If you’re anything like me, you tend to be a very Religious person, and this isn’t a good thing! Now some people will say, “wait I thought it was good to be religious and others will say I am not religious at all. The fact is whether you are an atheist, Christian or devout Muslim you are a very religious person, and Martin Luther was correct when he said that, “Religion is the default mode of the human heart.” Religion is simply making our own rules and then attempting to keep them which obviously makes us better than the people who don’t keep these rules; the funny thing is the rules that we choose to make “important” are things that we happen to be good at doing. For example the couple with 12 kids looks down on anyone that has less than 8 kids, or the family that home schools and knows that there is no other “holy” way to do it, or the mom that has her children naturally which makes her more like Jesus because she understands the pain of the cross, or how about the parents that read a book on parenting and now go about telling everyone else how to fix their children! These are just a few of the religious tendencies found in the church, but there are plenty of examples outside of the church as well, take for example the guy that bikes to work and never uses plastic products and looks at disgust at anyone that drives an SUV, or the vegan girl who believes everyone that anyone that eats meat is a murderer, the examples are endless. The scariest thing about these tendencies is the fact that the Bible teaches the religious people in Jesus’ day not only constantly fought with Jesus they also got so fed up with the fact that Jesus wouldn’t keep their ridiculous rules that they falsely accused Him then proceeded to murder Him. Jesus said things like; “These people draw near to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Mt. 15:8; “Woe to you Pharisees, hypocrites… you make him twice the son of hell you yourselves are.” Mt. 23:15; these are jarring statements coming from God on earth. Try harder, do better, keep all the rules and maybe just maybe when you die your good will outweigh your bad, this is the foundation of all world religions. Buddhism , Judaism, Mormonism, Catholicism all have the same this philosophy at their core. Religion has only two outcomes; it either results in proud self-righteous hypocrites or in broken lives that have no hope because they can’t keep the rules. Christianity alone says you do nothing to deserve salvation God alone is the One who saves, Christianity says Jesus came to the earth to die for our sins and believing in Him by faith is the only way to be found righteous in the sight of God. So the next time you impose your rules, and not the Bible’s on other people remember the Pharisees, repent and go to Jesus for there is truly no hope without Him.
-Eden
Eden Fine 