Pure Religion

What does it mean to be a Christian?

We often have an idea that being a Christian means that we go to church wearing a tie, praying to God, reading our Bibles, and evangelizing to people in the streets. But is that really what Christianity is all about?

Does that ever feel a little empty?

2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."

The above verses can speak to us in a lot of different ways on many subjects, but I want to point out how far many of us, myself included, have drifted from what Christianity is supposed to be about. Those verses could probably describe most Christians in North America. We go to church and have a form of godliness, but we are denying its power. Our faith and our spiritual lives are flat and lack substance.

Isaiah 58:1-14 talks about empty religion, saying, ""Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'

"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD ?

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

"Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

"If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Read that passage again, slowly. Look at what God instructs us to do and the promises He gives for those who obey. We are to take care of the needy, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless. Then, it says, we will call upon God and He will hear us. He says to stop pointing fingers, stop talking maliciously, and help people.

James 1:22-27 says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 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."

We may not all have orphans and widows in our lives, but there are certainly those in need. It doesn't matter if we don't have a lot of money, we can give with our time or with our friendship and support. There are all sorts of needs that people need met, physical and emotional, and but why do we always focus solely on the spiritual?

We can be as spiritual as we like, and it is good to be spiritual and to become intimate with God, but there also needs to be fruit in the natural world. By fruit, I mean that our spirituality needs to have substance, it needs to actually mean something in the real world or it is useless. James 2:14-17 says, " What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Jesus said the same thing, this time with a warning, in Matthew 25:31-46:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

It is good to read your Bible and to pray. It is good to go to church. It is good to spread the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? The word 'gospel' means good news. The Gospel that Jesus brought wasn't only a spiritual good news, He also met the physical needs of the people.

Reread Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and look at what Jesus spent the most time doing. Nearly every single one of Jesus' miracles focused on helping people in the real world. He fed people. He gave them wine to drink. He healed the sick. He had compassion on the outcast. Why aren't we doing the same things?

Jesus first met the physical needs of the people, then He addressed their spiritual needs. Ask yourself this question honestly: Why did the crowds gather around Jesus- because He met their physical needs or because He talked about the kingdom of heaven?

I believe that by meeting the people's physical needs, they were more open to pay attention to the spiritual. So how does that apply to your life?

Jesus said in John 13:34-35, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

When we begin to love others by helping them, it will draw us closer to God. Then our prayers will be heard, then we will have the full power of godliness. We must treat others the way Jesus treated the people around Him, with compassion and mercy.

Where did we ever get the idea that Christianity was only supposed to happen in a church?