Whenever I'm enjoying a great conversation with someone I just met and they ask what I do for a living, I'm occasionally tempted to lie. On a recent flight, I sat by a business guy named Steve whose demeanor instantly changed when he discovered that I'm a pastor. Defensively, he exclaimed, "Well, I'm not religious!" I nodded and said, "No problem," and tried to return to our discussion of our favorite apps.
However, my response must not have been convincing because he repeated himself and fired an extra warning shot in case I'd missed the first: "I'm not religious, and I can't stand religious people." I looked at him for a moment and said, "We've got a lot in common then. I'm not religious and I can't stand religious people either!"
Christianity was not intended to be a religion but rather a relationship with God. Yet from the time Jesus walked on earth, people have tried to add rules to the relationship. In fact, the Apostle Paul battled a group known as the Judiazers who said a male must not just believe in Jesus, but he must also be circumcised to be right with God. Paul said, "Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1:6-7). The Greek word translated as pervert is mestastrepho and means to corrupt, to distort or to poison. Even with right motives, people take the purity of the gospel and pollute it with religion.
Any time you stumble into toxic religion, you'll likely see two poisonous problems. First, religion leads you to focus on the external rather than the internal. Religion requires a behavior-oriented path toward pleasing God. Religious people, often well-intentioned, focus on an outward expression rather than an inward transformation. Religion is our effort to close the gap between sinful humans and a holy God. Sadly, it reduces the beauty of the Gospel to a checklist of do's and don'ts. Rules try to regulate religion.
Not only does religion focus on the externals rather than the internals, but this external emphasis produces an internal pride. Rule-following religious people believe their behavior and beliefs are right and everyone else is wrong. It's like a piece of food that spoils--not only is it nasty and ruined, but it omits a noxious smell as well.
No wonder then that many non-Christians can't stand Christians. For starters, our spiritual pride often makes it impossible for us to get along with each other. Why should we be any better with anyone else? Some religious Christians are so convinced that their way of doing church is the only way, they discount and denounce every other style or philosophy. In doing so, they unknowingly become sour, self-righteous people. Why in the world would someone without Christ want to join a joyless, cynical, hypercritical and judgmental group of religious people?
Toxic religion tries to add rules, regulations, and requisites to the free gift that God offers us through relationship with his Son. Religion is Christ plus anything. In Galatia, some thought it was Christ plus circumcision. In our world, it might be Christ plus church membership. Or Christ plus tithing. Or Christ plus "the right" doctrine or theology. But the gospel is Christ plus nothing. The final work of Christ on the cross is everything we need.
Thankfully, Jesus didn't come to make us religious. He brought us the good news of his eternal life, a relationship with the living God. Religion is about me. Relationship is about Jesus. Religion is about what I do. Relationship is about what Jesus has done. Religion says, "If I obey God, He will love me." Relationship says, "Because God loves me, I can obey." Religion believes we have to do good things to get God's approval. Relationship says we get to do good things because God already approves us through Christ!
There's nothing more we need to do. Nothing.
Craig Groeschel is the founder and senior pastor of Lifechurch.tv, A best selling author, this essay is an adaptation from Craig's new book, Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World launching May 8th
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Jesus came to teach us about...
1. Who God is.
2. What God wants.
3. How God is.
4. Why God is.
5 Where God is.
6. That love of God comes first.
7. That love of people comes second.
8. What fruits of love are.
9. What the fruits of sin are.
10. That this world is going to be destroyed by God's justified and righteous wrath.
11. That those who follow will be saved and receive an eternal reward.
12. That those who do not follow will be sent to the lake of fire forever.
I could get more in depth. But, I think I made it clear, that while Jesus is about love, he is also going to destroy sin and punish sinners and reward his followers.
Jesus didn't come to teach us how to be religious, but to love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
This feeling is further compounded when the article declares, "Religious people focus on an outward expression rather than inward transformation." However, when a curious reader follows the link through to Lifechurch.tv it is not long before he is confronted with a page of suggested Next Steps, all of which strike me as being an "outward expression". Getting baptized, and tithing are claimed to be "Essential Steps". These sound a lot like rules to me.
Essential for what? Essentially, avoiding hell.
The article tries to differentiate between "religion" and "relationship" with two statements that mean the same thing. Both contain the word "obey". It is holding up the Bible as God's rule book, and saying, "Obey, or else," this is nothing less than a not-so-veiled threat. "No wonder then that many non-Christians can't stand Christians."
In the end, it is difficult to shake off the feeling that you have fallen victim to the ol' bait'n'switch. Drawn in with the tantalizing promise of a form of worship free from toxic rules, the inquisitive will very quickly find themselves confronted with all sorts of "toxic rules" being passed off merely as God's requirements for our salvation.
(acfromn.com)
1a: the state of a religious; b (1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic: scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness
4: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
Definition of RELIGIOUS
1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity
2: of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances
3a: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful; b: fervent, zealous
It would appear that one cannot worship God without following religion or being religious, for these words describe the relationship between God and humans in this instance.
One could argue that most of what Jesus taught, as recorded in the gospels, is "religious" by nature. He constantly references the Hebrew scriptures, claims supernatural authority, performs healings and miracles, and talks about the afterlife. I wonder if Jesus would be more into what we call "religion" than we like to think.
-The focus of Paul's argument involving circumcision was over Gentile admission into the practice of the new Christian religion. The covenental rules set down by God for the Jewish people (circumcision, dieting laws, etc.), were an initiative by Him to create a relationship. Love means you follow the rules of the person you love. Jesus gave us his commands on with the Beatitudes and elsewhere.
-As for the idea that "religion is about me," this is a type of personalism which misses the mark of "worshiping God in Spirit and Truth" (Jesus' maxim for the Samaratian woman at the well). The mystical body of Christ, His Church, is an 'outward sign of a hidden reality' (i.e. the good news), and therefore the practice of religion is the classic "twofer"--inner sanctification and an outer evangelization. I'll leave you with a thought from the great Christian thinker and writer GK Chesterton:
"The modern habit of saying “Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me”—the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon."
If one has to tell others one's a Christian, one is not very good at being a Christian.
A relationship denotes that God is separate from you and me. This cannot be as this Source of (all that is) is infinite. Infinite means all and all. Oh to find one Christian just one that understands the concept of infinite.
We are expressions of this Infinite, not having a relationship with "God". That is duality and there is no duality in Infinite. it appears to be a duality but appearances are very deceptive. Very deceptive. Even Jesus taught that about appearances.
Religion has made a God in their image. This is ego centered and yes the ego is that deceptive that it can deceive the most interested spiritual seeker.
This is one of the possibilities that Lord Krishna speaks of to Arjuna in the Gita. In a sense this passion is God's call to you. It is not that the Beloved reciprocates your moves but rather simultaneously acts on them. You seek God simply because the Divine has drawn you to herself.
Once again faved!
It is not a relationship but a realization.