Ungodly (765) (asebes from a = w/o + sébomai = worship, venerate) means lack of interest in the things of God and a behavior and lifestyle consistent with such an irreverent attitude. See the depth study of the related word ungodliness (asebeia [word study]). It pertains to violating norms for a proper relation to deity, and in short means irreverent (lacking proper respect of God) or impious. Living as if God does not exist and with no regard for Him. Asebes is used 8 times in the NT... Romans 4:5-note But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, Romans 5:6-note For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 1Timothy 1:9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 1 Peter 4:18-note And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? 2 Peter 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; 2Peter 3:7-note But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Jude 1:4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Asebes - 9.16" class="scriptRef">16.4" class="scriptRef">4.5" class="scriptRef">5.18" class="scriptRef">18" class="scriptRef">18" class="scriptRef">185 times in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (LXX) (23" class="scriptRef">Ge 18:23, 13.25" class="scriptRef">25" class="scriptRef">25; 28.12" class="scriptRef">12" class="scriptRef">12.26" class="scriptRef">26.9" class="scriptRef">9.27" class="scriptRef">7" class="scriptRef">Ex 9:27; 23:7; Deut. 25:1; Job 3:17; 12.10" class="scriptRef">10" class="scriptRef">10.13" class="scriptRef">13" class="scriptRef">13" class="scriptRef">8:13, 14.19" class="scriptRef">19" class="scriptRef">19" class="scriptRef">19-Job.8.24.24" class="scriptRef">24.22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">22" class="scriptRef">19f, 22; 9:24, 20" class="scriptRef">20.29" class="scriptRef">29" class="scriptRef">29; 10:3, 38.15" class="scriptRef">15" class="scriptRef">15; 11" class="scriptRef">11.20" class="scriptRef">11:20; 15:20, 34; 6.11" class="scriptRef">16:11; 18:5; 20:5, 29; 21.7" class="scriptRef">21:7, 132" class="scriptRef">32" class="scriptRef">6f, 28; 22:18; 24:2, 6; 27:7f, 13; 32.3" class="scriptRef">32:3; 34:8, 18, 26; 36:6, 12, 18; 38:13, 15; 40:12; Ps. 1:1, 1:4-6; 9:5; 10:2, 13; 11:5; 12:8; 17:9, 13; 26:5, 9; 31.17" class="scriptRef">31:17; 37:28, 35" class="scriptRef">35, 38; 51:13; 58:10; Prov. 1:7, 10, 22, 32; 2:22; 3:25, 33, 35; 4:14, 19; 9:7; 10:3, 6f, 11, 15f, 20, 24f, 27f, 30, 32; 11:3, 7ff, 11, 18f, 23, 31; 12:5ff, 10, 12, 21, 26; 13:5f, 9, 19, 22, 25; 14:11, 19, 32; 15:6, 8f, 18, 28f; 16:2, 4; 17:23; 18:3, 5, 22; 19:28; 20:26; 21:4, 7, 10, 12, 22, 26f, 29f; 24:15f, 20, 22, 24; 25:5, 26; 28:1f, 12, 24, 28; 29:2, 7, 16; Eccl. 3:16f; 7:15, 25; 8:10, 13f; 9:2; Isa. 5:23; 11:4; 13:11; 24:8; 25:2, 5; 26:10, 19; 28:21; 29:5; 33:14; 48:22; 55:7; 57:21; Jer. 5:26; 12:1; 23:19; 25:31; 30:23; Ezek 20:38; 33:8f, 11f, 14; Hos. 14:9; Hab 1:4, 9, 13 Read and study Psalm 1, an excellent summary of the righteous versus the ungodly (wicked). Psalm 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked (Lxx = asebes), nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 4 The wicked (Lxx = asebes) are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked (Lxx = asebes) will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked (Lxx = asebes) will perish. After you've compared and contrasted the godly (righteous) and ungodly (wicked) look over the verse by verse notes - Psalm 1:1; Psalm 1:2; Psalm 1:3; Psalm 1:4; Psalm 1:5; Psalm 1:6 Asebes describes the person without reverence for God, not by merely being irreligious, but by acting in contravention of God’s demands. Clearly "ungodly" is an apt description of all who are unsaved. The ungodly man or woman is the one who has little or no time for God in their life. They have deceived themselves into believing that they can rule God out of their affairs and their thinking even though God is the greatest Being in the universe, the One Who makes sense out of life, the One around Whom all of life revolves and without Whom no creature could even take a breath. To eliminate such a Glorious Being from one's thinking is what it means to be ungodly. Ungodly means want or lack of reverence or piety toward God (which speaks of one's heart attitude) and thus living without regard for God and in a way that denies His existence and right as Supreme Ruler and Authority (which speaks of one's actions emanating from one's attitude). Asebes suggests a disregard