If someone were to ask you what it means to be godly, how would you respond? Would you say that being godly means you love like God? Does it mean you are merciful like God? Does it mean that you are holy like God? Simply put, being godly is being like God. If we are Christians, we are to be godly, and when we practice all that God would have us to, we will be like Him! By inspiration, the apostle Peter writes that we are to “add to [our] faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, [and] to perseverance godliness” (2 Pet. 1:5-6, NKJV).
The specific word used by Peter for “godliness” is a word that signifies great piety, loyalty, and respect for God (BDAG). This type of admiration for God can only be produced in the one who first of all trusts in God with all “faith” (2 Pet. 1:5). It is a type of loyalty seen through one’s actions to possess “virtue” in all areas of life. It is a reverence that is so deeply rooted in the individual that his “knowledge” is filled with the things of God which exhibits itself in one’s “self-control” and “perseverance” through hard times. Godliness shows in one’s life because godliness is pervasive; God must be central to all that one does.
We as Christians are to be a godly people. The thoughts we think, the decisions we make, and the actions we take should all be driven by our pursuit for godliness. Paul says that we as the people of God are to “pursue … godliness” (1 Tim. 6:11). Godliness ought to be our pursuit because it is only through godliness that we can find true contentment (1 Tim. 6:6). Godly living has an impact on the type of person we currently are and who we would like to become (2 Pet. 3:11). This change will be seen not only through our growing faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, or perseverance, but the change will be evident as we add “to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Pet. 1:7).
By Preston McElyea