There are many professing followers of Christ in the professing Church today who are religious but are not truly spiritual. They attend church regularly, may be active in church, and even read Scripture regularly, pray and fast. Most who think that they are followers of Christ, or Christians, in the true sense of the term, but are not.
Being a follower of Christ is not about being religious, but about being spiritual, walking both in truth and in Spirit (John 4:24). A person may be religious and not know Christ at all, just as the Pharisees in the New Testament did not know Christ at all (Read the synoptic Gospels in the Bible, that is, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Such people will hear Jesus say to them on the Day of Judgement:
‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:23).
What frightening words! Such words are truly the most frightening words one could ever hear. What could be more frightening than to hear the King of Kings and Lord of Lords say to one who prophesied, cast out demons and done many wonders in Jesus' Name and called him 'Lord, Lord' (Matthew 7:21-22) such words of Eternal Damnation with no second chance. Damnation in Hell is real and it is for an eternity. It will be too late on Judgment Day. God's Judgment on Judgment Day is final.
The spirit of religion is an extremely dangerous spirit. It was the spirit that killed Jesus, accusing Him of blasphemy, despite that it was the one committing blasphemy, finding reasons to accuse to justify wickedness, all under the guise of the Law of God which it perverted for its own wickedness.
There are three key characteristics of this spirit that are evident of its wickedness, and its carnality. They shall be identified as follows:
1. The spirit of religion is full of perverse carnality
People under this spirit are full of perverse carnality. They live for only the things of this world, all while claiming to be so holy and righteous. They are full of worries about buying a house, getting a spouse, and having a happy family. Many conservative evangelicals have such a mindset and push that mentality on young people, telling them to get married and have a family as soon as possible, not because they are godly, but because of their carnality.
Many false teachers who push their own agenda in teaching false doctrine are extremely libertine people. They are among those who get married young, just to indulge in sexual desires. Jude 1:16-19 describes them as:
These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Despite their appearance of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5), they are full of carnality. They are among the most carnal people in the whole world, being even more carnal than religious people of the non-Christian religions. This exacerbated carnality is precisely owing to their claim to know, that is, to love, the true God, that is, the God who became Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16), but their failure to be righteous in accordance to Jesus' Commands. To love Jesus is to obey Him (John 14:15). Such people do not love Jesus, despite claiming to.
They only seek Jesus for what they can get from Him, not because they truly love Jesus, as was the case with the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 19:18-23). They are the ones who are a stumbling block to the unsaved who do not profess Christ and give those who antagonistic towards Christ a reason to blaspheme Him (Romans 2:24).
Their carnality explains why such people will only listen to those who have the highest educational qualifications or older people over younger people, just because of age. They will never take seriously those with no or few educational qualifications, treating them as worthless or utterly lacking credibility, just because they have no or few educational qualifications. Neither will they listen to young people. They think that young people are just a nuisance and need to shut up, just because they are young.
2.The spirit of religion is legalistic
The spirit of religion uses the Law of God unlawfully to justify its own carnal desires. It does not use the Law of God rightly, making it all the more carnal and wicked. It claims righteousness by daring to use of the Law of God itself, but yet is not righteous. This makes the spirit of religion itself full of vile hypocrisy. Hence, this explains why religion, as opposed to true Christianity, always leads to hypocrisy. True Christianity is absolutely sincere and genuine, whereas religion is insincere and hypocritical.
This all explains why religious people are so strict on certain human rules like tithing, wearing certain particular clothing at church and using certain Bible translations, but yet so permissive on the "weightier matters of the Law". They emphasise and elevate their own human rules, and neglect the weightier matters of the Law, as was the case of the Pharisees: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone" (Matthew 23:23).
Legalism is of the spirit of pride and arrogance. Hence why religious people, especially those who are constantly imposing their false human rules on others are argumentative, hostile towards others just because of a slight disagreement and love to impose their own human rules on others. They assume they are always right because they think that they are the Law of God itself. They are also unable to control their emotions owing to their carnality and feel extremely upset or angry when others do something they perceive to be wrong, because they treat it as an offence against them, rather than an offence against God. They think sin that is committed by others is a sin against them. This is utterly wrong as the Scriptures say:
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.
(Psalm 51:4).
Sin is against God and God alone, not you or me. It is against God and God alone. Neither do you or I define sin or determine what is right or wrong. It is only God who does. It follows that sin that is committed is committed against God and Him alone.
3. The spirit of religion is unforgiving and ungracious
The spirit of religion is utterly unforgiving and ungracious. It does not only fail to acknowledge grace. It absolutely despises grace. It is unforgiving and utter lacks graciousness because it thinks that it is the Law that justifies a person. It blinds people into thinking they are so lawful in accordance to the eyes of God that they are superior to those who have "fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) greater than they have.
