Do we need a little more religion in our lives?

I don’t mean a variety of religions. I’m talking about Christianity.

I know what you are thinking. This sounds dangerous. You probably already have your guard up. Religion is the enemy. Religion brings judgementalism and pain. Religion breeds self-righteous hypocrites.

You are not wrong. False religion does that.  

“That’s why I’m not religious”, you may say. “I have faith but not religion.”

“It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.”

How many Christians do you hear quoting this pithy saying? Well, let me ask the question. How is that relationship going?

Far too often I hear well meaning Christians confuse religion with obedience. These are not the same thing. You are not being religious when you go to church, read your Bible, pray, give, love or any other act you are called to by Christ. You are being obedient. Jesus said that we would recognise his followers by their obedience to Him. “If you love me you will do what I command” and “you remain in my love when you do what I command” (Jn 14:9-17). The early Christians were called “Followers of the Way” because they lived a life of obedience to Jesus’ teaching. Today, for some reason, we confuse obedience with religion and since we are so scared of being religious, we will rather err on the side of disobedience.

Sadly, I will hear Christians say, I’m a Christian but I’m not religious about it. When you ask for clarity, you discover someone who is not committed to church attendance, personal Bible study or prayer beyond self-focused agendas. These things just seem too mechanical to them and so in their “freedom” they prefer not to be religious and settle for a "relationship" with a non-biblical version of Jesus who seldom commands them to live differently. I know this well, not just as an outsider, but as one who fell into this trap myself.  Could we be in danger of becoming apathetic and disobedient just so that we do not appear legalistic?

When I reflect on this kind of thinking I realise that it points to a poor understanding of the gospel.

Jesus never spoke against religion as we in broader Protestantism or Evangelicalism do today. He spoke against false religion. In fact, the Bible even commends good religion (James 1:27). Yes, the Bible makes it abundantly clear we should not follow false gods, but false religion is also to place our trust in ourselves. Our good deeds, our acts of kindness and love. The thinking that there is some or other grand scale out there in which our good deeds need to outweigh our bad and then we are good person bound for heaven. No, this is not consistent with the gospel message, but neither is becoming apathetic about sin or obedience (Rom 6:1).

The gospel teaches us that there is no amount of good we can do that will ever be enough. We are so sinful and tarnished, dead in sin, that we can never expect to restore ourselves to life and relationship with God through our deeds. That is why Jesus died for us. He loved us in our mess and calls us to place our trust in Him. He calls us to repentance. That means to turn from where our trust was and place it in Him. Jesus calls us to follow Him.

Following Jesus shows. It means I am not staying in the same place I was. I am changing. I now do because I follow. I do not do so that I can earn the right to follow. That was freely given. James says you say you have faith, but where are the actions to back that up? “I will show you my faith through what I do” (James 2:18). This is a mark of having responded to the gospel. To be loved, accepted, redeemed, and obedient.

Let us not fall into the trap set up to trip us. Tricking us into thinking that obedience to God is anything other than good. If our trust is in Him and not in our works, then we are not in false religion but pure commendable religion. This is obedience to Christ.