On Religion and Relationship

This evening I've been thinking a lot about religion, and about today's view of what it exactly is. It seems today that it is popular to say things like "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual" or "I love Jesus, but I'm not religious", Or my personal favorite, "relationship and not religion is important". but I'm kind of confused. Why do people hate religion so much nowadays? Even the Christians are speaking out against religion. First, I think we should take a look at what religion is.  The dictionary on my iPhone defines religion as "a strong belief in a power, or powers that control human destiny" or number two, "An institution to express belief in a divine power".  James, the brother of Jesus, said that true religion was caring for orphans and widows. the few times that the word "religion" was mentioned in the Bible, it was generally positive. Why do today's Christians tend to look down upon religion? Maybe it has something to do with what our conception of Christian religion is. what is the first thing you think of when you hear the word "religion"? Maybe you think of big stained-glass windows, or large pipe organs, or unmarried man and clerical suit, or maybe just church institution and as a whole. I don't know, but the first thing I think of when I think of religion is obligation. Our mighty Church has done a great deal for the Lord, has been used by the Lord, and has carried on his teachings. There are, however, some discrepancies in the way we teach our truth. the first group that I will mention, is the stereotypical view of the church. The churches that contribute to the stereotype are the boring, dry, dare I say, dead churches. These churches usually tend to force obligation, and are very keen to judge others based upon their appearance. This judgment also includes other churches and styles of worship. These churches overemphasize religion. They make laws that are harsh, and are oftentimes unattainable. They often say that mankind is incapable of attaining these laws, and therefore we are evil, leading to some of the practitioners of a lot of these churches, though not all, ceasing to care about the Lord, or letting their futility stop them from pursuing a life of holiness. this leads to Christianity being viewed in a bad light in the world. Jesus said, "they will know you are my disciples by how you love one another"(Non-verbatim). This is crazy, because the Lord is giving the nonbeliever the authority judge whether we are Christians or not, leading to many feeling that this is what Christian religion is. This causes people to have disdain for religion, and causes the Christian to want to forsake this view of Christianity.

The second camp, the extreme other side of the church, is what has historically been called the antinomians, which is just a fancy word for those who do not believe in the law.  They take the apostle Paul's comments regarding the spirit and the law out of context, believing that he was against the law. When I am actuality, he was talking about the futility of him trying to fulfill the law on his own, When it is the spirit's job to make one righteous. this has led many to forsake any obligations regarding salvation. They believe that any such obligation is legalism. of course, it is true, salvation is by faith alone, but salvation must bear fruit in the believers' life. James also said, that faith without works is dead. So back to religion, I think that it is important that we bring back our high esteem for religion because it is also important in the believers' life. Churches are for fellowship, and the believer must be submitted to a spiritual authority, such as a pastor. Churches are for encouragement as well. And it is important, that we are grounded doctrinally in Scripture. True religion is taking care of orphans and widows, and it is my personal opinion that we abide by true religion. Not by our own works, not for our glory, and not trying to attain salvation, because this will not work. We must be submitted, as the apostle Paul said, to the spirit. We must look to him, and all of our sin and bad habits will fall off over time as he helps us along in our journey.  So what are the practical applications to this? I'm not saying for everyone to go out and sell all their things are to become a missionary (if God calls you to do this do it) but as a Christian first off, I would say go to church. Find a church that you can serve in.  Serve in the church, grow to love the church, and be faithful to it. Give to the church. A very very very small percentage of the church actually tithe. Please tithe. It's not our money to keep an hord away anyway.  God blessed you with it. Also, please give to missions. We as Americans live a very comfortable lifestyle, but others in the kingdom, even our fellow Americans, are living hard lives in other countries and at home trying to preach the gospel to those who don't believe.  Many of them live off of our support so we could spare some money to help them out.  Religion will not save you from hellfire, but relationship with Jesus (Which is what salvation really is) is not based off of the benefit of heaven or the fear of hell, but the love for God, and the gratefulness for what he is done for you and for me.