Godly, Devout, Pious

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Godly, devout, pious. Theses words pertain to living a moral life and believing in God according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

The Greek word for godliness is eusebia. Strong's Greek Lexicon # G2152 explains eusebes means pious. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines pious as having or showing a deep respect for God and religion.

The origin of devout is the Latin word devotus. It means devoted according to the Oxford Dictionary. Synonyms for pious are dedicated, reverent, godly, saintly, and churchgoing. Thus, someone who is godly, devout, or pious lives a moral life while believing in God. A devout person is devoted to God.

Some antonyms for devout are false, dishonest, disloyal, insincere, cold, and unbelieving. These opposites to devout mark the unbeliever's traits and attitude toward God.

Paul wrote in first Corinthians 15:32 about false teachers that were in the church at Corinth. They said that Christ did not rise from the grave. These teachers believed only in an earthly life. The false teacher's viewpoint about life damaged the belief of the people they influenced.

First Corinthians 15:33 says: "Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins morals." Associating with impious company will ruin our morals. The key word is deceived. Deception is a lie and Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). It isn't necessarily, a sudden bad influence, for we might resist for a while, but gradually give in to temptation.

Dutiful is not a popular word today. It means conscientiously doing your duty. One synonym for dutiful is respectful. The Christian has the duty to speak God's truth, which is The Truth, to people. Speak it when asked about your beliefs or when challenged. Speak out about sin. Speak out about abortion, adultery, taking God's commandments from court houses, taking crosses down, forbidding manger scenes on public property, taking pray out of schools, and generally removing God from the public's view. The aforementioned list of wrongs are disrespectful of God's word, Him, and the well-being of society.

A synonym for duty is ought. Ought is a word used to articulate moral duty. For example, we ought to obey The Ten Commandments. These commandments direct us towards our duty to God and people.

The Ten Commandments

Being religious concerns belief in divinity. Some synonyms for religious are devout, pious, holy, scriptural, churchgoing, pure, priestly, and believing.

Scriptural means something relates to scripture. It means in accordance with the scriptures which means in harmony with or conforming to. The Scriptures are the Old and New Testament. They are the word of God. A religious person in Christian terms is a person that believes and lives by scripture.

William McGuffey stated: "Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man."

The deep respect for God and religion as expressed in the word pious is the root foundation of society as it once was. The disastrous results of disrespect, irreligious attitudes, and unbelief  are obvious for anyone to see, if he doesn't stop up his ears and cover his eyes.

As we live in the today's world, what do we see but a disintegration of morals, an increase in selfishness, and an onslaught of sensuality as a floodtide.