Are You Really Religious?

What mental picture comes to your mind when you think of someone who is very religious? A Catholic may picture someone who is devoted to praying the rosary several times each day or someone who is able to visualize the virgin Mary in a salt stain on a highway overpass. Perhaps to you a religious person is one who always seems to be in a state of deep meditation. But, as always our concern is “What Saith the Scripture?” How does scripture define someone who is “religious”?

The scriptural definition of “religious” is found in James 1:27: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Bible spirituality centers on acts of kindness, charity and benevolence toward our fellow man and an obedient walk with God that places our life’s emphasis on what is eternal, not what is temporal (cf. Col. 3:1ff; Phil. 3:20).

“Religion” is shown, not by great acts of devotion to some religious or doctrinal “system,” but rather by our obedience to God and through our deeds toward our fellow man. First, our closeness to God is not measured, for example, by our “faith” to see the virgin Mary in a salt stain on a highway overpass. But rather as John said, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3) Since God only reveals His will in His word, only those that obey His word can truly lay claim to loving and knowing Him (cf. 1 Jn. 2:4-5; 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 2:4-13).

Craig Thomas