I hear the Christian phrase “Relationship not religion” a lot. I began to think about how accurate this actually is. Is religion 100% bad and should be left alone? Here’s the definition of “religion”:
“The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods; A particular system of faith and worship; a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance” (taken from the built in dictionary on my iPod)
Hm, notice how nowhere in there did it say “a list of rules”, “legalism”, “performance” or “works”. This definition, if you think about it, is the very idea of Christianity. We believe and worship our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without either of these, our faith is non-existent or dead. Christianity is also a system, to an extent. There is a method to salvation. God calls us, we believe, our soul is indwelled by the Holy Spirit and we should continue in our walk with God. The Bible also gives us guidelines for the order of leadership in churches. Pastors, elders and deacons are outlined in Paul’s letters. Christianity is not system-less. (Is that a word?? Haha)
So really, the term “religion” isn’t so evil. In fact, it accurately describes the concept of Christianity. So why do we grimace and cringe at the mere mention of religion? It’s because the definition has been manipulated and morphed into a strict and enslaving term.
When someone does something “religiously”, that implies they do this act consistently, without fail and it is absolutely crucial to them. There are Christians who believe they need to do things in order to earn/keep salvation. It becomes so important to them that it becomes the focus. Because of people and churches who practice this, the original definition of religion has gone from “belief and worship of a God” to “constant practice and participation in regulations in order to gain God’s favor.” This modern view is completely false. There is nothing we, sinful humans, can do to earn salvation apart from Christ’s death in the cross. However, most of the general public believe religion is the latter definition when it’s not. Christianity is a religion, based on the official definition. Something like Atheism is NOT religion, for it literally believes in nothing. Atheism is more accurately described as an opinion or point of view, just as many would say Christianity is. So in closing, we really shouldn’t be that hard on religion. It’s been changed into something it wasn’t meant to be. It is not legalism and laws, but merely the belief and worship of a God or gods. That’s not so bad.