of the existence of God, a refusal to retain Him in knowledge and a habit of mind leads to open rebellion. It is a general reference to all that is anti-God. Jude writes that the ungodly will infiltrate the true church of God, for even in his day "certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4) Ungodly is one of Jude’s favorite words. While these men claimed to belong to God, they were, in fact, ungodly in their thinking and their living. They might have “a form of godliness,” but they lacked the force of godliness that directs one's thinking and actions "Godward". It is a basic principle, that doctrinal deviation often accompanies and often justifies ethical and moral sin. Their lack of reverence for God was demonstrated by the fact that they infiltrated the church of God to corrupt it and gain riches from its people. The Bible declares that there is hope even for the ungodly for while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Ro 5:6-note) and for the one who "believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Ro 4:5-note) Ungodly is used in this verse generally, as characterizing mankind lying universally in sin, thus setting before us the great contrast of man in his own worthlessness and God in His mercy in justifying by faith. Where faith is not exercised, man remains ungodly and therefore exposed to the wrath of God. Peter explains that for the unjustified ungodly individual "the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction (the state after death wherein exclusion from salvation is a realized fact, wherein ungodly men, instead of becoming what they might have been, are lost and ruined, not annihilated, as some falsely teach) of ungodly men." (see note 2 Peter 3:7) In short, the earth is personified as a man waiting for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Paul gives a concise, accurate description of the "ungodly" in Romans writing that they are "filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful." (see note Romans 1:29-31) John MacArthur writes that the lifestyle of the ungodly "is inevitably empty, vain, and void of substance. The life of an unbeliever is bound up in thinking and acting in an arena of ultimate trivia. He consumes himself in the pursuit of goals that are purely selfish, in the accumulation of that which is temporary, and in looking for satisfaction in that which is intrinsically deceptive and disappointing. The unregenerate person plans and resolves everything on the basis of his own thinking. He becomes his own ultimate authority and he follows his own thinking to its ultimate outcome of futility, aimlessness, and meaninglessness—to the self–centered emptiness that characterizes our age...The second characteristic of ungodly persons is ignorance of God’s truth. Their thinking not only is futile but spiritually uninformed...Fallen mankind has a built–in inability to know and comprehend the things of God—the only things that ultimately are worth knowing...the ungodly are unresponsive to truth (cf. 18-Isa.44.20" class="scriptRef">Isa 44:18, 19, 20 see1Th 4:5- note). Just as a corpse cannot hear a conversation in the mortuary, the person who is spiritually “dead in [his] trespasses and sins” (Ep 2:1-note) cannot hear or understand the things of God, no matter how loudly or clearly they may be declared or evidenced in his presence...The knowledge that the ungodly person hates is not practical, factual knowledge. On the contrary, he prides himself in how much he knows. (MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos) The attitude of the ungodly man or woman "is nowhere more clearly exposed than in the popular admonition to do one’s own thing. Man’s “own thing” is sin, which characterizes his whole natural being. Self-will is the essence of all sin. Although Satan was responsible for their being tempted to sin, it was the voluntary placing of their own will-s above God’s that caused Adam and Eve to commit the first sin." (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Moody) Hiebert draws a sobering conclusion from this verse writing that... "The example warns that even though the whole world may be involved in sin and corruption, man cannot sin with impunity. The fact that vast numbers are participating in and condoning sin may harden evil-doers in their wickedness, but their numbers will never shelter them from the wrath of God." "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/2_peter_24-11.htm#Ungodly