Are You Too Religious?
Thursday 4 September 2008
One thing I really hate is being called religious. Being a person who goes to church and believes in Jesus I guess it is a risk I face! The reason I hate being called ‘religious’ is because Jesus was so opposed to ‘religion’ - and the religious leaders were often his greatest enemies. Let me explain what I mean.
The essence of being religious is thinking that we can somehow please God if we do enough ‘religious activity’. Our religious activities might include special clothes or symbols we wear, pilgrimages or rituals, and even good things like going to church, prayers, Bible reading or doing good deeds. The problem is when we think that simply doing these activities can make us right with God. The essence of ‘religion’ is what we DO. The essence of true Christianity is what Jesus has DONE for us, received by faith.
In Mark 7 Jesus criticises the ‘religious leaders’ because they practise all kinds of religious ceremonies such as the washing of hands, cups and pots. They made sure that they were ‘clean’ on the outside, but on the inside their hearts were far from God. So of course they didn’t really keep God’s commands at all. Instead they kept all sorts of human regulations. True faith is seen in the words, attitudes and actions that come out of our hearts and not the religious activities we do.
The challenge for anyone who seeks to follow Jesus is not to get caught into the trap of thinking that Jesus wants us to be ‘religious’. We can never make ourselves right with God by religious activity. Instead we need to develop a real relationship with God through Jesus – a relationship that will change us from the inside out.
