Calvin on Piety

How do you define "piety?" It is a definition that I continue to struggle with in light of the Gospel. So many explanations seem to point inward to one's self rather than outward towards one's neighbor and God. The best definition of piety that I have found comes from that master theologian John Calvin.

"Thus we learn to await and seek all these things from him and thankfully to ascribe them, once received, to him. For this sense of the powers of God is for us a fit teacher of piety, from which religion is born. I call 'piety' that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him -- they will never yield him willing service."[emphasis added] John Calvin, Institutes of The Christian Religion, Chapter II

In my reading, the key here is the Gospel. The engine that drives "that reverence joined with love of God" is compelled by "the knowledge of his benefits." Oh yes. . .I will take some more of that!

Early Christian Bloggers

"I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write." -- Augustine