Righteous or Religous?

We have all at one time or another struggled with righteousness, whether the struggle with living a righteous life or accepting that we are righteous in God's eye's, but have you ever noticed that no one seems to have any difficulty with being religious? If you took a poll and asked people what the difference between being righteous and religious is, I am confident that you would get mostly the same response that they are the same thing. Most people equate righteousness with religion because they suppose that religion means going to church and doing good or right and that is called being righteous.

The truth is that righteousness and religiousness are two very different things. Righteousness is defined as; acting right, acting according to what is right. If we are to be Christians (Christ like), then we are to obey and live according to the word of God, the Bible. Following Jesus and living according to God's word, helps make us righteous. We could not be righteous on our own. Jesus' sacrifice and our acceptance (receiving Him as savior) makes us righteous or in right standing with God.

Ephesians 4:23,24
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

That verse in Ephesians almost sums it up. We have to be renewed in our minds (thinking) to the truth that we have been made righteous and then we put on the new man (change our actions) and begin to live righteously in which God had originally created us to be. Basically righteousness is doing things God's way, with God's guidance. This doesn't mean we won't mess up and miss the mark. We still have the sinful nature of our flesh to contend with. That is where God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness comes in.

Now, what about religiousness?

Religion is defined as; A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. I chose this particular definition to show that the term religion is actually broader than what we are used to accepting it as. This broader definition shows that the term religion can apply to more than Christianity. Being religious is simply devotion to what we believe is right or righteous.

Now you may be wondering what would be wrong with that. The answer is nothing would be, except the "what we believe" part. If we hold to the word of God and His commandments, then there wouldn't be anything amiss about religious righteousness. The problem comes when we begin to insert our carnal interpretations of God's will for us without His guidance. It's kind of like those weird and silly laws that you may hear of sometimes like, " it is unlawful to peel a banana on the third day of the second month while crossing the state line". I know that is a bit far fetched but there are some laws there were just that outlandish.
You see, serving God, going to church, not drinking, not smoking, not doing this or that or doing this or that out of religious duty is actually righteousness of our own will and not of God's.

I heard this statement, which actually was the basis of this article. " Righteousness is when we try to do God's will His way and religion is when we try to do God's will our way".

Now, the question is how do we determine if we are living righteous or religious? We determine it by going to God and surrendering our will to His. We must be willing to allow God to show us the way we should go and be willing to go, even in the face of adversity. We must show a true relationship with God. It is true relationships that get noticed and that people envy. When you see someone with a true relationship with God, you want what they have. God wants that to. He wants a true relationship with you. Developing and cultivating that kind of relationship with God enables us to walk in true righteousness and not false religion.

In Christ,
Kevin