Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.39 – October 1966

 

Biblical Piety

 

Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson on 1Thess. 4:9-12

Scripture Reading: 1Thess. 4:1-12

Psalter Hymnal: 179; 236; 26; 181; 104:1-3

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

As the Shorter Catechism reminds us, the scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what God requires of man.  In other words, the most important matter – so far as the Bible is concerned – is faith!  But second only to that is life!  For a true faith and a holy life is the whole duty of man!  And the Bible does not merely say -D

that a man cannot see God without true faith.  It also says that a man cannot see God without the evidence and fruit of faith, which is seen in a holy life.  For without holiness – as the fruit of faith – no man shall see God.

But what is that holiness that God requires of man?  A mere glance at the history of the Church is enough to tell us that men have sharply differed in their opinions concerning this question.

(1)  Take, for example, the Gnosticism of the second century.  Many Church historians believe that Gnosticism at one time had far more people in its following, than did the orthodox Christian faith!  And the Gnostic view of holiness, or piety, is suggested by the word itself.  For the word Gnostic means knowledge!  And these people believed that holiness, or true piety, was basically a matter of knowledge.  The way to become holy was, in their opinion, to become a sort of philosopher.  If you spent enough time in meditation, you would get your thoughts straightened out, and then you would have true piety.  The modern religion known as Christian Science is little more than a re-statement of this ancient error, for Christian Science also teaches that true piety is simply a matter of thinking the right thoughts.  They say that there is no evil – no pain – no death . . . and no sin, except for the sin of thinking wrong thoughts, and so the way to true piety is simply by thinking out a right philosophy!

(2)  But a very different answer was given, even in ancient Church history, by others with a more emotional disposition.  And so we also read of an ancient movement called Montanism.  They sought the path of true piety in deep personal experience, and soon went around claiming that they could prophecy, and that they could speak in tongues, and that they had the Holy Spirit.  Much like our Modern Pentecostals.  They became convinced that no one else had true holiness, except those who had the experiences that they were having.  And they were soon predicting the speedy end of the world.  They were very much like some of our modern Cults, such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses, which both had their beginning out of some interdenominational prophecy conferences in America in the 19th Century.  People did not seem to find what they wanted in their own denominations, so they drew aside to inter-denominational conferences on prophecy.  In those conferences heavy emphasis was laid upon the seeking of the Spirit, and the having of deeper emotional experiences.  And before long there came claims of prophecy, and the predictions of the coming of the new age.

(3)  But again, we must point out that others sought holiness in yet another way.  For them it was not enough to sit and meditate or even to have an inward experience no, they wanted to do something!  And so we find a variety of ways in which men tried to find the path of piety in some sort of activity.  Vast multitudes tried to find holiness in the great Crusades.  They left family, home, and country, with sword in hand, in order to kill and destroy the supposed enemies of the cross.  Others, who perhaps saw the folly of punishing unbelievers with the sword, fell into an equally foolish practice of punishing unbelievers with all kinds of severe penances and punishments.  Men left their wives and families to go and live in caves, or on top of poles, or in prison like cells in a Monastery.  They took to beating themselves with whips, and starving themselves with fasting.  And the net result of it all was that the Church experienced what we now call the ‘dark ages,’ a time in which holiness was very rare indeed!

And then came the Reformation, when men came down to earth from their wild philosophic wanderings, they came back to their right minds out of their strange experiences; and they came back to the call of human society – out of their dungeons and monasteries – they came back to the word of God and discovered all over again what true piety really is!  They found it in the word of God, in such passages as we find in our text, where the Apostle says that true piety consists in brotherly love, and in studying “to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.”

I.  THE ESSENCE OF PIETY

“As touching brotherly love, says the Apostle to the Thessalonians, “ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”  And that is the essence of all true piety.  It is also this basic truth, which exposes every false type of piety for what it really is.  For in every false kind of piety, the characteristic concern is for self, at the expense of all concern for others.  And it always has, in addition, the tendency to separate the one who supposedly obtains some special status of holiness, from the others who lack this supposedly blessed thing.

