1Tim. 6:20 – “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge”
Several years ago a new catch-phrase began to be bantered around in Christian circles. I am not sure where it started, but it gained traction rather quickly. It goes something like this: “I am not religious but spiritual.” Underlying the phrase are a few thoughts: 1) That somehow “religion” had become equated in people’s minds with dead hierarchical ceremony, 2) That “religion” encompasses a bunch of rules or regulations, and 3) That the “religious” only practice outward forms and rites, but experience no personal or intimate relationship with God.
This new catch-phrase was attractive to many people in our Western culture for many reasons. For one we are very individualistic people and prefer any notion that elevates our personal experience over that which is communal or ordered by something outside of us. Additionally, many people had grown up in a church culture where they perhaps observed an environment that indeed focused heavily on morality, but was perhaps hypocritical (or even dead spiritually speaking). And lastly, people observed that many were beginning to leave orthodox Christianity – Either by renouncing their profession altogether, or by joining “churches” that were more worldly or exciting, and less doctrinally focused.
It has come to a point in many Christian circles that the term “religion” is like a bad word. Or at least, people who refer to their faith as a religion are thought to be ignorant or old-fashioned. But I would hope that we can be a little more thoughtful than that. Let me clarify my own stance on the matter – I do not believe “religion” to be a bad or a useless term. A man’s religion specifies what he believes – It gives a context to understand what he professes, but to say that you are merely “spiritual” could mean anything. Wiccans are spiritual, Hindus are spiritual, and Prosperity preachers are spiritual – But without a theological framework to measure them by, who is to say that their spirituality is any worse or better than your own? And here is the great issue that I see in the non-religious “Christian” landscape of our world – There is very little that defines them or unifies them anymore. Every group, and every individual, seems to be interpreting things for themselves. No one wants to be taught, no one wants someone or something else to tell them what is true – They are their own teachers, their own judges, and their own arbiters of what is real or not. They denounce “religion” as being a man-made construct – All the while they are making one all their own.
Look, I am not advocating that we blindly and unthinkingly accept what others teach, I am not advocating we should adhere to cold and lifeless ritualism, and nor am I promoting empty Moralism under the guise of religion. What I am saying is that we are not free to individually determine what is true “spirituality” based on what suits us personally. There must be a standard – And that standard cannot be reduced to personal preferences, or a small list of key doctrines, but it must be the whole Word of God. The teachings of the Bible line out the specifics of what true Christian spirituality is all about. It outlines our personal spiritual practices, it declares what is true and what is false, it defines church order and practice, and it has instructions for how we are to live in every sphere of life. It describes both the relationship we have with God through Christ, and our obligations to Him in the midst of that relationship. Thus it provides a thorough framework for what it means to be a Christian. Anyone who wishes to lay aside this standard, under the guise of being spiritual, is practicing a form of spirituality that is not from God.
Sadly, the results of this catch-phrase (and the mindset behind it) have not produced a generation of people who are devoted to Christ and His Word – Just the opposite has happened. As “Christianity” has become more individualistic, more “spiritual,” more splintered, and more ill-defined no one knows what it means to actually be a Christian. For a time, everyone was calling themselves a Christian, but now more and more aren’t just throwing away the term “religion,” but they are also throwing away the term “Christian.” More and more identify themselves, not as a “spiritual Christian,” but as simply, “spiritual.” Rather than throwing out the term “religion” what we really need to discard is any practice of faith that does not adhere to the Word of God. Sometimes that happens systemically in whole denominations, and sometimes that happens individually. If your spirituality is not defined and ordered by God and His Word then your spirituality is useless, idolatrous, and heretical. O how we all must take care not to be taken in by cultural and trendy catch-phrases. What seems harmless and even helpful at first can actually undermine God’s will and Word. O that we wouldn’t seek to disregard religion, but rather strive for that religion that is pure and undefiled in the sight of God (Jam. 1:27a).
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