You have heard this cliche a thousand times, and maybe have said it.
"God wants a relationship, not a religion."
This is simply NOT TRUE. My prevailing thought in this is that 'Jesus does not hate religion. Jesus hates false religion.' Morality doesn't bring you close to God: Neither Sexual morality nor social morality. You can live a life where you don't do things wrong and still miss God. Or we can live a life where we help the poor, broken, hurting all day long, but don't share with them Jesus and we still miss the God.
The Bible's expression of the word 'religion' means for us to have reverent devotion to God internally, and show reverent devotion externally (that is through acts/good works). In my understanding of God, He clearly wants both. Relationship produces Religion. To put another way: Loving God always leads to Loving people.
I am not sure when it became popular or who made it so, but the church uses it ad nauseum. I think I understand why the cliche' has become so popular. There seemed to be such a strong tendency in the church to place over-weighted emphasis on things we had to do to be right with God. So, if a person went to church on Sunday, Wednesday and other days and did all those other "righteous acts" (you know--Sunday School; Bible Study; pastor outings; church choir events; singles meetings; gave their ten percent to God faithfully; read the Bible everyday; prayed everyday--sometimes all day--; did not smoke, did not chew, did not go with girls who do; did not drink; did not listen to any music but Christian radio; did not party; did not club; did not celebrate Halloween; did not like homosexuals; did not like pro-choicers; stayed "morally pure"; stayed married, wore long hair and long dresses for girls, did not wear earrings for guys, and on and on, and blah-say blah-say, yada, yada, yada and blah, blah blah--whew!!!) only then were they accepted into God's kingdom and love. I get that. I get why the cliche' may have become so popular. It was probably because someone finally thought enough to say that these things don't make God accept you. It's not that God wants things from you; It's just that God wants you. (Baggage, warts, zits, scars and all)
Now before I move on, I should say that I am not totally against all of the above mentioned items. I think we would be wise to do some of them, and more often. I just do not believe that performing or not performing any of the acts above should ever have been used to bring guilt on a person and push them away from God, or on the flip side give them the impression that doing these things somehow brought them closer to God.
Thankfully, someone told the truth and said that the God who loves all humans is more interested in a loving relationship with humans, than He is interested in humankind performing acts of sacrifice in order to get close to Him (Isaiah 1). Someone along the line must have said, "God is not interested in your religious behavior, but a real relationship with Him." And that's the truth of the story. But that is not all of the story. I mean, it is true that God does not want man's "religion" if we define religion by things we do to get close to him or to appear more holy to others. If we define religion as humankind working to earn God's favor in some way so that God might be moved to accept us, that definition does not bring us closer to God, but keeps us away from Him. Why? Because God has done all that is needed for us to be close to Him. He came close to us in the form of Jesus Christ. The only thing required now to be accepted by God is to trust in the work that Jesus has already done to bring us close to God. So, if by religion a person means following a prescribed set of activities in order to be accepted by God, then it's true, God wants a relationship, not religion. I am sure this is what people mean, but I rarely (if ever) hear anyone point out the other way that the Bible uses religion.
Let's note that the Bible, indeed, does use the negative way that we use religion today. The Bible says our religion can be self-made (this is not a good thing according to Paul (Col. 2:23) worthless (James 1:26) and in opposition to pure religion, impure (James 1:27) The pharisees were religious. The problem was not that they did ceremonial things outwardly. It was only that they thought those ceremonial things made them better than other people. In fact, they read their Bibles, prayed all the time, and went to the temple often.
But, it also should be noted that Paul used religion in a positive light (Acts 17:22) in connecting with the people on Mars Hill. He affirmed the portion of their religion that was commendable (The fact that they were seeking god/s and that they outwardly expressed their search by placing altars everywhere). In the same way some of the elements of our religion are commendable and necessary if we want to please God. James, Jesus brother, tells us specifically the outward expressions of religion that please God.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Do you see that? It is not religion that God dislikes. It is "impure" religion characterized by apathy toward the less helped, less loved, less able, less powerful. Pure religion is to help the fatherless, care for the widow, feed the hungry, care for the poor, love the down trodden. That is what your religion is for. You can be that person who has a relationship with the right kind of religion. But wait, just so we don't walk away thinking that we God is fine with me and my sin too, James says we should be morally pure. We should not do things that are sinful. Some of those things we should not do are included on the list above. There really are many other things that we should not be doing; otherwise God is unhappy with us. This does not mean that God doesn't love us unconditionally. Just because He does love us unconditionally, scars, and all; doesn't mean He approves the actions that will bring us continued scarring. To choose to live unstained lives comes from fact that we do really love Him. To visit the fatherless, and widows demonstrates His love in us to others.
One more thing. Someone might say that Jesus never really called us to be religious. But, I would look at James' definition of religion more comparatively with other words of Jesus and portions of the Old Testament. James' words to help the orphan and widow remind me of Jesus words in Matthew 25 when speaking of not just orphans and widows, but prisoners and beggars. "When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me." Jesus seems pretty serious about it there. Even though He didn't use the word, the concept of religion that James speaks of in James 1:27 is the same as what Jesus seems to be talking about in Matthew 25. The Old Testament also shows a similar hard edge in line with James' view of religion (that is, religion is to devotedly reverence God and demonstrate this by helping the less loved, less powerful, less fortunate, and less heard, and being pure from sin). In Isaiah 1and Isaiah 58 God shows that people are experiencing hardship from Him because of their apathy and treatment toward others. To say it plainly: I believe God would have you to be more religious; not less. It is only the purity of our religion that we should be careful to maintain.
Before I close, I have to say that when I see religion in this way I am actually overwhelmed. I personally have sometimes been apathetic to those around me. I am stained, not unstained by sin. Put as bluntly about my own self as I can be: I don't always care, I am not always pure from sin. While I seek to be careful to assist others when it is in my hand to do so, I have not always persistently been religious in this way (helping orphans and widows and others). I mean I believe that God has placed in me a pureness of religion. But I confess that I have religion that is self-made, worthless, and impure at times. So, I trust in the righteousness of Christ to justify me before God. His purity on my behalf will satisfy God. But in the meantime, I confess to you: I am trying to become more religious, not less. I hope that you will join me in this endeavor. Not because we need to work our way to God. Christ has reconciled those of us who trust Him to the Father God (2 Cor. 5:21; I Peter 3:18).
When a person says "I have a relationship and not a religion with God", they have essentially said, "My relationship with God is worthless". Instead, if we embrace the full biblical definiton of religion we will understand that God's will is not to keep us from being religious. No, God strongly desires both. He wants a real relationship that leads to pure religion. (An authentic) Relationship ignites (pure) Religion; (pure) Religion demonstrates (an authentic) relationship. Then we will see religion as a tool (1) to express our inner worship to God, outwardly; (2) to transform society and culture from chaos to shalom by loving the less fortunate (3) to open opportunities to touch people who are like us, who aren't like us, who don't like us and who we don't like for the sake of the Gospel as well as genuine relationships with those who reject the Gospel and (4) to demonstrate the proclamation that God loves all people in the same way He loves Jesus.
After understanding pure religion, is there any follower of Christ who does not want to become more religious?
I hope my thoughts are clear to you all. Please comment. I welcome your feedback.
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