Christian Living

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How often we hear that expression from those who refer to Christianity. How sad that following Jesus should be spoken of in that way. It’s like saying there is a choice that isn’t really important—such as having sugar with tea, eat here or takeaway. To the one saying “I’m not religious” it seems unimportant, when the issue at stake is eternal life or death.

"Being religious" is not a true description of a born-again believer.

Would anyone have said “I’m not religious” when the Early Church apostles were preaching the gospel, healing the sick, seeing miracles happen? One would have to doubt it. More likely they would have said “How do I join?”

How deplorable that this mighty, life-changing, supernatural, miracle-working Jesus has been relegated to “religion.” The man who made the blind to see, the deaf hear, who turned water into wine. The man who ignored the religious rules and healed on the Sabbath. This was not some “religious” person. He received the adulation accorded a king, but has a personality of utmost humility.

Today He is spoken of by non-believers in the same breath as Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, the Pope. How lamentable that the Son of God, born supernaturally of a virgin, risen from the grave, is put in the same box as the “religious” Sadducees and Pharisees, people merely following a long set of rules, probably with long faces to match.

They were “religious” people, but they didn’t amount to much. Jesus’ comments about them were scathing; they were pious on the outside, rotten on the inside.

Maybe the expression “I’m not religious” is a reflection on us today. If people see what should be a supernatural faith as “religion” then something is wrong. Slowly, over the years we have allowed the dynamic faith of the Early Church to become something else.

Do they say “I’m not religious” because they see a Christianity of robes and priests, cavernous, echoing cathedrals full of ritual, pomp and ceremony; people going through the motions of a counterfeit Christianity? Is today’s faith any different than that of the Sadducees and Pharisees?

Do people say “I’m not religious” because they see little to gain in being otherwise? Do they see believers as people equally concerned about money and the things of this world as they are?

Surely they see Christianity as “just religion” because we are not telling and showing them the difference? Isn’t it time for Christians to think deeply on this issue? Isn’t it time for us to aspire to being what Jesus told us to be—the salt of the earth, a city on a hill, a shining light? People directed not by rules and regulations but by the Holy Spirit.

Then maybe we wouldn’t hear “I’m not religious” quite so often.

[I'm not in "Private Messenger" so I can't read and reply to your emails sent there. You can reach me at saul2_au at yahoo dot com

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