We have the perfect example of this in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.  They took that name because they believed themselves to be holy.  The word ‘Pharisee’ originally meant the holy ones.  And indeed, the one great concern of the Pharisees was just that.  They were not concerned about other men, but only about themselves.  In fact, the one thing that they wanted above all else was to be different from others.  Jesus tells us that “the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself; ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men.’”  And this desire to be above other men is piety, is what led them to do some of the things that they did.

For example, they wore special holy things.  And they were always performing special holy ceremonies so that other people could see.  And when they spoke of others they said this, as we find it in John 7:49, “This people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.”

But for all their claims of holiness, and piety, they really were the epitome of wickedness within.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” said Jesus, “for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.”  They had zeal, yes.  They were certainly serious in their quest for piety.  “For I bear them record,” says Paul, “that they have a zeal.”  But it was worth absolutely nothing, because they had no love.  For love is the essence of true piety – love for God, first of all, but also love for man.  For no matter what a man has besides love, without that it will profit nothing.  “Thought I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,” says the Apostle, “and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have no charity, it profiteth me nothing.”  Love – brotherly-love – is the very essence of piety!  If a man has everything but this, he has nothing.  And if a man has this, he really has everything, for he is taught of God.

You see, every false type of piety can be learned from other men.  We can learn how to think certain thoughts.  We can learn how to develop a certain type of emotional experience.  We can even learn how to do the sort of things the Pharisees did.  And we can learn all these things from men!  But only God can teach the heart to love.  Only God can teach us how to love those who are unworthy to be loved, even as we ourselves are unworthy to be loved by our Saviour Jesus Christ.

II.  THE PRACTICE OF TRUE PIETY

But even while the Apostle does not try to teach the essence of true piety – since it can only be taught by God himself through a true conversion of the heart by the Holy Spirit – he does go on to tell us about the practice of true piety.  For he says, to those who have been taught of God to love one another, “we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”

So let us now consider the practice of true piety as it is unfolded in the words of our text.

(1)  There is an old saying “that still waters run deep”.  And we find in that true proverb the meaning of the first characteristic of true piety in action.  When we “study to be quiet” we do the very opposite of what the ancient Pharisees did.  For the Bible tells us that one of the main characteristics of their piety, was that it was meant to be seen and heard of men.  “Take heed,” says Jesus, following one of the newer translations, “that you do not practice your piety before men in order to be seen by them.”  And then he goes on to speak of long prayers, and of special religious greetings in the market place, and garments that draw attention, and chief seats in the synagogues.  And one cannot help but wonder what our Lord would say today of many religious practices that are found, even among Evangelical Christians!  What would he say, for instance, of the modern idea that conversion should take place in response to an altar-call, where everyone can see and hear the sinner as he becomes holy before God?  And has it not become the ‘merit badge’ of piety, to be able to make long prayers, or give an extended testimony of one’s own religious experience, in some sort of public meeting?

I think it is this pattern of emphasis upon external, visible, display of religious experience that explains much of what we see going on today in the Christian Church.  Take for example the so-called liturgical revival, with this new interest in forms, symbols, and ceremonies.  What is that but an attempt to make piety visible to the eye of man?  Or take, in another direction, the strange manifestation of Pentecostalism in many denominations in which we would never expect to see it!  We even hear of Pentecostalism today among Presbyterians, Lutherans, and even Anglicans.  And again, it seems to be the out-growth of a desire to have some kind of an outward display of religious experience.  Certainly it is evident that many people love this sort of thing!

