Add to your faith: Godliness

Thanks for checking out Add to your faith ministries today. This series of lessons on adding to your faith has been working through the process of growing in our faith based on 2 Peter 1.

(click on the underlined words to read the other lessons.)

First we learned to add to our faith-goodness...

then, add to goodness-knowledge.

to knowledge we add self-control.

and to self-control add perseverance.

So today, with the 5th lesson in the series we are looking at adding to our perseverance-godliness.

The first question of course is what is godliness? I found this study very enlightening. I have always thought of godliness as being like God...having the mind of Christ....and being synonyms with goodness. I am not sure why I had this misconception, but that is not the limit of what godliness is. While it is holiness, it is more than goodness.

The English Word Godliness comes from the Greek εὐσέβειαν (check out the Strong's entry here)

This word is usually translated piety, holiness or godliness. I love this entry in the HELPS- word study, " 2150 eusébeia (from 2095 /eú "well" and 4576 /sébomai, "venerate, pay homage") – properly, someone's inner response to the things of God which shows itself in godly piety (reverence). 2150 /eusébeia ("godly heart-response") naturally expresses itself in reverence for God, i.e. what He calls sacred (worthy of veneration).

This word is closely connected to words we translate reverence, respect and devout piety. So...godliness is holiness, not just in the since of goodness, but in the since of total reverence and respect for what God calls set apart or holy, and therefore showing due reverence for the things of God.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10

As we are growing in the faith, maturing and supplementing our faith, having respect and reverence for the things of God and living a Holy, set apart life is an essential part of the growth process.