Wow. It feels really good today to be out of the “various
law” passages! Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with the legal parts
of Deuteronomy (or Numbers and Leviticus for that matter). But it is good to have a passage made up of a
single fairly cohesive thought, too.
Religion versus Religious
So, what is
Deuteronomy 26 about? For the most part,
this chapter is about the difference between religion and being religious. I have a favorite shirt that says it
all. On the front, in bold letters, the
shirt declares, “Christianity is not a religion.” The back then more softly says, “Religion is
mankind working our way to God.
Christianity is God becoming man and working His way towards us.” This shirt lifts up the difference between
“having religion” and “being religious.”
Religion is typically
defined along this way:
- people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life
On the other hand,
being religious is defined as:
- believing in and showing devotion or reverence for a deity
Do you inherently see
the difference between “religion” and “religious?” The word “religion” emphasizes my own
beliefs, my own opinions, and my own thoughts.
See how me-centered that definition sounds? Religion begins with me and what I want. On the other hand, “being religious”
emphasizes my reaction to what the divine has already done. Being religious implies that the divine has
acted first and I am simply a response to His greater action. Being religious implies that I am not at the
center; God is.
Okay, I’m splitting a
really fine hair here, and to be truthful I don’t really mind using the word
religion in conjunction with Christianity as much as the shirt might
imply. But I’m lifting up a particular
line of thinking today. There is a
difference between focusing on what I believe and focusing on being devoted to
the teachings of a particular deity. The
first has me and my needs at the center of life; the second has the deity and
the deity’s ways at the center.
How does all of this
relate to Deuteronomy 26? Well, it is
fairly simple. Deuteronomy 26 tells us
to offer up a gift of first-fruits. We offer
this gift for several reasons. First, we
offer it up simply because God is God and God’s name is to be praised. Second, we offer it up so that the Levite,
the sojourner, the poor, the homeless, the orphan, and the widow might be able
to live. We offer it up as a response to
what God has already done for us so that we might imitate His grace, love, and
mercy. That’s why the people are told to
remember Abraham, his offspring, and the oppression they felt at the hands of
Egypt.
For me, the focus of
this chapter for me is in verses 16-17:
“This day the Lord
your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be
careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk
in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will
obey his voice.”
The thrust is doing these things with all of our heart and
soul. We do them to declare who is God
and who is our Lord. We do them to
declare our willingness to walk in His ways.
We do them to declare our obedience to His voice.
On the other hand, we don’t give to God in order to appease
a guilty conscience. We don’t give
begrudgingly only because God commanded it.
We don’t give unto God wishing that we could keep it for ourselves.
That right there is
the difference between religion and being religious. Anyone can come to church, spend an hour a
week, do all the right things, but in their heart actually mean none of what
they are doing or saying. That is
religion right there, and that is not how God wishes us to act. That is not the relationship that God longs
after.
Rather, God wants a
relationship that is genuine. God wants
our relationship to genuinely be within our heart and soul. He wants us to genuinely love Him and to have
that love lead us to genuinely obey Him.
When that happens, we no longer “have religion” but rather we “are
religious.”
On this day of
worship, I hope that you find today that you are more than just “having
religion.” I pray this day that God has
made you His child and that you desire to be in genuine relationship with
Him. I pray this day that Paul’s words
in Romans 12:2 are true for you:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
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