It cannot help but respond to the verse which says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) "all may have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but I have sinned less than others so I am more justified and more deserving of grace than others". That is exactly what the spirit of religion thinks. It thinks that one is more justified for forgiveness and deserving of Salvation than those who have sinned more than one has. It thinks that way because it thinks that what makes one worthy before God is keeping the Law of God.
This is a woefully mistaken belief. One does not in any way make oneself more worthy than others before God because one has been able to keep the Law of God more than others, for example, by not falling into gross sin, such as drunkenness or sexual immorality. For the Law of God condemns. This condemnation is absolute and unqualified. It does not justify us one single bit! As the Scriptures say:
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” (Galatians 3:11-12)
The spirit of religion in thinking itself justified by its efforts in keeping the Law rejects grace. As a result, it is unable to be gracious towards others, including true followers of Jesus who have truly left very sinful lives and have turned to Jesus. Any attempt to ask them to be 'more gracious' will be vain because of how vindictive and hostile the spirit of religion is towards those who have sinned. This is a manifestation of the self-righteousness of religion.
Owing to its self-righteousness and its self-centred desire to justify itself, the spirit of religion loves to accuse. People under the spirit of religion are constantly looking out for sin in others, so that they may accuse them of sin, shame them and even murder them, to justify their self-righteousness. They are also always trying to be morally clean on the surface, so that they can accuse others. The Pharisees falsely accusing Jesus of blasphemy during His trial, all while blaspheming God themselves, is a ultimate manifestation of the spirit of religion:
Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”
And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?”
They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”
The spirit of religion manifests itself in the most bloodthirsty way when it accuses a person who one absolutely despises. Its accusations kill a person, both spiritually and physically. It can and does kill people, owing to its perverse use of the Law of God, accusing a person of a sin worthy of death, even when that person is innocent. The result false accusations of sin leading to the shedding of blood is murdered. The false accusations against Jesus was murder itself.
Accusations also have the power to kill a person's faith. A person may have genuinely wanted to have seek Jesus but turns away from the faith, owing to accusations against that person for his or her sins, leading to his or her physical and spiritual death. This shows how dangerous the spirit of religion is. It is the spirit of murder. It is full of bloodthirst, all justified by the perverse use of the Law of God.
The spirit of religion is antichrist. It is absolutely against true Christianity. It is the spirit of perversion and spirit of murder.
Repent, repent, repent.
Turn to Jesus today while you still have time.
Being a follower of Christ is not about being religious, but about being spiritual, walking both in truth and in Spirit (John 4:24). A person may be religious and not know Christ at all, just as the Pharisees in the New Testament did not know Christ at all (Read the synoptic Gospels in the Bible, that is, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Such people will hear Jesus say to them on the Day of Judgement:
‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:23).
What frightening words! Such words are truly the most frightening words one could ever hear. What could be more frightening than to hear the King of Kings and Lord of Lords say to one who prophesied, cast out demons and done many wonders in Jesus' Name and called him 'Lord, Lord' (Matthew 7:21-22) such words of Eternal Damnation with no second chance. Damnation in Hell is real and it is for an eternity. It will be too late on Judgment Day. God's Judgment on Judgment Day is final.
The spirit of religion is an extremely dangerous spirit. It was the spirit that killed Jesus, accusing Him of blasphemy, despite that it was the one committing blasphemy, finding reasons to accuse to justify wickedness, all under the guise of the Law of God which it perverted for its own wickedness.
There are three key characteristics of this spirit that are evident of its wickedness, and its carnality. They shall be identified as follows:
1. The spirit of religion is full of perverse carnality
People under this spirit are full of perverse carnality. They live for only the things of this world, all while claiming to be so holy and righteous. They are full of worries about buying a house, getting a spouse, and having a happy family. Many conservative evangelicals have such a mindset and push that mentality on young people, telling them to get married and have a family as soon as possible, not because they are godly, but because of their carnality.
Many false teachers who push their own agenda in teaching false doctrine are extremely libertine people. They are among those who get married young, just to indulge in sexual desires. Jude 1:16-19 describes them as:
These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Despite their appearance of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5), they are full of carnality. They are among the most carnal people in the whole world, being even more carnal than religious people of the non-Christian religions. This exacerbated carnality is precisely owing to their claim to know, that is, to love, the true God, that is, the God who became Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16), but their failure to be righteous in accordance to Jesus' Commands. To love Jesus is to obey Him (John 14:15). Such people do not love Jesus, despite claiming to.
They only seek Jesus for what they can get from Him, not because they truly love Jesus, as was the case with the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 19:18-23). They are the ones who are a stumbling block to the unsaved who do not profess Christ and give those who antagonistic towards Christ a reason to blaspheme Him (Romans 2:24).
