Watchout – don’t get religious

The Temptation to be Religious

One of the dominant themes in the gospels is the continuing conflict Jesus had with the religious establishment, typified by the Pharisees. They were the ones who controlled the scene religiously. They made sure they kept the Law of Moses, sort of. Unfortunately, their relationship with God was religious, self-righteous, hypocritical. Jesus pokes through their smugness, they can’t control him, and eventually they resort to the ultimate solution.

15:1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” [1] 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word [2] of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

via Passage: Matthew 15 (ESV Bible Online).

So what’s going on here? The Pharisees are modifying the Old Testament Law with a false religiosity. They are saying, instead of leaving your earthly possessions to your parents when you die it is FAR better to leave it to God, ie, the Pharisees. They overlay God’s commands with their own commands, and make it appear as very devout (putting God before parents).

So the problem is, they inserted their own rules among God’s commands in obedience to their own agenda. This always involves external actions, displays of being religious. Apply this to ourselves today: we insert our own ideas among the teachings of Jesus and the apostles to make ourselves appear religious and devout and get more concerned with conforming our behaviour to things like ‘church life’ than concerning ourselves with the state of our heart and mind.

The temptation to do this is buried deep in our human nature. It’s also part of the typical church structures that exist today. Lots of unwritten rules exist which act to distort the truth (Jesus’ teaching understood and followed in a straight forward way), so that external actions become more important than loving God and neighbour from the heart. Conformity to church group think take precedence over being conformed to Christ, which begins with the inside of the cup: heart and mind. Matt 23:25

How to escape this trap?

• Be very careful with ‘church’ (meaning the organised, traditional church structure). Don’t get sucked in to conforming mindlessly. Get out if you have to. Find a few Christians you can trust. You’ll know them by their fruit. There is no LAW saying you must go to church once a week on Sunday. That is a man-made rule/tradition. We are encouraged to meet together, but when/where is left open. Heb 10:25
• Read the Bible yourself. Daily. Make time. It’s your food, light, strength, shield. It’s God primary way of communicating to you.
• AND, read it in context. Read whole books, not verses here and there. CONTEXT  should control the meaning, not what you feel the meaning is. Use your head. Read it sensibly, then…
• pray for God’s grace to understand and follow what you read.

May you grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ, who loves you.