March 23
Luke 5:29-6:11
I talked with a man recently who called himself a religious person. He summarized his religious belief as doing unto others, as he would want done to him. As impressive as this ethic is, it falls short of the relationship with Christ to which we are called. When we look at the life of Jesus, we find him surprisingly in conflict with good, religious people who got so caught up in rules and religion that they missed the Messiah standing in front of them. In eating with ‘sinners’ and healing on the Sabbath, Jesus placed himself in stark opposition to the religious people of his day. Jesus’ actions contradicted their traditions which they had elevated to Scripture and because of that they missed him, the most important thing.
We are prone to elevate our personal convictions, traditions, and ideas higher than we should. We need to constantly evaluate our ideas against Scripture and live in accordance with what God says. We need to follow God, allow him to lead us, and have the humility to recognize that in areas where Scripture does not clearly speak, God may lead others differently. When we get to the book of Hebrews, we will read a whole letter written to religious people who were were confident in their religion and less certain about Jesus. Yet he is everything. We need to give ourselves to him and when we do, we may find that following God puts us in conflict with religious people.
Father God, help me to be led by your Scripture and your Spirit to know how to live. Help me to obey you. Amen.
Why are people often content with religion rather than a relationship with Christ?
I talked with a man recently who called himself a religious person. He summarized his religious belief as doing unto others, as he would want done to him. As impressive as this ethic is, it falls short of the relationship with Christ to which we are called. When we look at the life of Jesus, we find him surprisingly in conflict with good, religious people who got so caught up in rules and religion that they missed the Messiah standing in front of them. In eating with ‘sinners’ and healing on the Sabbath, Jesus placed himself in stark opposition to the religious people of his day. Jesus’ actions contradicted their traditions which they had elevated to Scripture and because of that they missed him, the most important thing.
We are prone to elevate our personal convictions, traditions, and ideas higher than we should. We need to constantly evaluate our ideas against Scripture and live in accordance with what God says. We need to follow God, allow him to lead us, and have the humility to recognize that in areas where Scripture does not clearly speak, God may lead others differently. When we get to the book of Hebrews, we will read a whole letter written to religious people who were were confident in their religion and less certain about Jesus. Yet he is everything. We need to give ourselves to him and when we do, we may find that following God puts us in conflict with religious people.
Father God, help me to be led by your Scripture and your Spirit to know how to live. Help me to obey you. Amen.
Why are people often content with religion rather than a relationship with Christ?
Recent
Archive
2026
January
January 1January 2January 3January 4January 5January 6January 7January 8January 9January 10January 11January 12January 13January 14January 15January 16January 17January 18January 19January 20January 21January 22January 23January 24January 25January 26January 27January 28January 29January 30January 31
February
Categories
no categories
No Comments