I must admit, I am addicted to Facebook. I'm not alone, many other people all over the world share the same addiction. With internet access on my mobile phone, it is possible for me to update my status anywhere and anytime I want, providing I have good signal on my phone. A good friend of mine thinks it is pathetic to be updating a status or checking for notifications every hour of the day, I agree, but it has become an addiction for me! I must state that I do not make status updates such as "Cooking dinner", "Walking the dog in the park" or "Thinking about what to write as my next status", I just merely put down what is on my mind and something that may spark a conversation with other people.
My most recent status update prior to posting this blog was to invite people to list as many relions that they could possibly think of. I received several answers including some rather interesting ones. Amongst those who replied was Rea Longman, she wrote back to me with a list of 20 different "religions". I was quite impressed by her knowledge on this topic until she told me how good Wikipedia was! This is the list that she provided for me:
Babism
Baha'i Faith
Christianity
Gnosticism
Islam
Ayyavazhi
Bhakti Movement
Buddhism
Din-i-Ilahi
Hinduism
Jainism
Sikhism
Manichaesism
Mazdakism
Mithraism
Yazdanism
Zoroastrianism
Confucianism
Shinto
Taoism
What a list! I hadn't heard about most of those before beginning this blog.
I then had a few other people posting with their list of "religions", and like I said, I had some interesting ones like a 'Jedi Knight' being a religion! Sound bizarre huh! However, I do not find it too hard to believe.
"Religion" is defined as a set of strongly-held beliefs, vales, and attitude that somebody lives by, or an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by.
As a friend of mine, Tania, pointed out to me "Religion is ANYTHING that you do religiously, so someone who frequently goes to a pub is religious about the pub".
You may have noticed that I had put the word 'religion' in quotation brackets, that is because the list given above is what todays society class as “religion”. As a matter of fact, all of the above are religion apart from one, Christianity. Yes, that's right, Christianity is not a religion. So, if Christianity is not a religion, then what is it? And what makes Hinduism and Buddhism, or even Jedi-ism(?) a religion?
A religion is something that is 'Man made'. In other words, a man came up with their own interpretation of what faith is, and then re-wrote their own version of the bible, or a manual (Koran, Book of Mormon etc...) as some like to call them, to go along with the true word of God.
God clearly states that no man should add or take away from his word, and also that no man should worship any earthly things. Therefore, if man has taken the true word of God and added to it or taken away to modified it so suit them, then doesn't that make it something that is now man made?
To answer the question as to what is Christianity if it is not a religion, we first need to look back and read what Jesus said during his time on Earth. One verse that really stands out as to our purpose on Earth is from 1 John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly”. This to me tells me that Jesus wants us to live our lives like him, Jesus has come to this broken world to show us how we should live our lives! Therefore Christianity must be some sort of lifestyle, instead of following lots of rituals and rules that would bring us closer to our chosen god.
Jesus also said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(1 John 14: 6). Again, Jesus tells us that we must be like him to get into the kingdom of God, we must live the way Jesus did, live his lifestyle.
Christianity is all about Christ and the life he lived, we are clearly called to live life like Christ did, and because of this we call ourselves Christians. It is a lifestyle that we choose to take upon us, and one of which that is not forced on us.
The desciples of Christ were first called Christians because of the way they lived, they loved like Jesus had commanded them to.
This leads me onto another question. What are some of the characteristics of living a Christian lifestyle?
The biggest characteristic of all is 'love'. Jesus loved everybody, he loved everybody so much that he was willing to die for us and save us from sin. So to be Christ like and a follower of Christ, we must love like Christ did.
Jesus told us to love our neighbour and to even love our enemies. Of course, Jesus was not just talking about the people who live next door to us, he used the word neighbour to talk about everybody around us. Love your neighbour as yourself.
We find it hard to love those who have hurt us. Do you remember that one kid from your school who always did what he could to hurt you? Jesus tells us that we have to love that person too, hate the sin and love the sinner.
Another characteristic is JOY. Any Christian that lives the teachings of Jesus Christ will be filled with Joy. If you love like Christ loved, you will be filled with the same joy that Christ had. John 15: 9 – 17 sums this up very well:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
So, lets look at the questions from the first paragraph of this blog which I said I would try and answer. What lifestyle do I follow?
Right now, I am trying to live a life as close to the life that Christ lived that I can. I hold no grudges against anybody and I try to love everybody the same. It is very difficult to do, but I can sleep on the fact that I am not perfect and I will never be able to show the same love to everybody equally, but I can at least try.
Who do I want to be? I call myself a Christian, and as I have written in this post that to be a Christian you are someone who follows Jesus example and try to live your life like Christ's. That is my goal. This is also how I hope others see in me, I hope that they can see Jesus living through the way I live my life. I try to put Christ at the centre of everything that I do, it's not always easy, but like I said before I can at least try.
My challenge for you is to think about how you live your life. Do you call yourself a Christian? if you do, are you a real Christian who follows Jesus and live your life following his example and teachings?
There is a lot more I could write on this topic, but I am going to leave it here for now and let you reflect on the message I have tried to get across to you. Christianity is a lifestyle and not a religion.
As always, contact me with any thoughts or questions.
mattbailyes@hotmail.com
or
Comment below.
Who do I want to be? I call myself a Christian, and as I have written in this post that to be a Christian you are someone who follows Jesus example and try to live your life like Christ's. That is my goal. This is also how I hope others see in me, I hope that they can see Jesus living through the way I live my life. I try to put Christ at the centre of everything that I do, it's not always easy, but like I said before I can at least try.
My challenge for you is to think about how you live your life. Do you call yourself a Christian? if you do, are you a real Christian who follows Jesus and live your life following his example and teachings?
There is a lot more I could write on this topic, but I am going to leave it here for now and let you reflect on the message I have tried to get across to you. Christianity is a lifestyle and not a religion.
As always, contact me with any thoughts or questions.
mattbailyes@hotmail.com
or
Comment below.
Further readings:
http://www.knightforchrist.com/Articles-S/christianity-not-a-religion.htm
http://www.shelovesgod.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=7920
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