Piety
Piety is often defined today as a devotion to God or to religious practices.
A devotion for God can only be claimed by those who obey God with loyalty and love, dutifully caring for that which God also cares and hating what God hates.[1]
At the same time when religion was defined as piety in practice the word piety was defined as a duty.[2]
As Filial piety that duty was to your Father and Mother and through them to others within your community. But our duty to Father and Mother was a natural responsibility or right. And as a natural right and responsibility it was given by God and expressed in the Ten Statements by God.
Piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors because children are expected to respect and take care of their parents. It may imply that children should respect and follow their parents decisions but to honor your father and mother. The word Honour[3] in Exodus 20:12[4] and Deuteronomy 5:16[5].
Through such piety, a person shows reverence for God as a loving Father, and respect for others as children of God. Even Pope John Paul II defined piety as "the gift of reverence for what comes from God."
But the means and method of that gift often determines the outcome or effect for it is in the means and method we find the motive. This is because it is a maxim that part of the thought process for "every rational action", includes "the conditions under which it is to be done; and the end or purpose to be achieved by the action, or the motive."
In performing a duty the means and methods may alter the effect because the conditions will differ. It is often that the purpose or motive will define the means and the methods.
If the purpose or motive is to ensnare and trap different conditions will be employed rather than the purpose or motive is to redeem and liberate the soul.
We see this in the distinction between legal charity and fervent charity. The Corban of the Pharisees conformed to the former while the Corban of Christ is seen in the latter. One weakens the poor and degenerates society while the other may heal the social bonds of society and set the captive free.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (Tully) said "it is by piety that we do our duty towards our kindred and well-wishers of our country and render them faithful service." "piety gives both duty and homage"[6]
- ↑ God hates
- Deuteronomy 5:9 "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me,"
- Matthew 6:24 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
- Revelation 2:6 "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."
- Revelation 2:14 "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
- ↑ "DUTY, natural law.
- 1. A human action which is, exactly conformable to the laws which require us to obey them.
- 2. It differs from a legal obligation, because a duty cannot always be enforced by the law; it is our duty, for example, to be temperate in eating, but we are under no legal obligation to be so; we ought to love our neighbors, but no law obliges us to love them.
- 3. Duties may be considered in the relation of man towards God, towards himself, and towards mankind.
- 1. We are bound to obey the will of God as far as we are able to discover it, because he is the sovereign Lord of the universe who made and governs all things by his almighty power, and infinite wisdom. The general name of this duty is piety: which consists in entertaining just opinions concerning him, and partly in such affections towards him, and such, worship of him, as is suitable to these opinions.
- 2. A man has a duty to perform towards himself; he is bound by the law of nature to protect his life and his limbs; it is his duty, too, to avoid all intemperance in eating and drinking, and in the unlawful gratification of all his other appetites.
- 3. He has duties to perform towards others. He is bound to do to others the same justice which he would have a right to expect them to do to him." Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1856 Edition. Emphases added
- ↑ 03513 ^דבכ^ kabad \@kaw-bad’\@ or ^דבכ^ kabed \@kaw-bade’\@ KufBeitDalet a primitive root; v; {See TWOT on 943} AV-honour 34, glorify 14, honourable 14, heavy 13, harden 7, glorious 5, sore 3, made heavy 3, chargeable 2, great 2, many 2, heavier 2, promote 2, misc 10; 116
- 1) to be heavy, be weighty, be grievous, be hard, be rich, be honourable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honoured
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to be heavy
- 1a2) to be heavy, be insensible, be dull
- 1a3) to be honoured
- 1b) (Niphal)
- 1b1) to be made heavy, be honoured, enjoy honour, be made abundant
- 1b2) to get oneself glory or honour, gain glory
- 1c) (Piel)
- 1c1) to make heavy, make dull, make insensible
- 1c2) to make honourable, honour, glorify
- 1d) (Pual) to be made honourable, be honoured
- 1e) (Hiphil)
- 1e1) to make heavy
- 1e2) to make heavy, make dull, make unresponsive
- 1e3) to cause to be honoured
- 1f) (Hithpael)
- 1f1) to make oneself heavy, make oneself dense, make oneself numerous
- 1f2) to honour oneself
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to be heavy, be weighty, be grievous, be hard, be rich, be honourable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honoured
- ↑ Exodus 20:12 Honour <03513> thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
- ↑ Deuteronomy 5:16 Honour <03513> thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
- ↑ De Inventione, Rhetorica ii. De Inventione is a handbook for orators that Cicero composed when he was still a young man.