Mean Religion

One of the things I have found so confusing is how those who profess to have the highest regard for God, righteousness, and truth are so often those who deny these. They say they hate sin, but really it is just prejudice they love, and a hatred that flows from this. They hate the perceived sins of certain people, yet they don’t hate their own sins. They love a false belief in God that permits them to never really have to change, calling this grace, but delight in a false permission to be able to judge others in how they think they are sinful and “should be”. These proclaim a regard to doctrine, yet these actually oppose the Doctrine of God, forbidding people to believe what is in the Word - a doctrine rooted in an expectation of righteousness and repentance. They are fierce for their doctrines of men, and are sure these are of God, failing to see how their beloved doctrines are of men and the flesh, opposing God.

How loudly these people pronounce that people will be heretics and condemned if people go against their doctrines, when they’re the one against true doctrine. They are quick to believe that those who delight in lawlessness are the “gentiles”, and fail to see how their beloved “religion” professes high regard for godliness, but its end is a deep love of lawlessness, a private permission for their sins.

They profess to care about righteousness, but the fruit of their beliefs opposes righteousness! They do not see how the fruit of their beliefs are not light, but darkness. For, all of our beliefs are measured by the FRUIT of them, what they produce. Yet these people believe that closing their eyes to the outcome of their beliefs is faith in God, deceived away from seeing how crooked their understanding of religion is. These are convinced that it is faith to suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18).

These are convinced that they serve God, failing to see how sinful many of their ways are. That their delight in “God” is rooted in a lie of favoritism with God, of being “special” or superior to others, in believing that some pretense of humility and love is satisfactory with God, that foolish “wisdom” is blessed, that ignorance of reality is standing for the truth, that love of strife is a zeal for God, that their covetousness for inequality is biblical, and that all the harm they do is not evil but good. These are the sins they think they serve God with. They think that they love God and faith and truth, failing to see how the delight inside of them is coming from a sinful mind of what is “good” and a delight in these, rather than in what is just and godly.

These love to think that the worldly person is the “liberal”, the “gentile”, acting from the presumption that those who delight in sin are such persons. They fail to understand that worldliness is not defined by appearances, or “types” of persons, but is defined by the values of the heart. The person who loves the lies of favoritism with God like the Jewish people in Christ’s day believed in, the person who believes that God will not judge them for their sins, either because they have some Atheistic belief OR some false belief of God’s “grace” or love (Rom 2:4), it is the person who thinks “love” is not being held accountable for their sins, and a denial of the responsibility to live righteously, justly, and godly, and that ALL will be judged by God for the works we do in this life, and all will be either condemned or justified by these (Rom 2:6-11). These do not see that the very basis of their “delight in God” is rooted in a delight of lawlessness, the very lawlessness they accuse others of. And it is this lawlessness that is worldliness. They are deceived because they do not see that worldliness shows up in denying our personal accountability, and refusing to REALLY get at our own sins, choosing any form of self serving over righteousness and repentance. To believe that “God” is some place for this self indulgence makes it no less worldly. These deceive themselves about the true “liberalism” and lawlessness of their own hearts.

All the Scriptures that are meant to rebuke them and catch them away from error, they fly right past, always thinking “they know”, and they do not come into a true position of really hearing the SPIRIT of these sins, and examining the SPIRIT within themselves. These will not hear these Scriptures meant to warn and rebuke them, their doctrines are entirely against this just judgment of God, every contradiction they explain away, and they kiss their beloved doctrines that lead them to the pride of FEELING like they know the truth “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22) For all their doctrine about God, they do not see that their religion does very little if any good, and therefore is worthless.

These are so quick to think that they know what legalism is, so quick to believe it is trying to be religious, trying to do works of righteousness, when it is exactly the opposite. It is having a religion that does no real good, that does harm (Mk 3:4), that does no real righteousness; that is proud, mean, self serving, conceited, and full of darkness (Mt 6:22-23). It is presuming to do what is righteous which in substance is empty of righteousness. It is a LACK of righteousness. This was the sins Jesus condemned. Yet, just like the Pharisees in Christi’s day, they are so busy judging the “harlot”, the “tax collector”, and “gentile” - blind to all the evil in their own lives. Thinking they are those ready to instruct the ignorant, having a knowledge of God and truth, when the fruit of their works shows only their sin and ignorance of God (Rom 2:17-23, Tit 1:16).

These are so busy trying to believe they understand the Truth that there is no room for them to truly take time and space and humble themself to learn of Jesus from the Word and His Spirit. They are so busy upholding the pillars of their doctrines (that they are sure are the doctrines of Scripture) that they cannot hear the pure Doctrine of Scripture contradicting them.

These do not understand that true godliness must have real power (2 Tim 3:5). That the goldiness Christ died to give us has substance, wisdom, and light (Tit 2:11-14), and if our “wisdom” is really foolishness, if our goodness is really meanness, if our light is really darkness, and our religion really lawlessness, then we are not abiding in Christ as we think.

The problem for so many is they are content to abide in the theoretical. They will live and live in the ideas of what could be good, and never stop to really test the fruit of their doctrines and ways. That we can say all day long that some idea will do good, but when it never really does, we must see that our doctrine is not in line with God.

I do not condemn all these people as having no faith at all, for the case in this world today is that so many walk in this path because this is what they are taught is a “serious pursuit of God”, and this captures them. The issue is that people do not resist what is being mingled with their sincere faith, and fail to see how these things can destroy their faith. They allow themselves to obey these things, slaves to the lie that being serious about God is one and the same with these things. These people also continue to indulge their own sinful desires and corrupt ideas about God, instead of seeing the sin in these things and repenting of them. We cannot help where we begin our new birth, but it is absolutely our duty to come out of ALL sin in this world, including the sin in the church. So many are content with this corruption around them, and fail to see how this is working great judgment against them (Rom 2:5).

We must see the SPIRIT of this religion, and how it is contrary to Christ, how it opposes Christ and does not align with Him. It is the religion of a hard heart, a religion professing to uphold God’s law while breaking the true Spirit of it, a religion that suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, a religion that does not HEAR, a religion that has fallen into the very errors described in Colossians 2, a religion rooted in a love of strife, a religion that does harm and not good, a religion that believes it serves God while it kills, a religion that opposes true religion. To live in this religion will deceive us and will bring us into condemnation. We must search for the godliness that upholds real righteousness, real equality, judgment, justice, and repentance. We must be willing to go outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ. Must love a REAL righteousness, and must come to hate ALL sin as evil.