Grow The Heck Up

 by Steve Patton

For a good while now, because of some really bad religious experiences and poor examples of good religion, our culture has openly rejected the idea of “religion.” Openly religious people and their organizations have done terrible things to people and society has responded by saying “keep your religion.” In response, Christianity came up with clever bumper sticker quotes like “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship” and “I hate religion but I love Jesus.” Lately, there has been this growing sentiment that Jesus “came to stop religion.” and “Jesus hates religion.” But you CAN NOT read scripture and come to the conclusion that God hates religion.

By most definitions, Jesus was a RELIGIOUS man. He went to synagogue every Sabbath - like a good religious Jew, He prayed regularly - like a good religious Jew, He even taught others religion, He gave money and did all the good religious stuff that good religious people did. What He DIDN’T do was be hypocritical, loveless, self-serving and more for the sake of keeping His pet-project traditions alive.

When you look through scripture, there is never a knock on religion in general. The knock is always specifically on BAD religion. Let’s look at a few examples. This isn’t an exhaustive list of every reference to religion, but here are a few:

“These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” - Colossians 2:23

So the problem isn’t religion but rather SELF-MADE religion. Let’s look at more

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. - James 1:26

So the problem again isn’t religion, but rather a TYPE of religion that is worthless. But let’s look at this

 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. - James 1:27

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father…” - if Jesus came to stop religion, then this statement alone would be irrelevant to the scriptures and genuine spirituality. If Jesus came to stop it, then it couldn’t be pure before God could it? Of course not.

Hypocrites who didn’t practice what they preached were the problem. People who put their own interests above those of other people and masked it as spirituality were the problem. People who put their own traditions above God’s word were the problem. People served any and everything BUT God in the name of God were the problem. Christ-less service of Christ was the problem. Bad religion was the problem. Not religion itself and to state anything other wise is to make a claim that scripture itself doesn’t make.
Now, some of this stuff I hear actually comes from a greater sense of being more gospel centered in our ideas about faith & what Christianity should look like. I love the fact that people are having a renewed emphasis in the Gospel. At the same time, let’s not DE-EMPHASIZE other things that are good in order to get there. Let’s not pander to the self-righteousness of the masses by essentially saying “I’m greater than those religious people” as if to be religious is bad. It creates a whole different kind of self-righteousness. I even hear Christians saying “Religion has caused war.” Has it? Or have people attempting to either assert their power or take power from others then cleverly veiled it in religion started war? And why do we say that as IF irreligious people have never started wars?! Hitler’s lack of religion SURELY didn’t appear to be the answer now did it? 

Religion is not bad, bad religion is. Jesus didn’t come to END religion but rather to assert Himself at its proper place  - with Him at the center of it. Sure, its easy to throw out the baby with the bath water and throw out “religion” with “those religious people.” I have had HORRIBLE experiences with those same people, churches, pastors and the like  and it kept me from Christ for a long time. I was hostile towards Christians because of it. I get it. But instead of joining those who would bash the Church for some of her tainted pasts, how about we show what genuine religion IS in light of what we’ve been shown.
And if you’re reading this and you’ve been hurt by people who claim to represent God and they did the EXACT opposite of what you know you should’ve seen, I’m sorry. I pray for your comfort, peace and joy to be restored in Him. I pray that God would do the same thing for you that King David prayed for himself in the Psalm where he asked God to “restore the joy” of his salvation.

(via Of Poets and Pastors)