
- RELIGION
ri'lɪ.dʒən noun. Worship of a superhuman controlling power, usually a personal God or impersonal universe. - 2. Particular system of belief and worship, as demonstrated through actions and declarations.
- 3. A supremely important pursuit or interest, followed as if worship.
- [Religious
ri'lɪ.dʒəs adjective.]
A significant part of authentic Christianity is religion: We worship God, and we do it through actions. For any belief system which doesn’t take any action, which doesn’t result in any changed lives or good deeds (or even bad deeds), isn’t real. Or, as James puts it, it’s dead.
But for a lot of
Fr’instance. When we were kids, and somebody taught us a
The proper term for this is
If it were explained properly, would it be living religion? Sometimes. My church, I think, did a really good and thorough job of explaining
The problem is, Evangelicals drop that adjective “dead” and simply call these works religion. To them, dead religion is what “religion” means. For Christianity isn’t about practices and rituals:
That’s what Evangelicals mean when they sing Darrell Evans’ 2002 song “Fields of Grace.” Third verse:
- There’s a place where religion finally dies
- There’s a place where I lose my selfish pride
- Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace
- Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace
My previous church used to sing this, and a number of ’em would give a big whoop when we sang, “religion finally dies.” Not because they’re disobedient, uncharitable Christians; not at all. Again it’s because they considered religion and dead religion to be one and the same, and they’re so happy to be done with
But here’s the problem. In George Orwell’s novel
In my experience, no.
“It’s a relationship, not a religion.”
Found this on Pinterest. No, I don’t know who sells it. Don’t buy it. Don’t be that guy.
Thanks to the mixup between religion and dead religion, a lot of Evangelicals insist, “Oh, I’m not religious. Jesus didn’t come to start any new religion. Christianity is a relationship.” We put it on bumper stickers and T-shirts, and spread around the internet memes, and feel so clever for it.
Here’s the problem:
By that definition, the line “I’m not religious” comes across as a big fat lie. ’Cause they look at our lifestyle. If we go to church with any kind of regularity, pagans consider church to be “organized religion,” and going there—and giving money to it!—is totally religious of us. Plus the prayer, the bible-reading, the bible-quoting, the good deeds, the shunning of various things we consider sinful: “What d’you mean you’re ‘not religious’? You hypocrite. You’re totally religious.”
Well, unless we’re not. If we don’t go to church, don’t pray, don’t bother with bible, don’t really believe anything—basically when we’re pagans like them.
But back the truck up: Why do we do any of the stuff which pagans call “religious”? Why church attendance, prayer, bible, lifestyle adjustments, spiritual beliefs? Simple: Faith without works is dead. And these are the most basic, ground-level works we oughta see in an actual Christian. Christianity without those is dead. The “relationship” we claim to have with Jesus, isn’t one. Relationship without religion is gonna suck.
The reason so many Christians suck at Christianity, or do it entirely wrong, is because we often don’t even bother with the basic stuff. Evangelical churches pound so hard on the “It’s not religion” mantra, we wind up with Christians who conclude, “I don’t have to go to church”—and so they don’t. “I don’t have to know my bible”—and they remain willfully ignorant. “I don’t have to pray,” and they never
We’re supposed to be religious. Not just a little. Take a peek at that third definition again: “A supremely important pursuit or interest, followed as if worship.” When Jesus was asked the most important command in the Law—
Mark 12.29-30 KWL - 29 Jesus gave this answer: “First is, ‘Listen Israel: Our god is the Lord. The Lord is One.
- 30 You must love your Lord God with all your heart, life, purpose, and might.’
Dt 6.4-5 - Second is, ‘Love your neighbor like yourself.’
Lv 19.18 - No command is higher than these.”
—that whole “with all your heart, life, purpose, and might” idea does sound supremely important, doesn’t it? If Jesus figured this was the most important command, do you really think it’s nothing more than optional?
You know those people who are “religious” about their baseball team? Or about exercising regularly? Or about keeping up with their favorite shows, or about smoking weed? If we aren’t as hardcore about God as those people and their pursuits, how much faith do we truly have in him?
This command is in fact the foundation of our relationship. If we really have a relationship with God—if we’re not simply admiring him from afar, ’cause we’re big fans—then we’re gonna be religious about it. We’re gonna follow him. We’re gonna want to follow him. Complacency is never gonna be good enough. Figuring we’re good ’cause
When complacency is totally good enough.
Where
Sounds like good, faith-filled Christianity, doesn’t it? Here’s why it’s subtly devilish.
Arguing, “Why follow Jesus? You’re plenty close enough” is how lazy Christians squeeze just a bit of moral relativism into their bad religion. They figure goodness is too hard, and a waste of time if we’re already saved. All they really need to be be good enough. Good enough for God? No; good enough to look good. Good enough to keep other Christians off our backs. Y’know, hypocrisy.
Their justification is that following God isn’t about earning God’s approval or favor. There, they’re correct. Obedience isn’t about achieving a right standing with God; we already got right standing by trusting God.
The only reason Christians don’t try, is only because Christians don’t wanna. They’d rather sin. They’d rather take advantage of our right standing with God, and uses it to justify getting in trouble time and again, expecting (if not demanding) forgiveness and free passes instead of outrage and offense. It ain’t love. More like exploitation.
Any Christian who figures, “Since we’ve got grace, so why stress ourselves about being good?”
The reason we’re striving to stay in the light,
Dicks don’t inherit God’s kingdom!
But this is what we’re gonna find all over Christianism: People who figure they’re saved, so they needn’t be anything more than “good enough,” and try to whitewash all their hypocrisy and compromise. They don’t love the Lord their God with all their heart, life, purpose, and might. They can’t. They have no religion.
There’s a place where religion finally dies, but there’s nothing but selfish pride at the back of it. They imagine it’s dancing with their Father in fields of grace, but it’s just lawlessness and faithlessness. A form of religion with none of God’s power in it,
Of course, in the absence of true religion, other things slip in.

