At its core, Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our faith is anchored in God’s love for humanity expressed through Jesus whom the Bible describes as the “Word (of God) made flesh” (John 1:14). Through the faithful death and resurrection of Jesus, God offers to all who accept and believe in His loving act, forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life.
Christianity is about a believer’s response to God’s gracious invitation as one cultivates a closer walk with God through a personal relationship made possible by the work of Jesus.
Over the centuries, Christian believers developed cultures around their faith. Structures formed. Patterns of belief emerged. Expectations of adherents grew. Unfortunately, things designed to encourage and enhance one’s personal relationship with God sometimes became hindrances to it, even substitutes for it.
Jesus declared, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Today the expression of the church Jesus promised takes many forms. Some Christian faith groups (churches) claim to be the “only” church. If one is not a part of that group, one is either deficient as a believer or outside God’s church altogether.
Some church groups teach that identity with their church is the key issue of life. Jesus died for the church, such groups teach, not for individuals. The invitation of such groups is “join our church” rather than announcing God’s offer of a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus.
Where that takes place, a relationship with the church becomes a substitute for a relationship with God.
God’s invitation to a personal relationship does not imply that He invites believers to a relationship of equals. God is always God. He is always the Creator; we are the creation. He is the Sustainer; we are the sustained. He is the Forgiver; we are the forgiven. He is the Invitation; we are the response. He is the Authority; we are the obedient.
Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit who would “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The believer is to live under the authority of God as the Holy Spirit guides one into understanding all truth. Unfortunately, God’s authority is often confused with ecclesiastical authority.
Some churches advocate obedience to a church office holder. The words of that person are sometimes equated with the words of God. To disagree with that office holder is to disagree with God. The office holder announces what to believe and what individuals are to do as well as what the church as a whole is to do.
When that happens, ecclesiastical structures designed to be stepping stones toward God become nothing more than stumbling blocks as obedience to an office holder is substituted for obedience to God as made known by the Holy Spirit.
For some, their first love is the style, form and traditions of worship. This may be expressed in commitment to pageantry, ritual and beauty of historical liturgies. It can also be expressed in a commitment to a particular style of music or feeling like one has “not been to church” unless the pastor preaches with a particular style of delivery.
In either case the emphasis has switched to the way commitment to God is expressed rather than the unseen presence in worship of the true and living God. When that happens, what is supposed to encourage and enhance a relationship with God becomes a hindrance to that relationship.
Even the work of the church can become a substitute for a relationship with the Lord of the church. Jesus taught compassion for the poor, the hungry and the needy and the church has a marvelous history of demonstrating God’s love to hurting humanity.
Unfortunately, there have been chapters of church history when believers became more committed to feeding the hungry and caring for the sick than to a relationship with the living God. For some the emotional fulfillment of direct services ministry was so overwhelming that direct ministry was done for the sake of direct ministry.
For others, pouring one’s self into direct services ministry has been a way to earn God’s love. For these, direct ministry became a way to earn God’s favor rather than accepting the free gift of relationship offered through Jesus Christ.
At their best, direct service ministries grow out of a personal relationship with God and an understanding of the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the expression of God’s love to humankind in all situations and in all times. His example compels believers to be expressions of God’s love for others.
Over the centuries systems of theology and Christian thought emerged. Scholars and academics debated the fine points of these competing ways of understanding God and His teachings. Sometimes these debates went beyond recognizing differences to actual divisions. Sometimes adherents became more concerned with ensuring victory for their way of thinking, their understanding of Scripture, their system of theology than with a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
That temptation continues today as Christian groups across the world define each other in and out of the Kingdom of God based on agreement with a particular biblical interpretation and as Christians strive more for victory for a certain theological system rather than a personal relationship with God.
It was Charles Gore, Anglican Bishop of Oxford, who said a century ago, “Nothing, I suppose, can keep the Christianity of a theoretical student from deteriorating save the constant exercise of prayer which is the address of person to person.”
Without an emphasis on a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, even Christian theology can become a substitute for knowing God.
Again to quote Gore, “The fruitfulness of life varies with the extent to which Jesus, the historical person, the ever-living person, is recognized as the object of our devotion and the Lord of our life.” Amen.
The apostle Paul declared, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). For those of us who have a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, my prayer is that whether living
or dead, we will “be with Christ which is far better.”
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