And yet the Apostle says that we are to love the honour of being quiet,’ or in other words our religious experience should be ‘in the secret place of the most high.’   ‘The Lord seeth not the outward man only, but the inward parts.’  And it is this alone that constitutes true piety.  Those who have only an external piety, says the Bible, already have their reward in the praise of men.  But of those who have that quietness of which our text speaks, the Bible says this: “Thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

(2)  Now our text goes on to say that we must also “do..(our) own business,” which could be taken in one of two ways.  (a) It could be taken to mean that we are to practise our own principles, as they are discovered in the Bible, without submitting to the tyranny of men.  And this is indeed a very important principle of true piety.  (b) Or, these words could mean that we are to tend to our own affairs,’ and not presume to make ourselves the conscience for other people.  In other words, taken this way, our text would simply be a warning against the temptation to exercise tyranny over the lives of others.  And so, in effect, whichever way we take the Apostles words, the result is the same.  For his words are, either way, a warning against the meddlesome attempt to make everyone conform to exactly the same practices as the hall-mark of piety.

And again the Pharisees provide us with an instructive example.  For the Bible says that when they noticed that Jesus, and his disciples, did not perform the accepted acts of piety, which they considered to be normative, “they found fault”.  “They found fault” because Jesus and his disciples did not express their piety in a particular way that they considered to be necessary.  And the Bible says that they considered it to be necessary because of tradition, A certain thing had been done by many people, over a considerable period of time, as an expression of piety, and so they came to feel that only those who conformed to this pattern were really pious.

But Jesus said, to these Pharisees, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.  And we might well say the same to many today, who would condemn people as deficient in piety because they do, or do not, have certain outward practices which are not commanded by God.  Many Evangelicals today believe that it is necessary to true piety, not only to keep the Ten Commandments of God, but also to do or else refrain from doing certain other things as well.  And if you ask them why this is necessary, they will tell you that it is necessary because that is just what Christians have come to consider as a mark of piety.  And they are not satisfied to manage their own conscience in such indifferent matters – where God has not commanded, or not forbidden – but they also feel that it is their business to tell other people what to do as well!  If you ask them to show from the scripture that such an outward activity is forbidden or commanded by God, they will only say that that is an improper question.  For they say that the traditions of the elders are also to be obeyed as well as the word of God.  But the Apostle says that we are to ‘practise our own’ piety.  And that means that it is our own personal duty, to look into the Bible, and receive from God alone the rule of piety.  What God forbids is wrong, and what God commands is our duty.  But apart from that, we have no obligation to obey other men, just as we have no right to make demands upon them.  (a) This does not mean that we are never to say anything to our brother about what he is doing.  For the Bible says, “If thy brother… sin go and tell him.”  But the point is that it is no business of ours to tell our brother that he is wrong, unless he has openly violated one of the Ten Commandments of God.  The mere fact that he does not do exactly what the majority does, or exactly what we do, is no reason at all to accuse him of sin.  (b) What it does mean is that we are to make it our first business to cultivate piety within ourselves, removing the beam out of our own eye, before we attempt to remove the splinter out of our brother’s eye.  And we must make quite sure that we do not condemn any brother merely because he does not hold the same traditions of practice that we may hold.  Let me give you a particular example.  Among Reformed Christians of one particular background, it has long been a custom to read the Bible and to pray after every meal.  But Reformed Christians of another particular background, have developed the custom of praying at meals, while leaving the reading of the Bible to a later time in the evening just before the children go to bed.  But who cannot see that true piety can live in either custom?  And the Apostle would say, let us practise our own custom, but be careful not to find fault as the Pharisees did, merely over what is an external difference.

(3)  The Apostle also says that we ought “to work with (our) own hands,” or, as we might more literally translate it, to perform deeds with the hands, rather than that false kind of piety that is only concerned with external appearances.  On the surface, the Pharisees were greatly concerned for the advancement of piety.  They went around finding fault with everyone who did not have the form of piety that they considered essential.  And so Jesus said that they laid heavy burdens upon men, while yet being unwilling to lift their little finger to help people bear those very burdens.

