“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 ESV
Reflection: what is the purpose of religion?
An estimated 85% of the world’s population consider themselves “religious”, or belonging to some religion. Perhaps not too surprising. But did you know that there are an estimated 10,000 different religions in the world? That is just wild. Now, we can at least understand that people from around the world have a different understanding of who and how they worship. With all these different world religions, they clearly don’t all use the Bible as their guide. But, if we then focus solely on Christians that use the Bible as their foundation and guide, how many Christian denominations do you think exist in the world? The estimate is around 45,000! Four times as many as there are religions in the world. How is that even possible, if truly the Bible is the guide?
Many Christians even call themselves according to their denomination (Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Adventist, Catholic, etc), as opposed to being a follower and a disciple of Christ. This tendency of forming “denominations” started even in the early church, as Paul was warning the Corinthians. “For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:4-9 ESV
So what is this “bent” towards religion, towards doctrine, that becomes religion?The truth is that we all struggle with the simplicity of the gospel. That we have nothing to do with or can offer for our salvation. Doctrine and religion can give us a false sense of accomplishment, and they also can enable us to feel superior, in a way, and even in “control” of others. Prime example here is what the religious class had done among the Israelites at the time of Jesus. Remember, it infuriated Jesus. Paul writes very clearly, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV. Faith alone. It is His work; not ours.
In our focus verse today, we see that this is nothing new. It has been a struggle since the beginning. But, the answer has also been available, even before the full revelation of God’s salvation plan. The prophet Micah wrote the Lord’s instruction, direction to mankind, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 ESV. We see three very distinct requirements from the Lord,
- do justice (act justly)
- love kindness (love grace)
- walk humbly with your God
This is actually so easy to understand. But have you ever seen a church with such simple “doctrine”? It is man who makes God’s simple requirements complicated, adding or changing things. Really if we look at how Jesus lived, it was very simple, very much aligned with these three principles. Maybe it is time to evaluate our lives, to be less religious and more aligned with the simplicity of the Word of God. Jesus reminded us that the summary of the entire Law and Prophets really is to love God, and love our neighbors as ourselves. As the Lord said in the Old Testament through the prophet Micah, it’s really not that complicated.
