Less Religion, More Jesus

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.  Matthew 23:13
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:12-13
Digital scrapbooking kit: Reverie by Marta van Eck
Please note that “less religion” does not mean less Bible or less obeying God’s greatest two commands (love God, love neighbor). It means less rote, less ritual, less hypocrisy, and more living in such a way as to please God from the heart, in truth and spirit. We can’t do those things if we do away with the Bible. We can’t take out the parts that we don’t think are “loving” and say that we love God. Loving our neighbor doesn’t mean indulging our neighbor by supporting them in behaviors that God has said are sinful (but people love to hear they can have their own way and God loves them just the same no matter what they do – that he “gets them” as to why they refuse to repent. Read John 14 and 15 again.) “More Jesus” means the Jesus of the Bible, including everything He said and did, not just the parts we prefer – not a “Jesus” of our own making.

 

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