An interesting phrase began showing up on bumper stickers and pins back in the seventies. It read “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship”.
I’m sure myriads of people were mystified, others simply accepted it without much thought either way.
So, is Christianity a relationship? The Bible says so.
Read Isaiah 29:13-15. Now focus on verse 13:
The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (NIV)
The living, loving God’s heart breaks at the realization that people are merely obeying rules, and not even His rules but ones devised by man.
Paul says something similar in Colossians 2:20-23: Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (NIV)
Do you have a relationship with God? Is it a relationship that is alive and growing, or is it stagnant? Is it full of love or full of fear? Do you simply follow the rules you’ve been taught, or do you listen to Him for guidance and revelation?
I am certainly not against church hierarchy. We need teaching, organization and leadership. Those things are God-ordained.
But what happens when that leadership expects you to follow everything they say, and there is no encouragement to hear from God on your own? Or worse, when they tell you that a particular rule is from God and they can’t illustrate with a true interpretation of scripture—if they expect you to believe whatever they say without encouraging you to study the Word according to 2 Timothy 2:15?
Religion.
A set of rules, not a relationship.
This is part one of a series on a healthy relationship with God
all illustrations courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net