Adding Godliness

DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER OF PETER

ADDING GODLINESS

2 Peter 1:5-9

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

NIV

The next attribute we are to add to our faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, and perseverance is godliness. We are getting the picture this is becoming a complete overhaul of our character. We remember the early days of our faith when a dear pastor gave us a definition of the difference between our personality and our character. Our personality is who we are when we are with people, while our character is who we are when we are alone. Of course, we are not truly ever alone as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. However, the point is that being alone means not in the presence of any people, and thus who we really are, our character makes an appearance. These qualities are not just for our personality, but for our character. Thus we need to add to our inner being, our true self, our character, godliness. One definition of the Greek word carries the meaning of piety, especially the gospel scheme, while another implies reverence, respect, piety toward God. It is interesting how we might get the wrong idea of what godliness is. The dictionary defines godliness as the act of being devoutly religious, piety. Some scholars see this as conforming to the laws and wishes of God, devout, pious, and coming from God. It would seem this godliness is not acting godly, or acting holy and super spiritual, looking as if we are without sin, so to speak. That would be in regard to our personality and not our character. So then, what does it mean to have godliness in our character? Piety is the quality of being reverent and in our case, toward God. This would mean that within our inner being, when we are all alone, with no one watching, or observing us, we revere God. This is the very fiber of our core being. Of course, when it is contained within our inner being flows out from our character into our personality. It would almost be impossible to hide our character from our personality, however, we might well be able to hide our personality from our character, or try to hide our character with our personality, building a façade to cover over our true self. However, the scripture tells us in Proverb 23:7 that as a man thinks, so is he. The various translations have somewhat hidden that meaning, but in the original Hebrew text, that is what it means. This simply implies that who we are in our heart, our character is who we are on the outside, how we interact with others. This reverence for God is reflected in how we respond in our life to various situations. This is just another additional quality of being a believer, a child of God.