Is Christianity a Religion or a Relationship?

You may have heard the phrase, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion”. This phrase has become a common way of communicating an idea that has begun to dig deep and pervasive roots into the American church. A proper understanding of this phrase is no doubt crucial for the way in which we understand the Christian faith, and how we come to understand this can influence our view of what embodies a Godly life. So with that said, is this phrase good? Is this correct? And how should we interact with the ideas that are contained within this popular saying? My goal in this post is simple, it is to disentangle the concept of religion from those of legalism, fundamentalism, and authoritarianism so we can have a biblical understanding of religion rather than a cultural one. My goal is also to help us as believers understand that religion is not in conflict with our relationship with the God of the Bible, but the very things contained within religion are essential for our life and Godliness!

I wanted to preface this post by acknowledging that this idea has primarily arisen in response to serious and genuine pain that has been experienced within Christianity. It is consistent spiritual and other forms of abuse within the church that have led to this idea becoming so appealing. It might even be said that this idea is being put forward as a way of outreach towards those to whom the idea of religion brings up genuine past pain and even trauma. My hope is not to invalidate that pain and suggest a return to the system that hurt you, rather it is to point towards a goodness that I believe is revealed in the scriptures. A goodness that I don’t believe should be demonized or thrown away because of the abuses of leaders or other believers, but one that we collectively should seek earnestly.  

With that said, I believe the core mistake behind this principle is a conflation of multiple ideas that ought remain separate. When hearing this phrase used, preached or taught on, I’ve noticed a theme. Religion consistently, if not always, is made to be synonymous with legalism, fundamentalism, or authoritarianism. I simply want to define these terms, which will hopefully disentangle them, then we can approach scripture to allow it to define “religion”. Legalism is defined by Merriam Webster as, “strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code”. Fundamentalism can be defined as, “strict adherence to the basic principles of any subject or discipline.” according to Oxford’s dictionary. And finally, Authoritarianism defined by Oxford is “the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.” 

A concept in all of these ideas is that of “strictness”. They each embody an element of restricting anyone entangled in them. Whereas we know from Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Therefore, if to be “Religious” is to embrace any one or more of these things, then it is by its very nature, Anti-Christ. My appeal is not to embrace these things, rather it is to allow the Scripture to define Religion, and disentangle these wicked ideologies from it. 

We therefore know that if the Scriptures use “religion” in a positive way, it must not be entangled with ideologies that are Anti-Christ. So how does the Bible define “religion”? Let us look to James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Other translations state it as “Pure and undefiled religion..” How can we use the word religion in a negative manner when James calls it, “pure and undefiled”? Now, this also implies that there is a way in which religion can be utilized in an impure and defiled way. Nonetheless, this shows us that religion is not a derogatory term, nor a term that ought not be demonized by believers. Rather we should strive corporately to embody “pure and undefiled” religion!

I believe it may be of some benefit to briefly address the Greek word which the author of James uses here in James 1:27. The word here is θρησκεία, (thrēskeia) which according to Strong’s Concordance (G2356) is simply ceremonial observance:—religion, worshiping. An argument against a positive view of religion would appeal to the continuous conflict between Christ and the “religious” leaders, the high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. Which is why I note that this particular word is never used to describe them. The closest we see to this word being used to describe this group of people is in Acts 26:5, when Paul says, “Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” Once again we see the concept of “strictness” arise in this passage as a way in which religion can become corrupted. Threskeia is used only four times. It finds use in Colossians 2:18 as Paul warns against asceticism and “..the worship of angels…” And finally it is used in James 1:26 alongside thrēskos (Strong’s G2357 “religious”) “If any man among you seem to be religious(G2357), and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion(G2356) is vain.”

Now, we must ask the question, should we just abandon the proper understanding of this word to embrace and appeal to the cultural understanding? This question has serious tensions and I can see positives and negatives on both sides. For example, one might argue that to use the term religion in the way it is culturally understood may help listeners understand what is being taught, but the response might be that when we abandon the original meaning, these listeners will later come to wrong understandings of the scriptures as they read these terms through the lens of the cultural understanding rather than a contextual understanding! Both sides see their decision as a way in which to love their neighbor and shepherd the flock of God to the best of their ability. With that said, my personal opinion on the topic is this, I believe since “religion” has such a deep rootedness within not only the scriptures but also the writings of the church fathers and other great Christian thinkers throughout church history, that it would be of more benefit to fight to reclaim the historical and correct understanding of this word. This would then help believers understand the scriptures correctly as well as other historical church writings and documents. My appeal is for those who teach to take the words they choose to use seriously when teaching on this topic. 

Even understanding that those who embrace a negative view of the word religion may be doing so out of love, I still believe the idea that “religion” is a derogatory word is a pervasive and dangerous idea. I believe we need to understand this, before we can look at how to embody pure and undefiled religion, that brings God’s goodness to earth. The primary reason I see this way of thinking as dangerous is because it seems to promote individualism and embraces some form of a Christocentric Postmodern hybrid. In the end this way of thinking adopts our modern western culture of individualism by elevating the importance of individual experience. It makes the core of the Christian faith personal piety rather than Christ centered community.(Community becomes merely a tool of importance for personal piety) The value is placed on an individual’s worship experience rather than corporate, communal worship. It is here, I believe, that we lose a large sum of nominal believers to a form of Moral Therapeutic Deism. I also believe it creates a large space for subjective truths, ideas, experiences to exist in our communities without proper teaching, exhortation and correction. There is evidently a biblical value on correct teaching and correction of false teaching.(2 Pet.2, Titus 1, Mat 7, 1 John 4, ect)  This desire of the Church from the beginning to watch carefully over correct dogma and doctrine is put to death by this way of thinking. 

This way of thinking, simply put, devalues or even demonizes biblical teachings on eldership, authority or structure. These positions and structures were put in place for goodness and protection. In Acts 20:25-32, Paul warns the elders of Ephesus that from amongst them will come fierce wolves, not sparing the flock. Paul’s admonition is not to abandon religion, to abandon authority, structure, gathering, and to just focus on their personal relationship with God… Rather Paul tells them to, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” and to “Be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” Paul’s exhortation to to keep a close eye on themselves and one another, but also to be good overseers of the Flock of God. 

Now, when we ask the question, “Is Christianity a religion or a relationship?” The answer is rightly, I believe, both! I recently heard Ft. Josiah Trenham say in one of his contemplations, “Religion not centered on knowing God is foul”. And I believe this to be true. The center of a religion of goodness, one which can rightly be called pure and undefiled, is to know God, not just individually, but communally. It is then to know God’s heart, and to practice His will, “To keep oneself unstained from the world, and to care for the widow and the orphan” There is much more that could be said of what makes correct Christianity a religion of goodness, I will recommend Scott McKnight’s book, “A Church Called Tov” to dive deep into this topic. But for now I will wrap this up. 

My conclusion is this, Christianity is rightly a religion and relationship, and to choose one or the other is a false dichotomy. “Religion” is a neutral term, a term that is not synonymous with legalism, fundamentalism, or authoritarianism. And finally, the Scriptures promote a beautiful and good picture of religion that allows us to flourish in our relationships with God, become like Christ, and live out God’s heart by caring for the afflicted among us. This in term is the answer to the way Christ taught us to pray in Matthew 6, “Our Father… Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” Amen