Recovering “Piety”

Every once in a while I will take up a word that I rarely use and try to make it a part of my vocabulary. A while back it was the word “soul.” I avoided using the word “soul” for a long time because of some of the negative connotations that I had (rightly or wrongly) ascribed to it. But it is an important Biblical word even though common usage of the word is often unBiblical. So, I have attempted to recover the fully Biblical use of the word in my preaching and pastoral counseling.

Thanks to Pastor Calvin, I have a new word to recover: Piety. “Piety” is a word that has fallen out of fashion. The word was used positively by the Puritans to describe faithful Christian practice, but I can’t think of a time that I’ve ever used the word positively. To call someone “pious” is not typically a compliment. “Practicing piety” invokes a sense of joyless obligation to religious disciplines.

It’s time to recover “Piety.”

Pastor Calvin defines piety as “that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces” (Book 1.2.1). Reverence joined with Love, Awe joined with Affection — That is Piety. There are certain practices that then result from Piety: the study of the Scriptures, prayer, silence, singing. These, and others, are the pious practices of people who know God as YHWH and Immanuel; the God who is wholly Other and who calls us his Friends.