And that is the third point of difference between true and false piety.  False piety is only concerned with finding fault, and true piety is concerned with helping those in need.  Thus the Pharisees condemned people who did not pray as they did, whereas our Lord, with compassion and patience, taught his disciples how to pray.  And I wonder if we realize how much more we could advance the cause of true piety if we would only think in terms of doing something for others, instead of merely finding fault with them!  The Bible says that when Dorcas died, the whole Church grieved because they had lost a member who had such beautiful piety!  And what was the piety of Dorcas?  Well, it was doing little things for others.  She made coats and garments, probably so that people would be able to come to Church with at least a decent appearance.  So instead of merely finding fault with people who were not decently dressed in the assembly of the saints, she did something to help them become decently arrayed, And so James tells us that “pure religion” or in other words, truly pious religion, “is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

The Bible says that we should not each look upon our own things, but that we should each look also upon the things of others, And it does not mean the kind of surveillance that the Pharisees exercised, in order to merely find fault.  What it means is that the practice of true piety is really a manifestation of love for our brethren in the Lord.  But every kind of false piety is really, and exclusively, self-centred!  And, as we have already seen, there are many ways in which this self-centred piety can be developed.  (a)  It can be done, for example, when we make it our concern to simply be perfectly orthodox in our doctrine.  Now of course, it is necessary to be orthodox in doctrine.  But when that is the only thing we are concerned for, we begin to condemn and criticize every member of the Church who may still have difficulties and imperfections in their belief.  (b)  Or again, we can make our one concern the cultivation of inward experience and feeling.  And this too, is a necessary part of true Christianity.  We must indeed experience our faith and repentance, or they will profit us nothing.  But when this is our only concern, we soon have that false piety which makes us critical of every other member of the Church who does not seem, on the surface, to have the same degree or type of experience that we have.  And (c) finally, we can even develop a type of moral righteousness, that becomes a type of false piety when that is our only concern.  Again, we must remember, that upright practice is essential to the Christian believer.  Faith without works is dead.  But when our only concern is with ourselves, even this becomes a type of false piety.

But when we have all these things, and then concern ourselves to serve others in love and compassion, then do we begin to manifest that true piety which is of Christ.  And then will we be able to “walk honestly toward them that are without, and (will ourselves) have lack of nothing.”

The Thessalonians had true piety because they were taught of God to love one another.  And that is but another way of saying that true piety can only be understood by those who have been taught of God.  For true piety is the product of grace, just as false piety is the product of nature.  False piety has its essence in nothing other than the desire to make ourselves holy in the sight of God.  Thus the Bible says that the Pharisees were those who went about to establish their own righteousness.  And so they were also, says Paul, ignorant of the righteousness of God.  When men fail to understand the fact that salvation is all of grace, they will always seek salvation by some kind of false piety – by some kind of attempt to make themselves holy in the sight of God.  But when men understand that this is impossible: when they understand that a sinner can be righteous before God only by free grace, in the forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – then, and only then, can they understand what the Apostle is talking about.

For the first principle of all true piety is simply gratitude to God.

That is why it can never be on the surface, merely, to be seen and heard of men, True gratitude is a thing of the heart, and is to be found in a broken and contrite heart.  The reason that we must ‘study to be quiet’ is simply that we must know that we have no righteousness before God, except for that which is given us through the work of Jesus Christ.

And it is this also that stimulates us, in the first instance, to practise our own things.  For those who are saved by grace, know that they have no reason to boast, They know that even their own righteousnesses are as filthy rags.  It is therefore impossible for them to look upon the things of others with the least thought of their own superiority.  They cannot look upon others and say, ‘thou art accursed.’  They can only say, “Lord, if thou should’st mark iniquity, O Lord, who should stand?”  And it is this same gratitude which provokes them to love and to do good works.  When the Lord has dealt mercifully with them, their hearts are filled to over-flowing.  Having received of his grace, they cannot but wish to give it also to others..  And so, because of what the Lord has done for them, they also are motivated to serve their brethren in deeds of love.

And so true piety is simply this: “because he laid down his life for us… we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Amen.