Their carnality explains why such people will only listen to those who have the highest educational qualifications or older people over younger people, just because of age. They will never take seriously those with no or few educational qualifications, treating them as worthless or utterly lacking credibility, just because they have no or few educational qualifications. Neither will they listen to young people. They think that young people are just a nuisance and need to shut up, just because they are young.
2.The spirit of religion is legalistic
The spirit of religion uses the Law of God unlawfully to justify its own carnal desires. It does not use the Law of God rightly, making it all the more carnal and wicked. It claims righteousness by daring to use of the Law of God itself, but yet is not righteous. This makes the spirit of religion itself full of vile hypocrisy. Hence, this explains why religion, as opposed to true Christianity, always leads to hypocrisy. True Christianity is absolutely sincere and genuine, whereas religion is insincere and hypocritical.
This all explains why religious people are so strict on certain human rules like tithing, wearing certain particular clothing at church and using certain Bible translations, but yet so permissive on the "weightier matters of the Law". They emphasise and elevate their own human rules, and neglect the weightier matters of the Law, as was the case of the Pharisees: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone" (Matthew 23:23).
Legalism is of the spirit of pride and arrogance. Hence why religious people, especially those who are constantly imposing their false human rules on others are argumentative, hostile towards others just because of a slight disagreement and love to impose their own human rules on others. They assume they are always right because they think that they are the Law of God itself. They are also unable to control their emotions owing to their carnality and feel extremely upset or angry when others do something they perceive to be wrong, because they treat it as an offence against them, rather than an offence against God. They think sin that is committed by others is a sin against them. This is utterly wrong as the Scriptures say:
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.
(Psalm 51:4).
Sin is against God and God alone, not you or me. It is against God and God alone. Neither do you or I define sin or determine what is right or wrong. It is only God who does. It follows that sin that is committed is committed against God and Him alone.
3. The spirit of religion is unforgiving and ungracious
The spirit of religion is utterly unforgiving and ungracious. It does not only fail to acknowledge grace. It absolutely despises grace. It is unforgiving and utter lacks graciousness because it thinks that it is the Law that justifies a person. It blinds people into thinking they are so lawful in accordance to the eyes of God that they are superior to those who have "fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) greater than they have.
It cannot help but respond to the verse which says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) "all may have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but I have sinned less than others so I am more justified and more deserving of grace than others". That is exactly what the spirit of religion thinks. It thinks that one is more justified for forgiveness and deserving of Salvation than those who have sinned more than one has. It thinks that way because it thinks that what makes one worthy before God is keeping the Law of God.
This is a woefully mistaken belief. One does not in any way make oneself more worthy than others before God because one has been able to keep the Law of God more than others, for example, by not falling into gross sin, such as drunkenness or sexual immorality. For the Law of God condemns. This condemnation is absolute and unqualified. It does not justify us one single bit! As the Scriptures say:
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” (Galatians 3:11-12)
The spirit of religion in thinking itself justified by its efforts in keeping the Law rejects grace. As a result, it is unable to be gracious towards others, including true followers of Jesus who have truly left very sinful lives and have turned to Jesus. Any attempt to ask them to be 'more gracious' will be vain because of how vindictive and hostile the spirit of religion is towards those who have sinned. This is a manifestation of the self-righteousness of religion.
Owing to its self-righteousness and its self-centred desire to justify itself, the spirit of religion loves to accuse. People under the spirit of religion are constantly looking out for sin in others, so that they may accuse them of sin, shame them and even murder them, to justify their self-righteousness. They are also always trying to be morally clean on the surface, so that they can accuse others. The Pharisees falsely accusing Jesus of blasphemy during His trial, all while blaspheming God themselves, is a ultimate manifestation of the spirit of religion:
Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”
And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?”
They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”
The spirit of religion manifests itself in the most bloodthirsty way when it accuses a person who one absolutely despises. Its accusations kill a person, both spiritually and physically. It can and does kill people, owing to its perverse use of the Law of God, accusing a person of a sin worthy of death, even when that person is innocent. The result false accusations of sin leading to the shedding of blood is murdered. The false accusations against Jesus was murder itself.
Accusations also have the power to kill a person's faith. A person may have genuinely wanted to have seek Jesus but turns away from the faith, owing to accusations against that person for his or her sins, leading to his or her physical and spiritual death. This shows how dangerous the spirit of religion is. It is the spirit of murder. It is full of bloodthirst, all justified by the perverse use of the Law of God.
The spirit of religion is antichrist. It is absolutely against true Christianity. It is the spirit of perversion and spirit of murder.
Repent, repent, repent.
Turn to Jesus today while you still have time.
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