The Prejudices Of Religion
I don’t know why it’s so easy to allow the ugly a place to live when one has themselves wrapped in religion. Maybe it’s the air of superiority that can float in when great knowledge is taken without knowing the Author intimately.
Maybe it is the way that attitude is passed down from generation to generation. If you get into a circle with others who are trapped in a religious mindset, they are typically critical of others and you hear them often musing over others faults and imperfections. You never hear them talk about the life that God is doing in others or see higher for others or even point out the “little” degrees of amazing progress that is occurring. Typically, if something isn’t happening in another’s life that looks as religious as they are, they don’t see any progress. But there is progress happening in the lives of Gods people.
Look at this:
“And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him,
from one degree of splendor to another,
since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
I love how Paul describes being a minister of the new covenant. The old covenant was a written one. It was made with letters. The new covenant is completely a spiritual one. He says that the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life.
How religiousness loves the letter of the Bible. It can’t see you or anyone beyond what it can literally hold onto and then shove in your face if you deviate. But I’ve experienced the ministry of the Spirit through those who are led by the Spirit. When they speak to you, it is like hearing from a place of an open heaven. You can actually see forward. And anytime you can “see” (with spiritual, Spirit insight), you can then go as far as you can see. There is a feeling of freedom. You can always experience freedom when someone is ministering in the new covenant.
“...but whenever anybody turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Cor. 3:16-17
You see my friends, you can have religion. There is no need to turn to the Lord to have that. It is clear all over the New Testament that one can have a religious life without truly knowing the Life of God. One can live a religious life without ever turning to the Lord (the Spirit). But a distinction is made to the outcome of a life led by the Spirit and what that outcome produces.
So we need to check our lives. Have we settled into the armchair of religion, satisfied with that set of memorized ways and means, settling for the praise of others and our own good works? One can easily be satisfied with that. Or is the life of the Spirit, through union with Christ (in seeking Him and His righteousness alone) our guiding life? You can tell by your own sight. Can you see by the Spirit? Can you look at a person and instead of calling out the face value, you are noticing the “little” degree of splendor that is happening in their lives? That “one degree of splendor to another..” that comes from the Lord who is the Spirit? Is your life filled with the fruit (or product) of the Spirit? A life that flows in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? There is no law against these things. There is no letter in these that kill. These are from the Spirit that gives life.
“If we live by the Spirit, let us walk where the Spirit leads. Let us stop being ambitious for honors, so challenging one another, envying one another.” Galatians 5:22-23, 25-26
Maybe it is the way that attitude is passed down from generation to generation. If you get into a circle with others who are trapped in a religious mindset, they are typically critical of others and you hear them often musing over others faults and imperfections. You never hear them talk about the life that God is doing in others or see higher for others or even point out the “little” degrees of amazing progress that is occurring. Typically, if something isn’t happening in another’s life that looks as religious as they are, they don’t see any progress. But there is progress happening in the lives of Gods people.
Look at this:
“And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him,
from one degree of splendor to another,
since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
I love how Paul describes being a minister of the new covenant. The old covenant was a written one. It was made with letters. The new covenant is completely a spiritual one. He says that the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life.
How religiousness loves the letter of the Bible. It can’t see you or anyone beyond what it can literally hold onto and then shove in your face if you deviate. But I’ve experienced the ministry of the Spirit through those who are led by the Spirit. When they speak to you, it is like hearing from a place of an open heaven. You can actually see forward. And anytime you can “see” (with spiritual, Spirit insight), you can then go as far as you can see. There is a feeling of freedom. You can always experience freedom when someone is ministering in the new covenant.
“...but whenever anybody turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Cor. 3:16-17
You see my friends, you can have religion. There is no need to turn to the Lord to have that. It is clear all over the New Testament that one can have a religious life without truly knowing the Life of God. One can live a religious life without ever turning to the Lord (the Spirit). But a distinction is made to the outcome of a life led by the Spirit and what that outcome produces.
So we need to check our lives. Have we settled into the armchair of religion, satisfied with that set of memorized ways and means, settling for the praise of others and our own good works? One can easily be satisfied with that. Or is the life of the Spirit, through union with Christ (in seeking Him and His righteousness alone) our guiding life? You can tell by your own sight. Can you see by the Spirit? Can you look at a person and instead of calling out the face value, you are noticing the “little” degree of splendor that is happening in their lives? That “one degree of splendor to another..” that comes from the Lord who is the Spirit? Is your life filled with the fruit (or product) of the Spirit? A life that flows in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? There is no law against these things. There is no letter in these that kill. These are from the Spirit that gives life.
“If we live by the Spirit, let us walk where the Spirit leads. Let us stop being ambitious for honors, so challenging one another, envying one another.” Galatians 5:22-23, 25-26
Interesting how much we cling to in our underlying belief systems and not even realize how damaging it is. When God shows us His way of freedom by His Life in the words He gave us in the Bible, it reveals and unravels the hidden ugly.
(All verses shared from the Williams Translation Bible)
My dear sister in Christ, I have been so bogged down with classwork that I have not read anything but in a very long time . . . but then, right in the middle of my studies, the Spirit of freedom led my thirsty spirit here to be refreshed and restored by your words. The beautiful indescribable feeling of being in the presence of someone who walks in His grace and is filled with His love is one which I will always equate with you, Deb! For it is with you that I first experienced it. I praise God for the Spiritual sight you share here and I pray we can fellowship together soon. I am anxious to share that same peaceful essence with the one who first shared it with me :)
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