Thoughts on Religion

January 14, 2012



Here’s one problem I see: everybody has a different definition of “religion.”


And what I think is - people have corrupted the true definition of religion.  And religion by its corrupted definition is something to be justifiably against.


But pure and undefiled religion - not so much.


I used to be into the “yeah, I’m spiritual, not religious” thing a bit.  As in, I still definitely used the title of Christian, but I defined it as spirituality not religion.  Because religion has taken on a connotation with many that I don’t like.


Now I’m at the point of - does it really matter what I call it?  It’s all to-may-to, to-mah-to, isn’t it?  At the end of the day, it’s very simply that I am a follower of Christ.   And I’m loathe to call it either spirituality or religion, simply because, well, it’s way more than that.  It’s my entire life.  And it’s weird for me to call it religion, because then it makes my faith comparable to all the other belief systems out there.  And how can I simply call this a religion, when I believe it’s the ultimate and only truth?


That being said, a good part of me truly believes that the biggest problem plaguing some faucets of Christianity is a lack of religion.  I’m not talking that self-righteous, “only works will get you to heaven”, “let’s go through the motions and have no passion about it” sort of demented definition that religion has seemed to have taken on in society as of late.  But it seems to me that so many Christians so easily compromise so much in regards to their Christian faith.  As if “I’m spiritual, not religious” is a perfect excuse to believe in God and try to get as much out of Him as possible, but not in turn live our lives to the standards that God has called us to.


And I’m all for grace, of course.  But I’m also all for being sanctified.  Not stopping the ball once I’ve been saved, but then letting Jesus transform me into His image.  Which of course includes love, mercy, peace, joy - something everyone of course flocks to embrace.  But it also includes sacrifice, purity, and staying away from most of the ideals and ways of life that the world embraces.  And that latter list - people seem push that aside with ease.


Going back to “pure and undefiled religion”, as defined by James 1:27 - “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  And just observationally, it seems that we tend to practice one or the other, not both.


The “visiting orphans and widows” thing represents to me this sort of new wave that especially seems to be hitting the younger generation of Christians: as long as we’re showing love, then that’s all that’s necessary.  “Do some social justice, but then do whatever the heck else we want.  We’re covered by grace, it’s all good.”  That’s kind of the anti-religion thing.  The “spiritual”.  Where we try to conform God to our own whims - prioritizing His commands by what suit us best in the moment.  Willing to show and share love, but subscribing to whatever fleshly and worldy passions we want.


Then you’ve got the “keep oneself unstained from the world”, and the some of the more traditional crowd goes all the way with this.  But getting too caught up in legalism and self-righteousness in an attempt to sanctify themselves that they forget about others.  And when they do remember others, it’s often times in condemnation.  And that’s what people tend to think of these days when it comes to “religion.”


But what there needs to be is a meshing on these two.  The religion and the spiritual - it’s the same thing, for goodness sake, anyway.  Both faucets of this verse are equally important: you love and serve others, but you also live up to a Godly standard, as outlined by His word.  Then grace and mercy come in because without the grace of God, we cannot even hope to be able to follow all of His commands.  But Jesus has graciously interceded on our behalves to help us get there.  And those times that we do fail, He shows mercy on us.  But it’s one thing to try and fail.  It’s completely different to not try at all, as if just because we’ve been saved by grace that means that God doesn’t expect nor want us to obey Him as well.


But that seems to be the growing consensus, which is what now has me so wary about the whole “I’m spiritual but not religion” thing to the point that I’ve started to view that as, well, crap.  People complain about religion being man-made, but it seems that by claiming “spirituality”, that is man’s attempt at taking God into his own hands and creating some new thing that’s half God’s way and half his own way, you know?


There are so many things we’ve twisted into our own definitions, it seems.  Even grace - for many, that seems to have been turned into a justification for compromising our morality in so many ways.   But to sort of reiterate something I’ve already said: grace is what catches us when we fall.  It’s not exactly permission to dive head first into a way of living however the heck we want.  There’s a difference between making a mistake and all out defiance.  And by saying, “Yeah, I’m gonna take advantage of what God can do for me, but I’m gonna blatantly not live my life in accordance to these specific principles of his” - is that not defiance?


I’ll end with this.  What is the greatest commandment?  As Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  But it seems to me that people don’t quite fully understand what this commandment entails, and in some twisted way, use it as justification to live their lives exactly how they want, in accordance to the world and their flesh, by saying it’s all good, because they “love” the Lord.


But Jesus also says this in John 14:21: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”  And then in verse 23 and 24, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words.  And the word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”


Paul confirms this in I John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”


If we love God, then we follow His commandments.  And if following His commands makes me religious, then I’m down with that.  Because it’s not a decision fueled by self-righteousness or an attempt to condemn others or anything like that.  But a decision fueled completely because I am so in love with my Savior.  And if He wants me to follow all of His commands, then that’s what I’m setting out to do.  And if I fail, I know His grace and mercy will cover me.  But then I’m back on my feet, trying to do it again, because man, I love Him.  With all He’s done for me, how can I not obey Him?


Love is so so so important.  It’s the most important thing.  But being set apart from the ways of the world - so important, too. 


We’re not meant to follow blind religion.  Religion that’s all motions, no heart.  Religion devoid of love - no, that’s bad.  But pure and undefiled, I definitely think we all need a bit more of religion in our spirituality. 


But I guess at the end of the day, no matter what you call it, it’s just about following Christ with all we’ve got.