PIETY
[p. 14] PIETY
The employment of words in Scripture is an interesting subject of study. Words in common use amongst men, and recognised as conveying certain general ideas, are employed to communicate thoughts in connection with God, with the consequence that the revelation of God imparts to the words a peculiar force of meaning which is not found in dictionaries, and which can only be learnt from Scripture itself. A word of this kind is ‘piety’. It appears in the Authorised Version only in 1 Timothy 5: 4, the original being in other cases rendered ‘godliness’. Piety, however, unquestionably conveys more correctly the idea. The Scripture employment of the term has one point in common with the dictionaries, in that it refers it both to God and to parents. The dictionaries differ among themselves, some explaining it as bearing (reverence, respect, etc.), and others as discharge of duty, conduct, etc. The object of the present paper is to seek to present the force with which the word is used in Scripture.
It is doubtful if its precise equivalent is to be found in the Hebrew scriptures — the expressions which most nearly approach it being probably the word commonly rendered ‘fear’ of the Lord (see Psalm 111: 10; Proverbs 1: 7), when speaking of a quality, and that translated ‘saints’, or ‘godly’ (see Psalm 4: 3, etc.), when referring to a class of persons. In the New Testament the expression is in two instances applied to persons not as yet in the enjoyment of Christian privileges. (See Acts 10: 2 - 7)
As piety is presented in the first epistle to Timothy as the antidote to different forms of evil which the apostle by the Spirit foresaw would corrupt Christianity,
[p. 15] it is important to ascertain what is intended to be conveyed by it. At the outset then I would say, it is a quality generated in the heart by the sense of benefits received from one rightly entitled to reverence and affections. It would hardly be an obligation on the part of parents to show piety towards their children, or masters towards their slaves; the converse would hold good. Piety is not like faith. The latter is the reception for once and for all of a divine testimony, or the substantiation of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen. Piety is rather a growth in the heart, stimulated by the knowledge of the goodness of the one who is its object. Practically it may perhaps be defined as the exercise of reverent affections in a spirit of grateful confidence. It brings the comfort of the knowledge of God into present things, supporting in endurance, and tends to that quietness and rest of spirit which leave the mind free to find its occupation in the things of faith.
Having thus given the general idea, I proceed to show how piety is presented in detail in the epistles, as opposed to the forms of evil anticipated by the apostles. The first of these is spoken of in 1 Timothy 4. It is not looked at as universal, but ‘some’ would in the latter times depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats. I suppose that the end proposed by such commandments was, by depriving the body, to attain the subjugation of evil. The practical result was to introduce a class of separatists, not in the power of the Spirit, the remains of which may be seen to this day in popery and the like. However plausible the end proposed, the means by which it was to be reached were very bad. In addition to the legality involved, there was a still greater evil in the slight thus cast on the beneficent provision of God for the creature. The Christian is still in the place of the creature, and whatever mercies [p. 16] God may have ordained for the creature are not to be refused, but received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
Now in piety there was the recognition of this — the confidence begotten by God’s grace — and hence it was the safeguard against these commandments which falsified the character of God. The blessed God who has bestowed the greater benefits does not withhold the lesser. There is, too, in piety that warmth and nurture of soul in which lies the secret of keeping in subjection the body. A well-nourished soul is the real security against unruliness of body. Hence Timothy is exhorted to exercise himself rather unto piety — the range of its value being far greater than that of bodily exercise. The working of it is that instead of practising abstention in a legal way from mercies which are God’s provision for the creature, the soul rests in the confidence of being specially the object of God’s kindness and care, and finds piety profitable unto all things, having promise of life, of the present one, and of that to come. Thus reverent affections and happy confidence, perhaps amid labour and reproach, are set forward as against legality and asceticism, by the spirit of which souls would be withered.
But if on the one hand, piety recognises God’s beneficence even to all men, and accepts His mercies with thanksgiving, it refuses on the other, to run in the ways of the world, in pursuing present advantage, and so leaving the place of dependence on God. In this way it guards against another form of evil which has pervaded the church, and which, we learn from 1 Timothy 6, originated in heterodox teaching, and insubjection to wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wholesome words tend to health in the soul. If the Lord has said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”, it is a wholesome word, which should settle the whole question of “these things” for the disciple. But where the spirit of self-will and insubjection wrought, there came in, not only questions and strifes of words, but a sense of the importance of worldly gain; and piety came to be regarded as a means to this end — “holding gain to be the end of piety”. Now the gain in piety is not prospective — to be sought or schemed after — but present. Piety with contentment is great gain, and for the simple reason that the soul has for its resource God and His goodness. It may be a question as regards ourselves whether there is not a deficiency in point of piety. In the midst of the influences of the world, we are seduced almost imperceptibly into walking in its ways, ordering our business and our homes according to man. Individually, our piety is our testimony, since it results not only in maintaining a path of separation from the world and its ways, but in bearing witness to those around that a living God is, to us at least, a blessed reality, and a resource as to present need.
I conclude with a remark or two as to the way in which piety is introduced in 2 Timothy and 2 Peter. In the former, the apostle refers to the state of evil which would be prevalent in the last days, when men would be marked by passions and evils as gross as had existed in heathenism. They would, however, have a form of piety, but denying its power. And the teachers and those that would exercise influence over weak and superstitious minds would arise out of this state of things. Thus, unbroken will and unsubdued passions, all the darkness of the human heart, might be covered by an exterior of affected humility and self-abnegation, which would gain a reputation for sanctity in the eyes of the uninstructed, but would be only piety in form, and not in spirit.
In 2 Peter, piety is in one case coupled with life, and in another with holy conversation; and in the chain which is found in chapter 1: 5 - 7, piety follows endurance, as brotherly love follows piety. What I [p. 18] understand by it is, that endurance on the part of a saint is not stoicism, but marked by the spirit of affection and confidence toward God; so that, whilst enduring, the heart may be kept fresh and warm; and then, where true piety is, that the soul, whilst right in its attitude God-ward, should be mindful also of the obligation of love toward the brethren. Each successive quality is adorned and added to by that which follows.