Christianity – a religion or relationship? 6 IMPORTANT POINTS you might not have thought of! [Podcast 3]
I had such a firm moral code in the past. And I always failed it.
Now, I live by the Word and Spirit. Not by religion, law, or a moral code.
Podcast below…
Check out my third newsletter (2020.9.1) for more about this journey…
6 Important Points!
(1) RELIGION: definition in the Oxford English Dictionary
(i) A state of life bound by religious vows; the condition of belonging to a religious order.
(ii) A particular religious order or denomination; a religious house.
(iii) Action or conduct indicating belief in, obedience to, and reverence for a god, gods, or similar superhuman power; the performance of religious rites or observances.
(iv) A particular system of faith and worship.
(v) Belief in or acknowledgement of some superhuman power or powers (esp. a god or gods) which is typically manifested in obedience, reverence, and worship; such a belief as part of a system defining a code of living, esp. as a means of achieving spiritual or material improvement.
(2) RELIGION is something we reject by our very human nature and inclination.
In our base nature, we as humans don’t like authority, the law, moral codes, or rules.
It’s built into us to disobey, rebel, and create our own way of independence. It’s just the nature of the broken human condition.
Organised religion doesn’t work for us and we are unable to keep the perfect laws it commands of us.
(3) RELIGION provokes us to create our own rules.
We end up creating our own moral codes, rituals, cultures, laws, and traditions in addition to the religion.
This could also be known as subjective morality or moral relativism.
In other words, we live by our own rules and only obey the law out of fear of the penalty. If we can find loop holes in the law to acquire our desires and ambitions, we’ll naturally exploit these loop holes.
(4) RELIGION is impossible to fulfil.
With religion we try to meet an impossible measure; a perfect law that we can never meet. This creates all kinds of discouraging emotions out of guilt, shame, inferiority, and unworthiness.
(5) RELIGION creates division.
We compare, compete, and condemn as a result of the tangible measure we have in our hands through religion or law.
There can be no unity or love in this.
Hierarchies are created by humans with positions and titles that were never even there in the Word of God.
Power, control, and order become the aim, just like the example of the Pharisees and Sadducees–the religious leaders–of Jesus’ day, who Jesus came against to expose their abuse of religion.
Equality, freedom, and unity are impossible with such division.
(6) RELATIONSHIP: Following Jesus, we abide God’s Spirit.
We’re not trying to meet a measure through law, because we could never complete the perfect law/religion of God.
In humility, submission, and seeking of a better way, we allow the Spirit with the perfect law of God to expose our weaknesses, fallibility, and inability to be good and ask for help from God.
Surrendered with the full knowledge that we need God’s help, we then take the relationship with God one day at a time as He teaches us and renews our mind to a servant-like, selfless, charitable, sacrificial mindset with a mission to love and free anyone we come across, including those who’ve hurt us.
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