| “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” |
| —John 4:24 |
If you carefully examine every other religion in our world today, you will find one common theme. They all require their adherents to express their worship by specific action on the part of the worshippers. The one exception is Christianity.
Despite what many unbelievers may think, Christianity does not make any requirements of specific action or behavior in order to receive the benefits from the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Rather, Christianity believes that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. (James 1:17).
It is God who has chosen us to receive His free gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who has called us to Himself through the Holy Spirit. He is the one who vouchsafes our eternal home in heaven. Our faith springs forth in response to these marvelous gifts that God has given to us.
When we worship God, we express to Him that He has great worth—worth beyond measure. But we do not express this worship by our behavior. Rather, we express our worship to God by communicating with Him in the spiritual realm. In so doing, we express our belief in His inestimable value in a manner quite apart from some prescribed behavior.
Jesus reminded His disciples that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). As I’ve explained many times, that expresses our love for God using all four of our human modalities: emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. But, it’s an expression outside of the normal, temporal realm. It is an expression that occurs in the spiritual world.
Notice how Jesus explained it, as found in John 4:24:
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
So, as we begin another day, let’s make certain we take every opportunity that God opens up for us to dispel the idea that Christianity is a religion of rules and regulations. We “Christ’s-ones” are not like the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees of old who constructed a long list of dos and don’ts. By so doing they significantly complicated the original instructions God gave them in the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Old Testament.
Instead, we should freely share that our worship of God consists of the spiritual connection He has forged with us through His precious Son, Jesus. Thus, Christianity is not a religion of rules. It is a religion of grace—God’s grace, freely given to us. And, that, dear ones, should make all the difference.
Based on a blog originally posted on Friday, April 28, 2017
