Hated that hymn as a kid and I still do. It’s just yeah. Not my thing. However, I am a fan of religion. As a Christian, I kind of have to be. Yeah, I know it’s all the rage for Christians to decry religion and show their spiritual superiority by claiming that THEY have a relationship– not something so weak and worthless as “religion”– but I am not of that camp. See, I believe that the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the joints and the marrow. I believe that every word in the Word is God-breathed and essential for me in my relationship with the Lord.
That being the case, how can I throw out scripture itself in order to be “spiritually correct” this year? James 1:27 specifically says:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Sorry, I don’t think that gives me leave to denigrate what God has clearly required of us. We are to be compassionate to widows and orphans and we are to keep the taint of the world off of us. This is religion and we are to be religious in our application of it.
Why do brothers and sisters in Christ decry the principle rather than the misuse of it. Religion is not the problem. Our misuse and idolization of it can be, definitely. So reject that! Rejecting the principles of Scripture is just as wrong as the misuse of them is.
