Smoke or Life?

I was reading Paul's letter to the Galatian believers while eating tacos at Jimboys today. (I don't recommend the tacos for breakfast.) Anyway, I was reading and in this letter the Apostle is riding on the Galatian believers pretty hard for their backsliding into legalism. Evidently some religious people were trying to get the Galatians to stop being so free in their living and instead were trying to convince them with smooth talk and emotional manipulation to express their faith by living according to rules instead of living by faith and love. Paul outlined the whole purpose of the law and laid out the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Mosaic law and then compared it to just being free and living by faith.

In a nutshell he said this, the law was temporary and it was to show us that religion and religious practice is not the answer to having a relationship with God. The essence, the core, the basis, the "main thing" in the expression of our relationship with God is this: faith expressed in love. Love. Faith in God and loving God and loving people. No more, no less. The rest of it is smoke that makes us choke. This is what Paul was saying I Cor 13, we can do all sorts of religious stuff but the more we do that the more likely we are to become merely religious and lose touch with the reason for religion, love.

Galatians 4 -6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

13 -15It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.

My spiritual heritage is rooted in religion. For sure, there is a remnant there that do love God and do love people. Just like He showed the prophet that felt he was the last one in Israel to love God, God showed me there are some that follow the inner law of love even in the midst of stifling religion. However, it is stifling nonetheless. At the end of the day, when I finally woke up to my ultra-religious state, I realized I was cold, judgemental, hard hearted, rebellious, contentious, unsympathetic, unkind, selfish, arrogant, divisive, irrational, and all sorts of ungodly things. In my pursuit of holiness I had become very unholy and was a tree bursting with the fruit of religiousity. On top of all that I had no peace, no rest, no joy. I was stressed out in every way.

What's ironic is that so much of religion is couched in messages and thoughts that make us feel good. They're messages that concern our "happiness" and how we view ourselves. They're navel gazing introspection that pander to our pride, our ego, and the idea that we are the center of our universe. Instead of teaching us to honor God and love others they vault our own interests and concerns to the top of the list. Religion becomes about us, not about God or others. That's anti-Christ, in my opinion.

This is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. Stop being so darned religious and just live by faith and express that faith by loving others. I can almost see him kicking a chair and saying "Jeez! Keep it simple, stupid! Why can't you see that?".

Living by the law of love simplifies life to it's bare minimum, to it's foundation. If we make our decisions and actions based on loving God and loving other people then many of our choices are clear as a spring day in the mountains. There is no question, the way is easy to see. But when we're clouded by self interests and pride the way is murky and frought with questions.

Living life according to what's best for others and what honors God is the way to peace. Jesus said that He's the road, the way, the truth, the life. Jesus is love. He is the Holy Spirit, the friend living in us. We just need to move ourselves into the way and let love rule our actions. That's the simple life.