DAY 345
CHALLENGE
“God doesn’t want us to have religion; he just wants us to have a relationship with him.”
DEFENSE
This is not the biblical way of thinking.
Linguists are familiar with a phenomenon that occurs when a new way of talking about a subject is introduced. At first, it may be perceived as innovative and attention-getting. If it becomes popular, however, it loses these connotations and becomes a standard mode of expression. Eventually, it may become so rote that it loses its rhetorical punch and people start looking for a new, more arresting way to express the idea.
We see this happening in the history of evangelization in the English-speaking Protestant world. Over the last few centuries there have been periodic efforts to find new, compelling ways to preach the gospel. This has led to a series of evangelistic modes of speech, each being replaced by another as it becomes shopworn: “Have you been saved?” “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” “Ask Je- sus into your heart,” and so on. The religion versus relationship meme is simply one of the most recent.
There is nothing wrong with finding new, innovative ways to get people to respond to the gospel, but there is a problem when you become so daring and radical that you end up attacking what you are trying to serve. This is what is happening in the religion versus relationship meme. It is true that we can, should, and do have a relationship with God. However, religion is not a bad thing, as these verses from the New Testament indicate:
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion (1 Tim. 3:16). Women should adorn themselves . . . by good deeds, as befits
women who profess religion (1 Tim. 2:9–10).
If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue
but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:26–27).
God doesn’t have a problem with religion, and we don’t serve him by stating or implying that he does. He wants us to have the right kind of religion.