Connotations are a tricky business. They’re basically stereotypes for words and make us assume something about what’s being said that may not be true or even implied intentionally. Let’s try to keep that in mind as we delve into this subject of religion.

Just reading the word religion makes you think something. The word is used a lot now and you’ll likely have some connotations or associations attached to it. Let’s try to distance ourselves from that and start from the ground. Religion can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but we’ll start with a dictionary definition and go from there. Oxford has three primary definitions of the word which are as: “The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods,” “A particular system of faith and worship,” and “A pursuit or interest followed with great devotion.”

By definition Christianity is a religion, and Christianity comes in all shapes and sizes, but true Christianity (based off the teachings and life of Jesus as the Son of God and accepting the Bible as true) has been distorted by different groups throughout history and totally messed up the image of what Christianity actually means, sending mixed signals to anyone who doesn’t subscribe to those beliefs.

All over history there were people who used Christianity or the church to justify their own agenda, because ever since Constantine endorsed Christianity as a religion in the 300s A.D. it’s been a dominant religion in Western society. Because of this, it was integrated into everyday life and people could receive social perks by claiming Christianity and at least pretending to adhere to the beliefs that came along with it. The excessive violence used in some of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and conquering the Native Americans were all done in the name of Christianity, but if anyone understands scripture, it’s not very hard to condemn those violent and terrible acts. They didn’t in any way represent Christ, and therefore were not Christian, even if they were done in the name of the Catholic and Christian churches.

This is a good time to mention that Christianity has a lot of different denominations, or groups with beliefs that vary based on different interpretations of scripture. Some can be completely heretical, or against scripture, while others might only have one or two minor differences. And denominations don’t even necessarily dictate teaching styles.

Much like how different media outlets will write their stories to appeal to their audience’s slants, some churches will just tell people what they want to hear and not necessarily what the Bible says. This could be something along the lines of a feel-good message that’s more of a motivational speech than accurate teaching, or it could mean certain churches acting on their own hateful impulses and protesting LGBT+ events in despicable ways, such as saying that God hates homosexuals (which couldn’t be further from the truth).

But that’s not really what Christianity is. It’s following Christ, His life and His teachings. It’s taking all of scripture, the good along with the bad. It’s not up to any person to choose what they believe and don’t believe out of the Bible. You have to take it all or nothing. That’s how God wants it, as Jesus taught. It’s not good to be lukewarm – in other words to take a little bit of it but not really commit your life to it or fully be against it. And that’s what I prefer as well. It’s better to just be yourself with all of your doubts and (perhaps) misconceptions and every mistake and flaw and disbelief you have and to just be up front with it and try to figure things out from there.

So what is religion according to the Bible?

A tax collector named Matthew asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, and Jesus replied by saying that you should first love God with all you are, and then secondly that you should love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36)

Jesus’ half-brother, James, wrote a letter in which he said “Pure religion is this: To visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

What isn’t religion?

Those two verses are the simplest way to put it, although there could be more to it than that. Although something that’s important to consider is that a lot of people you see that are “Christian” or “Religious” really aren’t getting it.

It’s not about the law. While Jesus said that He didn’t come to abolish the law, He said that He came to fulfill the law. There are different ways that people explain that. You could look at it like there’s a price for sin, which is death, but Jesus came and paid for it instead of you. It could also be like you’re on death row and are going to face the consequences for a crime you committed and yet Jesus somehow substituted for you and that’s why He was crucified, to take on that guilt Himself that belonged to you. It could take hours to explain, but I’d be genuinely interested in talking about it with anyone who’s interested or has any questions or wants this explained more, even if you just disagree and want to talk through it.

So the Bible is broken into two parts, there are the parts before Jesus and the parts around and after Jesus’ life. These are the Old Testament and New Testament, respectively. A lot of the negativity you’ve seen is from the Old Testament, that’s back when it was more of a “Religion”, when people had to sacrifice animals to make up for their sins and there were more harsh laws and consequences, and that was for a multitude of reasons. But the point is, the majority of those laws that people sometimes try to bring up about how it isn’t right to have tattoos or how it’s wrong to work on the Sabbath come from the Old Testament. That’s what the Hebrews had before Jesus came. Once Jesus came, everything changed and that’s what the New Testament is for.

God loves you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve messed up. It doesn’t matter what you think about yourself. It doesn’t matter what you think about Him or if you don’t even believe in Him. It honestly doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’ve made mistakes. He still loves you, and I love you.

There’s so much more to cover, I’m planning to uncover this topic even more in another article soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions or disagree with anything or just want to clear anything up that you’ve heard before, please ask. Don’t hesitate to send me a text, Facebook message, whatever. I promise it won’t be weird. I promise you’re not alone. Even if you just want a friend or need to complain to someone. If you don’t already have a way to contact me, feel free to send an email to 114matthewjohnson@gmail.com.