See also: Godliness
Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
Godliness is the inward reverence for God and the outward devout life that flows from it—a God-fearing, God-honoring piety that pervades the whole of a person’s walk. The Greek word eusebeia denotes a right reverence toward God expressing itself in a life of worship, obedience, and devotion; it is religion not as mere outward form but as the living fear and love of God shaping conduct. Paul makes godliness a central theme of the pastoral epistles: he bids Timothy ‘exercise thyself unto godliness,’ for godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come; he calls the faith ‘the truth which is after godliness’ and the gospel ‘the mystery of godliness.’ Godliness is distinguished from a bare morality or external religiosity by its root and its God-ward orientation: the ungodly may be outwardly respectable, but godliness springs from a heart that reveres God and seeks to please Him in all things. Scripture warns of those who have ‘a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof’—the hollow shell of religious appearance without the inward reality—and bids us turn from such. True godliness is the power and not merely the form: a life lived consciously before the face of God (coram Deo), reverent, devout, and obedient. It is bound up with contentment—‘godliness with contentment is great gain’—and is to be diligently cultivated, ‘exercised’ as an athlete trains, for it does not come by accident but by the disciplined and Spirit-empowered habits of grace. Godliness is thus the comprehensive name for genuine, heartfelt, practical religion—the reverent and devout life that the gospel produces and that adorns the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines GODLINESS as piety; belief in God and reverence for his character and laws; a religious life; the practice of the duties of religion.
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GODLINESS, n. — 1. Piety; belief in God, and reverence for his character and laws. 2. A religious life; a careful observance of the laws of God and performance of religious duties, proceeding from love and reverence for the divine character and commands; Christian piety. Godliness is profitable unto all things. 1 Tim. iv.
GODLY, a. — Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws.
📖 Key Scripture
1 Timothy 4:7-8 — "...exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
1 Timothy 6:6 — "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
2 Timothy 3:5 — "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
Titus 2:12 — "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Godliness is corrupted into a mere “form”—outward religious appearance, respectability, and ritual—“denying the power thereof,” and into the false “godliness” that pursues gain, supposing religion a means to worldly profit.
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The most pointed corruption of godliness is named by Paul himself: having a form of godliness but denying its power. This is the hollow shell of religion—the outward appearance of piety without the inward reality, the respectable churchgoer whose religion is all surface, ritual, and reputation, but whose heart does not revere God and whose life is not transformed by His power. It is the besetting danger of every settled religious culture, where the forms of devotion are maintained while their living substance has evaporated. From such, the apostle says, turn away; for a powerless godliness is no godliness at all, but a counterfeit that deceives its possessor into mistaking the form for the thing itself.
A second corruption Paul also names: those who suppose that godliness is a means of gain, who pursue religion as a path to worldly profit, prosperity, or advantage. This is the spirit of every ‘health and wealth’ gospel that markets devotion as the road to riches, and of every use of religion for social, financial, or political advancement. Scripture inverts it: godliness with contentment is great gain—the gain being not worldly increase but the soul’s satisfaction in God. True godliness seeks not what religion can get but the glory and pleasure of God Himself. The recovery of the doctrine restores both its inwardness and its disinterestedness: godliness is the reverent, devout, God-fearing life that springs from a heart renewed by grace, lived before the face of God, pursuing His pleasure rather than worldly gain—the power, and not merely the form, of true religion.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on eusebeia (reverent piety toward God), profitable for all things—the power of religion, not its empty form (morphōsis).
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Usage
"Godliness is reverent piety toward God expressed in a devout life—the power of religion, not its mere form."
"‘Exercise thyself unto godliness’—it is cultivated by disciplined, Spirit-empowered habits, not gained by accident."
"A ‘form of godliness denying the power thereof’ is the hollow shell of religion—from such turn away."