Relationship>Religion

Jordan Beck
Jul 23, 2017 · 4 min read

““Remember, the people who know me are the ones who are free to live and love without any agenda.”

Is that what it means to be a Christian?” It sounded kind of stupid as Mack said it, but it was how he was trying to sum everything up in his mind.

Who said anything about being a Christian? I’m not a Christian.”

The idea struck Mack as odd and unexpected and he couldn’t keep himself from grinning. “No, I suppose you aren’t.”

They arrived at the door of the workshop. Again Jesus stopped. “Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslim, Democrats, Republicans, and many who don’t vote or are not part of any Sunday morning religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self-righteous. Some were bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my Beloved.”

Does that mean,” asked Mack, “that all roads will lead to you?”

Not at all,” smiled Jesus as he reached for the door handle to the shop. “Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.””

The excerpt above is from the book, The Shack by William Paul Young and when I came across it in the book, it kind of took me by surprise. I always grew up with the idea that as long as I be good Christian and follow the rules then I’ll make it to heaven and I won’t get on God’s bad side (even though there is no bad side). A lot of people who aren’t believers, don’t believe because they’re intimidated or pushed away the idea Christianity, or at least the way people paint it. The dictionary definition of religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” And a secondary definition of it is “a particular system of faith and worship.”

Now, this is where the problem lies. We’ve turned an intimate relationship with Christ into a system filled with rules and order. All religions are like this, if you follow these guidelines and keep from doing these things and occasionally do religious stuff then you’ll reach whatever your religion promises. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. Once we accept Christ into our lives, we should be focused on having a relationship with Him and living through Him.

There’s a story in the book of Mark where teachers of the law were asking Jesus what the greatest commandment of all was, and Jesus responded with,

““The most important one,”answered Jesus,“is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”” (Mark 12:29–31 NIV)

Once they heard this one of the teachers spoke up and said,

“To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”” (Mark 12:33 NIV)

Jesus responded to him saying that the man had answered wisely. Now this is what it’s all about. Notice that Jesus didn’t tell them that the most important commandment was to follow a list of commandments or anything of that, but rather he told them to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and their strength and then told them to love their neighbor as themselves. Another verse that speaks volumes is in the book of James.

“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.” (James 1:27 NIV)

Jesus doesn’t want slaves that just follow rules and obey commands. He wants relationships with each and every single person. Now, I hope you guys don’t misunderstand the message I’m trying to get across. All of the rules and commandments of the Bible aren’t meant to just be ignored and thrown to the side because that’s not what Jesus wants from us. All of the commandments are meant to be guidelines on how we should live our lives, and if we have a true relationship with Christ then we’re willing to obey and live a life with Christ in the center.

If you notice in the New Testament, Jesus would continuously get angry with the Pharisees and Sadducee's and other teachers of the law because they would put rules and religion in front of what Christ truly wanted for everyone. Religion isn’t evil in its entirety, but if rules and guidelines become more important than following Christ himself then we can’t have a true relationship with our Lord and Savior.

So don’t forget, relationship over religion.

Jordan Beck

Just a shy guy who loves Jesus, Corgis, and the Ukulele

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