Acts 17:16-25, Godliness! Everybody's Doing It!

Here is a study that is needed for all believers in Christ.  “Godliness” is defined as reverence, piety towards God. We have to consider it because godliness has an aspect of “form,” meaning outward appearance, and yet it is not fundamentally outward appearance but is a spiritual reality, something produced through Christ in the inner man.  You can say that you know something about the religion of a person by their “godliness,” but if all you know about that person is what you see you do not really know that person.  Does that make sense?

We have a noun (15x), adjective (4x with an *), verb (2x with ^@), and adverb (2x with ^#).  They appear 5x in Acts where we can get a picture of what this means.  In Ac. 3:12 Peter told the crowd (the “men of Israel”) that it was not his “godliness” that healed the man by the Beautiful Gate but it was Christ.  He said it this way because the “men of Israel” all sought to be godly and thought that being godly would empower them in their lives.  They held strongly to the “form.”  Do “Jewish” things and you will be accepted by God.  This introduces the first and foremost danger involved here: that we would put trust in our spiritual character.  Job’s friends had this same idea. Eliphaz asked Job, Is not your reverence your confidence?  And the integrity of your ways your hope (Job 4:6)? 

Look who else had a “form of godliness.”  The Greeks in Athens (Ac. 17:23^@).  In v22 Paul calls them “religious” using a term that literally means a “fear or reverence of demons.”  Then in v23 he refers to their “worship” or “godliness.”  They had a form. Cornelieus was a “devout” man (Acts 10:2*) and he sent a “devout” soldier to summon Peter (Acts 10:7*.)  They were “God-fearers,” one who would or could not proselytize to Judaism but who honored the God of Judaism.  Ananias, whom God sent to speak with Paul in Damascus, was a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there in Acts 22:12*.  No doubt he was a believer in Christ, but his “form of godliness” would have looked very Jewish. 

Paul says that in the “perilous times” of the last days people will have a “form of godliness but denying its power,” “from such people turn away” (2 Tim. 3:5).  Most understand this to refer to the great apostacy of the last days.  These people are in some way connected with Christians and/or Christianity but must be avoided. 

This introduces the problem we must be aware of as followers of Christ.  True, Bible-believing, non-hypocritical believers in Christ (call them what you will) also have a “form of godliness.”  Paul told Timothy to “pursue” godliness (1 Tim. 6:11), not to reject it.  Concerning the last days, Peter said, Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness (2 Pt. 3:11).  So, we need to understand the “fundamentals” of godliness.  For believers it is not just a form to put on.