Over the past few weeks, a message has been in my face from many different sources. Elizabeth Talbot, the keynote speaker for the Iowa-Missouri Conference virtual Women’s Retreat said it. A couple of podcasters I listen to regularly have said it. It seems the more I listen to things about Jesus, the more I hear it.
Religiosity and Spirituality are not the same thing, and most of us grew up with religiosity.
How much does religiosity and spirituality matter to your salvation? How much might they affect each other? These are questions best asked in the silence of your daily time with God. In prayer and devotion, the barrier is down. The opinions and rules of others are not present. There, with Jesus and you, how much does it matter?
Love and Marriage
When someone compares religiosity and spirituality, I automatically think of marriage.
Can you be married without being in love?
Can you be in love and have a fulfilled love relationship without being married?
Would you choose one if you had to? Marriage without love, or love without marriage?
You and I choose all the time.
We often choose religiosity over spirituality, attending church, and going through the motions while never opening the door to Jesus in our day-to-day life.
Can you imagine what this marriage relationship would look like? Paying bills, cooking meals, doing all the things—no giggling, tickling, staying up late, dates, sharing hopes and dreams, fears, and mistakes.
There are others of us and other times in our lives when we really do the spirituality thing well–reading, studying, growing, and taking Jesus with us throughout our day seven days a week, but we’re afraid the business of church will ruin it all.
Balancing Religiosity and Spirituality
There has to be a happy medium between both religiosity and spirituality just as there’s a balance between the God of the Old Testament and the Sacrificial Lamb of the new one.
I personally think that Jesus came to earth and changed things. He revealed the unhappy, unloving marriage between the church and God.
We have the chance to learn from Jesus how to balance our relationship with God and our relationship with the church.
The Church, Jesus, and Us
When addressing the Romans 12, Paul suggested they present their bodies to the Lord as spiritual worship in verses 1 and 2.
Have you ever considered your body a living sacrifice?
In verses 3-8 we see a clear picture of what the Christian’s first responsibility is as a living sacrifice. We’ve heard the part about our bodies being a temple for the Lord, but have you considered your body is a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as spiritual worship? That means, if you’re completely poor, you have something to offer Him.
Because Jesus died and became our sacrifice, we don’t just get to live, but we get to live as a sacrifice! There is no ordinance to follow, no slaughter, no pieces of meat on a stone alter that we had to hand-make in the dessert. There is no priest we have to take our sacrifice to who will inspect and present it to the Lord for us. Romans says “I appeal to you…by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
Directly from us to Him, we are a sacrifice. No middle-man. Wow.
Talents and Gifts for the Lord
Paul says if you have gifts and talents, if service, then serve. If teaching, then teach. In exhorts or encouragement, then encourage! If God has given you the ability to lead, then lead! If you are kind, then show kindness.
Are you gifted in a sport? Maybe this sport will put you on the path to use your other gifts for God’s glory—kindness, encouragement, leadership.
The same is if you’re gifted at your job or career, you can still use your body as a living sacrifice for God’s church.
True Christians
Paul goes on to discuss with the Romans the marks of a true Christian. Just look at verses 9-21.
While Paul explains the markings of a true Christian, he never mentions wearing your best church clothes, arriving early, leaving late, taking on every church responsibility, etc. He also never discourages religious worship. By definition, religiosity is a strong religious feeling or belief.
Balancing the spiritual life with religious life is not about doing less at church, but about doing more with your heart.
It’s about doing all the things necessary to minister, but also ministering to yourself and worshiping God seven days a week.
It’s about keeping the Sabbath holy not just because God commanded it, but because it’s a gift from him, for us, for communion and rest.
It’s about being baptized not just because it’s popular or expected when you reach a certain age, but because you just have to accept the gift of God’s cleansing love and commit in this way.
It’s about marrying yourself with Jesus, not because you’re afraid of where you’ll end up for eternity, but because you must be with him! You attend church and share your testimony not just because it’s what the church does or you’re good at it, or you’re the only one willing, but because you must be around the body of God’s church and you want more and more people to experience eternal life in heaven.
Marrying your religiosity with your spirituality is like taking your husband or wife in your arms after not seeing each other for school pick-ups, jobs, and time apart. It’s no longer living as roommates, but living in love. It’s like piling into your kids’ bed and talking about their dreams and fears instead of talking about the mess on the bedroom floor and the bad grades at school.
Marrying your religiosity with your spirituality begins at home, in the quiet time with Jesus, but there has to be some quiet time. There has to be some quality time. There has to be some commitment…and love.
