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Relationship over Religion

Revelation 3: 20 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” 

I think a lot of us are modern day pharisees. We’ve developed a society where we are fixated on what we can and can’t do in the bible, and we condemn people when we don’t think they fit our own criteria of what a ‘true Christian’ is. But who is in the position to validate our faith if not God? Who has ever fit the criteria of a ‘true Christian’? When we adopt this thinking it’s almost as if we are rejecting the very premise of Jesus’s resurrection. The very foundation of our faith is rooted in the fact that someone died for our sins, so that we may have a relationship with God, not a religion. And I think we must first understand the distinction between the two terms before we can reject this modern-day thinking. 

Religion are customs and practices we follow. This can be things like going to church on Sunday or having a bible study with a few friends every week. These aren’t bad things, in fact God calls us to have a community and fellowship with people but let us not think that these things validate what being a Christian is. From the outside world, this may be evidence of our faith, but to God, if we rely on these things to validate our faith, they are seen as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) 

If we look more closely at the verse, we get a clearer picture of what relationship looks like to God. There’s a couple of things to unpack here. Firstly, Jesus wants to dine with us. When we think of dining with someone, we think of food, conversation and sharing experiences. I’m not aware of your cultural background, but on a day-today basis you don’t usually invite strangers to your house to eat. This is an activity you would do with a friend or family member, and this is the type of intimacy Jesus wants for our life.  

Right now, think of the person you love most in your life. Imagine if you stopped talking to that person for a week. Now imagine a month. Now finally imagine years on years. Could you honestly say at that point you have a relationship with that person? It sounds dramatic but with a lot of us that is how we treat God. We may occasionally go to him for requests, but that’s where our conversation ends. A lot of us are still strangers with God, but He wants intimacy with us.  

Another perspective of eating with God is a spiritual dining that God desires for our lives. A lot of us are spiritually starving, and Jesus has the solution to our hunger. Finally, I want to point out that God “stands at the door and knock”. If I ever knocked on a door and heard no answer, I would eventually leave, but God isn’t associated with earthly timings. Patience is an extension of his character. He will wait for us, but let’s open the door of our hearts to him now rather than later.  

  

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