"Religious"

James 1:26 “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” NIV  

Do you consider the word religious to be an insult when it is used to describe you? I know that I did. The word today reeks of a self-righteous, pious person who is caught up with a bunch of foggy traditions and archaic rules. Many of us are quick to respond to those who make such comments about us. The most popular response seems to be that I am not religious but that I have a personal relationship with a God who is alive and that I am not bogged down by an institution or a religious liturgy. Far be it from me to be put my faith in Jesus in such a box with heartless traditionalism and stale old ceremonial services.

However, if my relationship with Jesus does not extend past the attendance of a church service or small group involvement and perhaps seeing Steven Furtick, Bethel Redding, or NorthPoint Ministries online then I am afraid that I am just as religious as those people I vow I am not like.  The only difference is that I have switched the pipe organ with a keyboard and a set of drums. I may be a bit more contemporary, my clothes may be more comfortable and I may seem to be a bit more “with it”, but I am every bit as religious as those I accused in years gone by. “Religious” hasn’t changed, it just looks cooler.

James even goes as far to say this: your true faith is not attached to your mouth, it is attached to your heart and manifested through your feet. Such a person, who has been transformed by the love of Jesus to the point that their love for Him transforms to a passion for the hurting and needy, which in turn makes me get up and do something about it, understands true religion.  Religion is not archaic. It is not dead. It certainly is not stationary. It is not self-absorbed.  It doesn’t have a crowd or entourage. It does not practice self-aggrandizement.

As a matter of fact, it will sacrifice the self-agenda to make sure others are ministered to. Often, it performs in a way that many people don’t even know you have done it. And if that is the case, I only have one prayer today and I hope it is yours too. It is “Father, help me to be a religious person. Make my faith travel from the pulpit to the pew to the pavement.”