GODLINESS, piety — reverence rightly directed, from eu, 'well', + sebomai, 'to worship, revere'. In wider Greek it named the proper honour owed to gods, parents and the state. ⚠ The PASTORAL letters make it almost a technical term for the Christian life as ordered, visible devotion — a word nearly absent from the undisputed Paul and everywhere here (1 Timothy 3:16, 'great is the mystery of godliness'; 6:6, 'godliness with contentment'; Titus 1:1, a truth 'that accords with godliness'). Its prominence is one of the marks that set the three letters apart: religion described less as faith reckoned as righteousness than as a settled, dutiful reverence that shows in conduct. 2 Timothy 3:5 warns of those 'having a form of godliness but denying its power' — the same worry Titus 1:16 states plainly. → first discussed at Titus 1:1