Principles of Godliness and Ungodliness
(1) - Ungodliness means, "to have no regard for God." It refers to a lack of
spirituality. Keep in mind that spirituality deals with the filling of the Holy Spirit,
therefore, ungodliness, or ungodly, refers to a lack of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Anything that is done apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly.
(2) - Godliness basically means, "Careful observance of, or conformity to, the laws of
God." This definition can be very misleading, because careful observance to God's
law in self-effort and for personal honor becomes self-righteousness, or
"ungodliness." The Pharisees were careful observers of the laws of God, but Jesus
said that they were of their father the devil. (John 8:44).
(3) - Godliness refers to a voluntary dependence upon God. A life that is free from
doubt as to His wisdom, His love, His goodness, and His provision. Dependence upon
God excludes all dependence upon self. In fact, dependence upon self is
"ungodliness."
(4) - A believer is dependent upon God in a two-fold sense: When a person is born
again, God does much more than reinstate him to Adam's original condition; he
actually makes him "a new creation," with a divine nature (II Cor 5:17). This "new
creation" is not only by the power of God, but also by His sovereign grace, made
possible by the death of His Son. This guarantees God's ability and willingness to
provide all that His "new creation" needs. Rom 8:32, "He that spared not his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things."
(5) - We must realize that godly living includes unfailing dependence upon the grace
of God, as controlling every aspect of life. In other words, there is no godly living
where there is no dependence on God through Christ in the filling of the Holy Spirit.
(6) - That which measures up to high moral standards is not always godly living. The
world religions have moral codes, but conformity to them is not godly living.
Conformity to the golden rule or to the Mosaic Law in itself is not godly living.
(7) - Service to others is not in itself godly living. There are many social programs of
neighborliness, and good will taught by many churches, but if these programs are not
executed or carried out according to the plan of God they are not godly. God's plan
requires at least three things before anything done can be considered to be godly:
(A) - The filling of the Holy Spirit.
(B) - The consistent learning of the Word of God.
(C) - The application of what was learned. It is important to note, that the filling of the
Holy Spirit is a requirement for all service and learning.
(8) - Biblical statements regarding godly living: Heb 10:38, "The just shall live by
faith." Heb 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Rom
14:23, "Whatever is not of faith is sin." If faith is so important, what does God say
as to how faith is obtained? Rom 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the
word of God." This refers to more than just "hearing." The Greek work AKOUO
refers to "learning."
Godly living requires the consistent confession of sins to God whereby the filling or
controlling ministry of the Holy Spirit is obtained. Godly living also includes self discipline in Bible study, and the consistent, daily learning of the Word of God
whereby the growing in grace is obtained.
Therefore, anything that is done in the filling of the Holy Spirit and the application of
Bible doctrine is godly living.
(9) - Therefore, ungodly living is anything done apart from the filling of the Holy
Spirit and apart from the application of the Word of God.
This means that helping the helpless while filled with the Holy Spirit is godly. But
helping the helpless apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly. Also, being
good and moral apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly; soul winning done
apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly. Even Bible study done apart from
the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly.
Most people usually agree that murder, stealing, cheating, and violence are all evil and
ungodly. But most people do not understand and do not realize that anything done
apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit is ungodly, no matter how good it may appear
to be.