Too religious
Paul, in Athens standing upon Mars Hill, looking uphill towards the gleaming Parthenon and downhill towards dozens of altars and temples to every god the Greeks had, said this: You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too religious.” (Acts 17:22)
Paul made his comments to the leaders of Athens after observing that those residents wanted to “have all their bases covered”, which is an American baseball expression meaning they wanted in a religious way to make sure they honored all the gods, didn’t dishonor any, and didn’t leave anyone out, hence the altar to the “unknown god” in verse 23. Point 1: False religion is fear-based, trying to cover all possibilities.
Christian formula/religion works exactly like the altars in Athens in that formulas try to nail down every conceivable thing that God could want – do we pray through the Lord’s Prayer each morning, do we recite our positive confession or the prayer of Jabez, do we bind this or that spirit and go through the literal motions of putting on invisible armor of God – it’s all geared to making sure WE have done all WE can do to make sure God is happy, to pave the way for Him to be able to do what He needs to do in our lives, what WE want Him to do. Point 2: False religion is ME focused in the name of God.
Grace or works?
Cain and Able offered sacrifices to the Lord, but Cain chose not to submit to grace, that is offering the blood of an animal as a covering for his sin. He chose to give God an offering of his own sweat and blood, an offering of vegetables he had worked hard to grow. Point 3: False religion asks what can I do to make it happen, whatever “it” is?.
Every religion in the world except Christianity is based upon Cain’s method of approaching God, and the temptation for Christians to leave grace to offer the product of their own efforts has been with us at least since the question in Acts 15 of whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised and made to obey the law of Moses once they were saved.
Whether it be burning incense to dead relatives, washing in the Ganges river, bowing to Mecca, going 2 by 2 to knock on doors, lighting a candle, or maybe faithfully reciting positive confessions, doing something special like going to church on Wednesday night because they want the Lord to know how sincere they are – it’s all based on coming to God on man’s terms, of man’s own efforts, just like Cain.
In Genesis 3:21 it says the Lord Himself made coats of skins to cover Adam and Eve, thus the Lord made the first sacrifice for sin, and he’s make the last – it began and ended as an act of grace.
Thus Cain knew perfectly well that sin was covered by grace, but he chose rather to come to God on his terms. Point 4: False religion is rigid.
Not only that, but Cain was angry at God because he was not getting his prayer answered, so angry he killed his brother. Point 5: False religion is angry at man and God, and brings death to relationships.
Grace is totally dependent on the giver of the grace – the receiver does little more than receive. But how many (Christian) people have crawled on their knees up hills or down streets to shrines, or begged and screamed at the platform for God to come to them and use them and cleanse them, as in some meetings today among Spirit filled believers in what is mislabeled “outpourings”.
Examples
The Pharisees made a law that said if you had a food gift or sacrifice to God (tithe or offering), but your parents were hungry, a good Jew had to ignore the needs of mom and dad to pay their tithe/offering. Jesus addressed this in Mark 7: 6-13, telling them they elevated their man-made rules over the Word of God, thus “making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition”, because God said take care of your family first. Point 6: False religion elevates rules above people, rules matter more than walking in love.
In Mark 6: 1-6 Jesus asked the rulers what appeared to be a common sense question: Is it right to do good on the Sabbaths, or should they do evil? Should they save a life, or kill on the Sabbath? Seems pretty basic, but the leaders were silent. It says Jesus looked on them with anger because He was grieved at the hardness of their hearts. But He healed the man with the withered hand anyway.
Point 7: False religion hardens people’s hearts. The word ‘harden’ here was used in that time to describe the process of putting on a layer of stucco or whitewash, letting it harden and dry, and then applying another layer, then another using the same process.
Point 8: False religion cannot act (refuses to act) on common sense, nor will such a person discuss real issues.
Point 9: False religion makes you think you are the problem for pointing out hypocrisy/false religion or (their) error.
Point 10: False religion causes a person to knowingly and stubbornly add layer upon layer to their hard heart.
Point 11: False religion grieves the heart of the Lord, and makes Him angry.
In Mark 8: 11-21 Jesus was again grieved at the Pharisees because they asked him to perform a sign that he was from heaven. Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and replied: Why does this generation seek a sign?Privately to his disciples he made this comment about that conversation: “Watch out, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees.”
Jesus was talking about (in part) how (the Pharisees in this case) but false religion in general is never satisfied with anything you do; always requiring more and better proof of your righteousness in a never-ending cycle of jumping through hoops to try to be good enough. Point 12: False religion is never satisfied, you can never be good enough, you can never succeed in their eyes.
He also likened the desire for signs to the work of yeast in dough – a little leavens a whole lump – and told them to beware of the temptation of letting desire for spectacular signs enter into their hearts. Point 13: False religion runs after signs and wonders, looks for the spectacular as proof ____ is from heaven.
And of course this means if Jesus had submitted to the Pharisees and given them a sign, it would mean they were over Him in authority. Point 14: False religion requires a hierarchy above you to control and manipulate you – false religion seeks to elevate itself over you for the purpose of controlling you, your emotions, your loyalty, your time, your money.
All these points are merely a few attributes of false religion and the myriad laws man makes up in their mind to tell people what God requires of them. I’m sure you dear Reader have seen or even experienced being “too religious” at some point of your life experience, as I have.
If you read the rest of Paul’s message to the leaders of Athens on Mars Hill, you’ll find he told them that God doesn’t live in a building, and that He wants people free from thinking God wants them to jump through hoops for Him and instead seek Him for themselves, “for in Him we live, and breathe, and have our being.” (17:27)
Walk this path, because it is all God requires: “For this…if there is any other commandment, it is briefly summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10)
How refreshing; just walk in love, the love which flows from the Father God in heaven, towards your fellow man. He wants fellowship, conversational prayer like you’d talk to any other, and love all.
I closed last week sharing the words of an old hymn, so let me close this week with a song, no, an anthem from those crazy Charismatic Renewal days of the 1970′s that I grew up with: (If you were in the Lord then you know the song)
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not (clap, clap) knoweth not God for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another First John four seven and eight.”
Blessings,
John Fenn
Please send all personal emails or questions to me at cwowi@aol.com
