Grace and peace to you in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.
Hear the Word of God, from 2 Peter 1.5-8:
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“I know it when I see it.”
This phrase was coined in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio. In explaining why the material at issue in the case was not hard-cord pornography, and therefore was protected free speech that could not be censored, Stewart wrote:
“I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”
The expression has become one of the best-known phrases in the history of the Supreme Court.
Moving from one extreme on the moral spectrum to another, the phrase can also be applied to the subject of “godliness.”
I’ve been delving into the first chapter of the New Testament letter of 2 Peter on these Sundays in Lent during 2021; Peter’s list of “faith supplements” has been particularly meaningful to me (hence the Lenten sermon series based upon this Scripture passage). As winter slowly transitions into spring, I am reminded of the growth that spring brings within the context of Creation. I’m also reminded that, after seasons of “patient endurance,” we need to experience seasons of growth as followers of Jesus. Thus, I’m seeking during this Lenten season to grow spiritually by supplementing my faith “with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness…” (2 Peter 1.5-6).
“Godliness.”
So, what exactly is godliness?
Granted, it’s not easy to define. That may be the reason why the term has fallen into disuse in the Church. How can we describe godliness in the context of the culture in which we live today? It may be nearly impossible to do so.
But, for followers of Jesus, “we know it when we see it.”
The word for “godliness” used by Peter in this text is the Greek term “eusebeia,” which is a combination of two words meaning “well” and “reverence.” When the term was used in classical Greece, it referred to correct and time-honored behavior in one’s social relationships and in one’s relationships toward the gods of Greek mythology. In other words, one demonstrated “eusebeia” toward the gods by performing the customary acts of worshipful respect (such as festivals, prayers, and public devotions) AND by showing proper respect to elders, masters, rulers, and everything under the protection of the gods. “Eusebeia” was understood within the context of relationship, and relationship had both a vertical and a horizontal dimension.
Peter uses the term in his New Testament writing to remind us that “a life of reverencing well” has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension. This is in keeping with the teaching of Jesus in Mark 12.29-31:
“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
This is true Biblical godliness: loving the Lord with all that we are, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Therefore, a life of godliness must lead to the next “faith supplement” on Peter’s list: “brotherly affection.” The Greek term used by Peter is “philadelphian,” which is why the City of Philadelphia is known as “the City of Brotherly Love.” Grant Osborne writes that this virtue “centers on community love, since this is the core of community life in the church. The term expresses the early Christian view that the church is a family, and the members are brothers and sisters. This is at the heart of the Christian life; love and hospitality are to be the hallmarks of Christian relationships. Since the early Christians looked upon themselves as family, they ‘felt that what they owned was not their own’ and so ‘shared everything they had’ (Acts 2.44, 4.32). The result was that ‘there were no needy people among them’ (Acts 4.34). In other words, they gave concrete expression to their ‘brotherly love.’”
As followers of Jesus, we need His Church. We need to supplement our faith with godliness, and godliness cannot be experienced or expressed apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to not only love our Christian family…we need to “love on” our Christian family. We need to give concrete expression to godliness by demonstrating it within our family of faith, not simply for the sake of others (important as it is) but for the sake of ourselves. This is how we grow in godliness…because this IS godliness. Jesus lived out His godliness within the context of daily life with His twelve disciples and regular worship attendance. Should we do any less? Who are we “doing the Christian life” with? Surely the isolation of the recent pandemic has taught us the importance and the privilege of expressing brotherly love in small groups and in larger worshipping congregations. I pray that the reality of ‘virtual church’ during the Covid outbreak doesn’t lead to a “virtual godliness” that fails to emphasis the importance of ministering to each other in person when we can once again do so in safety. Simply put, there is no such thing as virtual godliness. There is only godliness that issues in practical brotherly affection.
Godliness. We know it when we see it…because we see it in Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always.
Amen.
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