Religion Vs Relationship
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.’ (1 John 4:4)
The first of the Johannine Epistles (a fancy way of saying the 1st of the Apostle John’s letters), in its fourth chapter 1 John describes the love of God comes from the Spirit, who acknowledges Jesus as Lord. Any spirit not acknowledging Jesus as Lord is an ‘antichrist’, or one of Satan. The Holy Spirit is needed by those who have received Jesus, to be engaged in worship and stay in obedience to the Word. We see this in the Apostles, in Acts 1:8, when Jesus was leaving them in His Ascension. Jesus told them that they needed the power of the Holy Spirit, as without it they would not be able to accomplish His requests. Jesus did not want to have the Apostles maintain a religion about Him, He wanted them to be in a wholesome, complete relationship with Him.
This is the difference between ‘religion’ and ‘relationship’. You can have ‘religion’, or a belief that an effort toward fulfilling a requirement to gain favor with a deity, regardless whether you are a willing or unwilling participant. This is not the Believer in Christ; we do not need to do anything (and there is nothing we can do) to gain favor with Jesus. There is no amount of money or effort that can be given that will provide one Salvation from the Lord. One can be sitting in a church pew, and be religious without being in worship, as it can ‘check a box’ in an incorrect desire to gain favor with God. Instead, it does nothing to please God to have someone simply sit in a church pew without truly worshipping Him.
What the Believer in Christ, the true Christian, has is a relationship with Jesus, sealed with the acceptance of Jesus as Lord. There are no other actions needed to secure this relationship. Any efforts done for the Lord are done with the willingness of the Believer through the leadership and provisions of the Holy Spirit, in terms of Spiritual Gifts and direction. The Holy Spirit leads the Believer in worship, even when outside of the church. It can be when the Believer is in fellowship with others or alone, worship is done through the relationship and out of Love, not out of necessity but of willingness.
The difference between religion and relationship can be summed up with this anonymous quote, “Religion is a guy in church thinking about fishing; a relationship is a guy out fishing thinking about God.” We as Christians need to ensure that we are not in a religion but in a relationship with the Lord, that we are not simply ‘going through the motions’ to please others but joyfully and freely willingly to do that which the Lord asks of us to do, to be Truthful and maintain and strengthen our relationship with Him.
