Why do I see so many people using the word "religious" to describe people like they would use the word "marinate" and steak? "Oh, that guy is not very religious. That girl is SOOOO religious! Just look at their lifestyles and you can see how religious they are!"
Speaking solely from a Christian (which is a religion for those of you who don't know) point of view, there are two types of people. There is the person who is all the way into his/her relationship with Christ, and there is everyone else; there are no degrees of how "Christian" you are; you are either a true Christian, or you are not. Some of you might be asking "What if I accept Christ and then later I don't feel like living my life for the one who saved me? Am I still a Christian because I believed in Him?" The answer would be...no. 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." It's pretty self-explanatory. Those who "stopped believing" showed that they originally did not believe. Even those who think that they truly believe and are saved may not enter heaven, for Mathew 7:21 says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." As you can see, God knows the true nature of people's hearts, whether they had true faith and genuine works.
So think of God like the Sith kind of; everything is in black and white. You can't be a 2/3 marinated steak or a half-cooked meal (or Christian). You are one or the other.
Edit
Scratch out "religious" and replace it with "Christian" in this post.
Comments (5)
i like this! good explaining :)
it's like being human. you can't be SOOO human, you can't be sometimes human and sometimes not, you can't be half human and half walrus (haha)!
i heard my friend on her phone talking about me one time saying "yeah, you can't cuss in front of this girl because she is SOOOO christian!!! i mean, I'm christian too but this girl is like super christian!"
?????????!!
i don't think being christian is a lifestyle that comes with a list of guidelines you have to check off, it's a relationship with christ :)
There are those who think and live with Religion and those who
blindlyfollow or go against religion.
We may be able to attempt to define who is a Christian, but we are not to attempt to apply that definition. If someone says to me "I am a Christian", I accept that, no questions asked, because it is not my place to judge the content of someone's heart.
I've noticed this as well.. and the ones who say things like "They are Sooo Religious" tend to be the ones who look for loopholes to excuse gross sins. That being said, I wanted to (respectfully of course) mention a couple of things about the verses you quoted.
1 John 2:19- Doesn't refer to people who never truly believed. It refers to Antichrists, or apostates, as seen in 1 John 2:18. Ones who were corrupted and now deny Jesus' important role as King and the sin atoning power of his sacrifice. The reason this is happening is because the world continues to worsen and become more selfish (1 John 2:15-17). The reason the world keeps declining is because of.. well.. read for yourself (1 John 5:19)
Matthew 7:21 - Was referring to the leaders of False Religion, this can be seen in the preceding verses where Jesus describes how to identify them (Matthew 7:15-20). I think the scripture that better fit what you were saying would be Matthew 7:13,14.
I think people sometimes misunderstand what the word religion means. It comes from the Latin 'religio,' which is 'reverence for God or the gods, and a careful pondering of the divine.' Modern usage organizes this reverence and pondering into public expression.
Religion therefore doesn't really refer to one's relationship with God but the outward expression of that relationship, the corporal worship experience. This is what people outside the church typically see, the forms, expressions, and the order of service. People within the church don't typically see these things, but the God behind them, or the God being expressed through them.
This is why 'religion' has become a dirty word in many Protestant circles, because it actually refers to the forms rather than the God behind the forms.
Just a little clarification. Don't mind me.