`Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity' (2

Tim. 2:19).

This is the other side, the experimental side, the side that lies within the

ambit of our control and responsibility as those who have received mercy to

be faithful.  To possess the `knowledge' of the truth which is according to

godliness is no guarantee that a `life' of godliness will necessarily issue.

The `acknowledgment' or `recognition' of such truth however, carries with it

the idea of taking one's stand and abiding by any consequences that may

`Be not ... ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His

prisoner' (2 Tim. 1:8),

was a call to Timothy who `knew' the truth, to `acknowledge' it also and, in

the sense adopted for the moment, to `recognize' its claims.  The call comes

with equal force to us today when `knowledge' has increased, but when the

godly man ceaseth and the acknowledgment of the truth at times costs dear.

An element of responsibility attaches to the word acknowledge, as may be seen

in such passages as 2 Peter 2:20,21, where the Greek words translated

knowledge and know are epiginosko or epignosis.  (See Acknowledge1).

We have observed that the words `according to the faith' indicated

Paul's association and service in the furtherance of the faith.  We now read

in the same verse of the `acknowledging of the truth which is after or

according to godliness' (Titus 1:1).  The `truth', Greek aletheia occurs

fourteen times in the three pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus.

In 1 Timothy 6:5 men whose minds are `destitute of the truth' entertain a

false conception of godliness `supposing that gain is godliness'.  Those who

erred `concerning the truth', `overthrew the faith of some' (2 Tim. 2:18),

and again, the false teaching under consideration is said to increase unto

more `ungodliness' (2 Tim. 2:16).  Those who have a `form of godliness' never

come to `the knowledge of the truth' (2 Tim. 3:5 -7).  Truth, its

acknowledgment and godliness are seen to be inseparable.  The Greek words

eusebeia (godliness) and the cognate words eusebeo, eusebes and eusebos occur

twenty -three times in the New Testament, thirteen of them being found in

these three Pastoral Epistles.  Eusebeia occurs only nine times in the whole

of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, but it occurs sixteen times

in the shorter compass of the Apocrypha.  Ecclesiasticus says:

`Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is the godly

against the sinner, and the sinner against the godly' (33:14).

`The sinner' is the antithesis of the `godly'.  While the Old Testament

equally with the New Testament teaches us that `there is not a just man upon

earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not' (Ecclesiastes 7:20), the term

`sinner' was sometimes used with a specific meaning, referring to a certain

class.  For example the command of God to Saul to destroy `the sinners the

Amalekites' (1 Sam. 15:18).  So Psalm 1 equates `sinners' with the ungodly

and the scornful (Psa. 1:1), and again `the ungodly shall not stand in the

judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous' (Psa. 1:5).  So

in the New Testament `publicans and sinners' were associated together, and

the same distinction is seen in Paul's words to Peter,

`We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles';