In the Evangelical subculture, "piety" is not a word we hear all too often. We are familiar with other terms such as "holiness" and "devotion," but what about the concept of piety? What is it?
It is no secret within Evangelical culture that the idea of righteousness through works is anathema. Holiness and devotion aren't things that save us, but they are something that we should pursue if we are indeed regenerate believers. Is the concept of piety all that different?
Piety can be defined as, "the quality of being religious or reverent." It is no wonder the word never gets dropped in Evangelical sermons with a word like "religious" being associated with piety! Whenever I have heard the term used, it is almost always in a negative, "pharisaic" context. Piety is just something that the ultra-legalists pursue for their own self-righteous affirmation, right?
Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that as Christians our works do not matter in the grand scheme of our faith. Confer passages such as James 2:14-26, John 14:15, 1 John 2:3-6, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, and Revelation 20:11-13.
As an aside, what about this term "religion?" There's another "pharisaic" word that gets thrown loosely around. Certainly you have all heard the mantra, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship." In Evangelical culture I have heard religion defined as something like, "Religion is when men try to bridge the gap between God and man, but Christianity is not a religion because God bridged the gap for us." While there may be some functional truth to that, it is a historically ignorant claim, and in a sense devalues our high-church siblings in Christ such as Catholics and Orthodox denominations who appear to have such "religious" practices.
Christianity is a religion, and Jesus did give us rules to follow and sacramental rituals to practice, such as the Eucharist and prayer (that's right, prayer is a sacramental ritual). Because we are a part of this religion, care for the sacraments, holiness, loving our neighbors, keeping the commandments, doing good works, all of these things sum up what we call piety.
"Piety implies aspects of reverence, external action, and religiosity, any of which may be well-intended or
used in a showy, inappropriate manner. Jesus warns against ostentatious
shows of piety in Matthew 6:1–18. Proper piety is characterized by
godly behavior, and the end result is that God is glorified: “Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)." [1]
Salvation is binary and cannot be quantified. You can not be "more saved" than someone else; you are either saved, or you are not. Piety on the other hand is quantifiable, and will be rewarded accordingly both presently and at the Resurrection (see Rev. 20:11-13 above).
We all have Christian siblings in our lives that we look up to as paragons of genuine Christ-likeness, and that characteristic is exactly what we mean by piety. Sometimes they might even seem so Christ-like (so pious) that merely being in their presence makes you feel inadequate, questioning how dead your "old man" really is. Such shame can be a good or bad thing depending on your mindset, but what is important to point out is that Christ-likeness is attained through piety. That is, through allowing yourself to be conformed to the image of Christ, adopting His characteristics and keeping His commandments.
During this crisis in the Middle East, there was a Christian family who had two sons kidnapped by ISIS militants. In a video interview (which will change your life), the brother was asked, "Would you get upset, or someone from your family get upset if we ask for forgiveness to those who killed your brothers?" And he replied, "Today I was having a chat with my mother asking her what she would do if she saw one of the ISIS members on the street... She said she would invite him home because he helped us enter the kingdom of heaven."
It is Christians like that which make me realize, "I could stand to strive for genuine piety with the hope of becoming more like Christ." I feel shame that I would have behaved differently when other Christians, through pious submission to Christ, have become more like Him than myself. This shame is not to be regretted, but to be embraced as from God.
Let us not demonize sacraments, religiosity, and good works that help us to become more like our King.
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