Godliness

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.

It is an interesting fact that the words “godly” and “godliness” are not found in Paul’s writings until we come to the Pastoral Epistles, the very epistles that have so much to say about evil days and evil surroundings.

In the epistles to Timothy we read about the “perilous times” with which this present dispensation of grace will be brought to a close, while in the letter to Titus we read of “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,” of “liars… evil beasts… lazy gluttons,” whom Satan would use to neutralize the work and witness of God’s servants.

To Timothy and Titus, these young men of God, the Apostle had much to say about godliness, and we must not forget that Paul’s words to them are also God’s Word to us, believers in Christ, who indeed appear to be living in the closing days of the dispensation of grace, surrounded by a steadily-rising tide of evil and an ever-growing number of wicked, godless men.

We do not mean to imply that the Apostle does not deal with the various phases of the Christian life in his other epistles, but rather that here in the Pastoral Epistles he wages a sort of campaign for individual godly living in the midst of increasing apostasy and godlessness.

May God help us, in our character and conduct, to exhibit “the power of godliness,” the spiritual power that comes from putting Christ first in all things.

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam / Berean Bible Society - Two Minutes with the Bible

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True godliness is rooted in the mystery of Christ.

The last verse of 1 Timothy 3 sings about this:

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)