We need to examine our relationship with the Lord from time to time to ensure we are not becoming religious.
This is the continuation of the ways that we can become religious.
C. Fear of man creeps in
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Galatians 3:1-4
Jesus has set us free and one of those freedoms is not to do things because we fear man but because we desire to please God and be led by Him! When we fear what people think of us or our family we become religious. Our focus shifts to how to avoid other people’s displeasure or judgment. This can be an indication that we are losing our intimacy with the Lord and that we don’t have the convictions we used to have. We rely on others to correct us rather than letting the Holy Spirit nudge us in the right direction when we need it.
This makes our children to live up to others’s expectations as well, and it causes confusion about how this is a relationship rather than a religion.
We need to have the courage to measure everything according to the word of God and not live in fear of others’ judgement.
D. People’s voice becomes more important than the voice of the Holy Spirit
We learn and grow in honoring Godly people and Godly leaders, but somewhere along the line, we find that some of these people take a prominent role in our spiritual life. Christians can quote these individuals better than quoting a scripture.
We may tell others about a personal relationship with Jesus but ours has diminished to a personal relationship with a person. Christian leaders should never take the place of the voice of the Lord or the word of God. While we learn about the Lord from others we should know the Lord personally and have our own revelation of Him. People’s voice in our lives should be only a confirmation to what the Lord has already spoken to us.
There is a danger in our relationship with the Lord, if we are constantly seeking people for the “Word of the Lord.”
E. Church denomination affiliation becomes more important to us than knowing someone is a believer and loves God
A denomination is man’s method of defining the mission and the vision of the church and putting boundaries around the beliefs of the organization.
A denomination is a small subset of the Kingdom of God. Jesus will come back for His bride, which is the body of Christ, not for a denomination. If we are too proud of our denomination or organization, it will isolate us from others thinking that we are right and others are wrong. It will also cause us to miss out on some things that we could be learning from other believers. Furthermore, it can affect the unity of the body of Christ.
We should always be discerning of teachings and beliefs that people share with us and measure it against the Word of God, but this does not mean that we should isolate ourselves from other believers who are not part of our denomination.