What does it mean to be godless?

It may still further help, for the point is of paramount importance, if we ask the reader to test himself by four words used by the apostle Paul of the past condition of those who had become believers; words therefore which describe the condition of all unconverted souls. Turn, then, to Romans 5:6, there he says, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Here are two words, "without strength," and "ungodly." We may take the latter first, and we ask you, reader, if you accept the term "ungodly" as true of you? Do you say, I am not so bad as that? Let us then inquire into the meaning of the word. Because the word has come to be applied to outward conduct, its real significance has been lost. As used in the scriptures it applies to the state of heart as well as to actions, and it means "godless," that is, to be without God — to feel and to act apart from God, without reference to Him or to His will. Suppose, now, I follow you into your house, and I see you taking your seat at the table without thanking God for His mercies; or if I accompany you to your chamber, and see you lay yourself down to rest at night without commending yourself to God, or seeking His protecting care, I should at once say, That is an ungodly man: he does not acknowledge God, he is truly godless.

But this case of human reprobation is stated now in detail. Verses 18-23. The wrath of God is directed against all human ungodliness and unrighteousness, and that on the ground of their holding the truth in unrighteousness. The high thoughts of men, bent on their own pleasure, set themselves against the truth of God. Ignorance is not the primary cause of human opposition to God. It is the instinctive force of evil desire, which leads man to gratify the nearer and more importunate lusts of the flesh and of the mind, independently of God. But to act independently of God is practically to deny Him. Atheism is involved, in principle, in the very first departure of the creature from the position of simple dependence upon God. It is the assertion of an independent will, and thus the exercise, as it were, of an independent life. But man is God's creature — his life is God's breath. Hence, to live without God — in defiance, or even in forgetfulness of God — is virtually Atheism. It is the heart-Atheism of the fool, who says in his heart, "There is no God" (Ps. 14; 53).

When there has been a going on altogether without God, I do not call this a high bearing before God, though it is so in another sense. We all know how many people go on carelessly, day after day, and year after year, without troubling themselves about God, seeking joy and pleasure in the world, sunk in listlessness, oppressed with cares, or engrossed with business: a thousand things fill and occupy the natural heart to the exclusion of God. Sometimes it does cross the conscience that there is a God, but, so far from His being the object of their life, He is not their object at all - "God is not in all their thoughts." There may be these secret misgivings (God often works thus in the hearts of those whom He afterwards calls to Himself, although not producing fruit through it at the time); and, when the soul is converted, the remembrance of such appeals aids in bringing to a consciousness of the total and entire perverseness of the will of man. Where there is open and notorious sin, it is an easier thing to reach the conscience, just as the Lord said to the Pharisees, the religious people of the day, "The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Often, in the course of a comparatively blameless life, there have been these calls, and God, in the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, has been despised.

The word again condemns false confidence as to the intentions of our own hearts. The heart of man afar from God thinks to direct his own steps, and decides what he will do, without thinking of the will of God, or even of God at all. Possibly the thing intended may not be evil, it may not wound conscience, nor make it uneasy; but God is entirely forgotten; the man acts without God, as though the earth had been left to man, and God had withdrawn, and as though His will counted for nothing. Such a man, as far as regards religion, in the practical things of everyday life, lives in atheism. God is not in his thoughts; money and worldly ambition govern his heart, though he may not be exactly living in sinful pleasures. He has no sense that he belongs to God - bought, if he be a Christian, with the precious blood of Christ. He lays out his plans according to his own will, his own wisdom, and his worldly interests. God has no place in them, he is without God in the world, he seeks earthly things, and truly it is not in them that God is to be found. It is according to the will of God that we should labour to obtain what is necessary, and His blessing can be sought because it is His will. But this is not the question here. James speaks of one who would dispose of his time, and go and seek gain for himself without thinking of God, or looking to Him for guidance and the manifestation of His will. He does not know what the morrow will bring forth; he does not know whether his life will be prolonged until the next day; it is as a vapour which vanishes away. Such is life down here. It becomes us to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that."

You may object that you are not without God, that you are called by the name of Christ, are Christians, and have a "religion" also. Cain had a "religion." He was a religious man; as religious as Abel. But he had no love to God; he had no faith. He was a religious man, but not a godly man.

As Christians we have to do with divine things, and it is possible for us to possess the form of these things without any true knowledge of their power. The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy warns him of the perilous last times. Describing their characteristics as they affect men, he refers to them as having “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5). This description is terrible. Godliness is the one thing worth having. All else is corruption and evil. To have the form of what is good, and for it to be a mere form, evacuated of all the power that is inherent in true godliness; to be a mere shell without a kernel, is sad beyond words. Of what use is a shell in living nature, if there is no succulent kernel?

From all this we learn the solemn truth that the most Satanic resistance to God's testimony, in the world, is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but "the form of godliness," and "deny the power thereof." Persons of this class can do the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same phraseology, profess the same opinions as others. If the true Christian, constrained by the love of Christ, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, circulates the scriptures, distributes tracts, supports the gospel, engages in prayer, sings praise, preaches the gospel, the formalist can do every one of these things; and this, be it observed, is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth "in the last days" — this is the spirit of "Jannes and Jambres." How needful to understand this! How important to remember that, "as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do" those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors, "resist the truth!" They would not be without "a form of godliness;" but, while adopting "the form," because it is customary, they hate "the power," because it involves self-denial. "The power" of godliness involves the recognition of God's claims, the implanting of His kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of this. "The power" of godliness could never comport with any one of those hideous features set forth in the foregoing quotation; but "the form," while it covers them over, leaves them wholly unsubdued; and this the formalist likes. He does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him "to make the best of both worlds." He knows nothing of giving up the world that is, because of having found "the world to come."

(19) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”. Thus in the closing days of Christendom the professing mass will be found abandoning themselves to every form of evil, while seeking to cover their wickedness with the cloak of sanctity. Thus nominal Christians become more wicked than pagans, for, while indulging in all the evils of paganism, they add to their wickedness by seeking to hide it under the form of Christianity, though utterly devoid of its spiritual power. What can be more desperately wicked than the effort to use the Name of Christ as a cloak for evil? It is this cloak of sanctity that constitutes the last days' “difficult times”, for the show of piety at times deceives even true Christians.

No FEAR of God. The fear of God is commonly referred to in Scripture, and the word mostly used is one having the force of reverence. Here, however, a less common word is used signifying, dread. Sinful men universally have no proper reverence for God, though they may secretly dread Him. The man we have before us here however has no dread of God. That of course will very precisely be true of Antichrist, who sets himself up as an object of veneration above all that is called God, and even God Himself. It is increasingly true too of the men of our day. They have such large ideas of themselves and of their own powers that thoughts of God — if they believe in His existence — put no fear upon their spirits. They feel that they can safely disregard Him.

This is a very comprehensive term, for it covers sentiments so widely different as the criminal's dread of his judge, the reverence of the child for its parent; and the respect of the wife for her husband. When Scripture states of Gentiles and Jews alike that "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18) it means that God has no place in their thoughts, and that His commandments are not suffered to have any restraining influence upon their ways. Terrible condition truly, especially when we remember that man was created by God for Himself to walk with Him, and to do His will.