godliness, and I am left with not much to go on. To be sure, Paul meant something by it; Timothy understood something of it, or else the two of them would not have been able to meet together over Paul’s instruction to train more in godliness than physical fitness. We all have some idea of the meaning behind physical fitness; but training in godliness? What’s that? So, now that I have confessed to you my ignorance, let’s put an end to it.

Rather than giving you a straight-up definition first, let’s concentrate on what it isn’t by looking at the antonym of godliness: ασεβής (asevis), which is usually translated impious. That may not be helpful; so let’s expand the definition to “destitute of reverential awe toward God.”

Peter affords a few examples I find helpful. In 2 Peter 2:5, Peter says:

and if He didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

In the next verse, Peter continues:

and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to ruin, making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly;

And then he warns:

But by the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

So, the opposite-of-godliness, asevis, defined pre-Flood humanity and God destroyed the then-world. It marked the character and conduct of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah; God heard the cry that went up as a result of the opposite-of-godliness, and he answered it with fire, brimstone, and destruction. And we are informed by Peter that the world will sink into the opposite-of-godliness again unto a judgment that fulfills these two ante-types of catastrophic, divine judgment.

This raises a question: do we have any more information about the character of men and women before Noah and at Sodom and Gomorrah? We do. In Genesis 6, In Noah’s time, the wickedness of the human race had waxed great in the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

The world had ruined God’s image, and had done it violence.

What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Consider this from Jeremiah:

And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not one of them turns from their wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.

Or this from Ezekiel:

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

What were the detestable things? You know the story in Genesis 19 (“Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded [Lot’s] house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”’).

This microcosm of the world, in Sodom and Gomorrah, had left off justice and mercy, and turned the image of God into an outlet for immediate, violent sexual gratification. A desecration of the image of God.

Godliness must therefore include, in part, humility, moderation, and concern for the poor and needy. And godliness must strengthen the hands of weak and oppressed and uphold the image of God in humanity.

To help us further, Paul ties these two historical judgments together, presenting root causes for them:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 

Ungodliness arises out of (i) not seeing fit to acknowledge God, (ii) not honoring him as God, and (iii) not giving him thanks. Godliness must therefore include acknowledging God, honoring him as God, and giving him thanks.

And before we look directly at godliness, let’s park on Romans 5:6:

For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.

We have hope in Christ Jesus—a real remedy for the human heart.

Since Christ dies for the ungodly, how does a man demonstrate godliness in word and deed? There must be a way; otherwise, we would have no hope when Paul says: Train yourself for godliness, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

First, Peter encourages us:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

While we apparently tend to ruin, God has instead given power for godliness through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul recognizes this connection between godliness and Christ Jesus:

And undeniably great is the mystery of godliness, who was revealed in flesh, was vindicated in spirit, appeared to angels; was preached among the nations, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory.

Peter leads us through a thoughtful progression from faith in Christ Jesus, the embodiment of godliness, to individual piety:

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Is this what Paul meant by training in godliness? It’s not a bad outline. Paul tells us in his letter to Titus that the knowledge of the truth produces piety. See Titus 1:1. Peter also provides roots of piety: virtue, knowing, self-control, and steadfastness; and then he says piety issues in loving your brother and in the sacrificial love Jesus has demonstrated.

Godliness in Greek is εὐσέβεια, which is better translated as pious or piety. Piety is literally reverencing God well. This principle should sound familiar as in “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” in Proverbs 1:7 and “so you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him” in Deuteronomy 6:8.

If we substitute piety for godliness in 1 Timothy, the verses take on a different hue:

• First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, pious and dignified in every way.

• And undeniably great is the mystery of piety, who was revealed in flesh, was vindicated in spirit, appeared to angels; was preached among the nations, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory.

• Train yourself in piety . . . piety is of value for all things because it holds a promise for the present life and for the coming life.

• If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with piety, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. 

• Pursue righteousness, piety, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

In Classical Greek, we have some assistance from Xenophon in understanding piety: “Is there any more better or more reverent way to honor [God] than by doing what [he] commanded?” The word, reverent, Xenophon uses is εὐσέβεια, piety. In this, I am reminded of John 14:15: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

With that, when was the last time that you heard someone dig deep into having piety or being pious? When was the last sermon you heard on individual piety? It alarms me a little bit that our language within and without the Church has abandoned a word like piety as archaic (and only relevant to Non-Conformists and Puritans of another less-enlightened time).

When I think of piety, I am forced to consider how worldly I actually am. Piety is a good word then to meditate on both day and night as a stand against the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers, see Psalm 1, as a way to acknowledge God, honor him, and give him thanks.

Image by Lucie Hosova. Sourced via Unsplash.