Saturday, December 27, 2008

Religion vs. the Gospel

A classic misunderstanding of Christianity is how it's viewed as a religion versus a Gospel-centered movement.  When rules, structure, formalities, performance, judgment, and appearance are highlighted more than love, grace, joy, forgiveness, kindness and just a worshipful response to the goodness of God, people get turned off and can get hostile.  I've had a couple different conversations over the last week with both believers and non-believers, with people from each category expressing their disdain for all things "religion".  One of my believing friends struggles with the corporate-ness that religion can bring which is causing him to suffocate from simply living and influencing under the direction of the Holy Spirit like he feels he should.  One of my non-believing friends is quite hostile toward any "religious" and simply sees a different form of capitalism and buildings full of judgmental hypocrites.  In both cases, formalized religion has failed.

While Jesus did speak of building a church and appointed leaders for his church which the Apostles and then Paul helped further develop as more and more people began to follow Jesus, I don't think that Jesus quite had in mind for "Christianity" to what it has developed into today.  Jesus was a movement leader more than a CEO.  Jesus influenced more than he controlled (which I also believe was the way the Apostles went about things as well).  Jesus loved more than he judged.  Jesus had a clear sense of right & wrong, and when he confronted people on their sin, there was always this deep undercurrent of love that went along with it.  The only people that he just blasted with judgment were the religious people, not the ones who were far from God! That's a great model and method to continue!

A great summation of all of this comes from something that Jesus himself said in John 3:17: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."  Love always trumps condemnation.  Gospel always wins over religion.

4 comments:

Founder said...

You can tell a Christian denomination by its use of religion as an anvil of judgment.

I especially despise those who imply that only followers of Jesus can be capable of love, compassion and righteousness. George Will calls this "Semantic Imperialism."

The highly organized denominations use rituals and symbols to reinforce the congregation's perception of church hierarchy and authority.

Ryan said...

Hi Founder...
Thanks for the comment. I can tell you're pretty angry at religion/organized church that has abused the position they've had and have hurt a lot of people. I sadly agree that it's true, and according to the life and teaching of Jesus in the Bible, that was not his idea or intention. Again, the only people that Jesus ever condemned were the judgmental, abusive religious leaders of his day.

Hope to continue the conversation.

Ryan

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