`We ourselves also are found sinners' (Gal. 2:15,17).

The most godly person that ever breathed was a sinner saved by grace,

but in the Scriptural concept `godliness' is set over against the whole

Satanic system which has false worship at its core.  So in 1 Timothy 3:16

`the mystery of godliness' is most evidently set over against `the mystery of

iniquity', which while not being actually so called, is outlined in 4:1 -5.

We may gather something of what is implied by `godliness' by reading the

epistle of Jude where `ungodliness' is seen in all its nakedness and shame.

Referring to the prophecy of Enoch, he uses the word `ungodly' and

`ungodliness' again and again thus:

`To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly

among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly

committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have

spoken against Him' (Jude 15).

He tells us of `certain men crept in unawares ... ungodly men, turning

the grace of our God into lasciviousness' (Jude 4).  He passes in view the

angels that sinned, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, and filthy dreamers,

telling us that what they know naturally, as brute beasts, they corrupt.

They are said to have emulated Cain, Balaam and Korah.

`These are spots in your feasts of charity ... clouds they are without

water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without

fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea,

foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the

blackness of darkness for ever' (Jude 12,13).

These terrible words indicated that the terms `ungodly' and

`ungodliness' pertain particularly to the evil seed, even as we have seen

that the mystery of godliness is set over against the apostasy associated

with the mystery of iniquity.  When Paul wrote to Titus concerning the

acknowledgment of the truth that was after or according to godliness, he

meant something more than piety; he referred to the whole scheme of redeeming

love, with its insistence upon the True God and His worship, accompanied by

consistency in daily living, in contrast with the awful immorality and

absence of reverential fear that marks the Satanic counterpart.

Why is the wondrous revelation, `God was manifest in the flesh', called

`The mystery of godliness'? (1 Tim. 3:16).  If we can arrive at a true answer

to this question we shall have a fuller conception of what Paul meant when

writing to Titus about the truth which is according to godliness.  Alford's

note to 1 Timothy 3:16 reads:

`Great is the mystery of piety, see chapter 2:2 note "of the religious

life" ... this mystery of the life of God in man, is in fact the

unfolding of Christ to and in him'.

Referring to the sequence of events given in 1 Timothy 3:16, he says:

`The apostle is following the historical order of events during the

manifestation of our Lord on earth'.  `From His incarnation to His

assumption into glory'.

S.T. Bloomfield's comment is: