(Ver 1.2) Many try to classify Christianity as a religion, but it is not a religion, it is a relationship.  You either know God or you don’t or more importantly God knows you or He doesn’t.  In Luke 13:25, Jesus tells a story of those that are standing on the outside crying out “Lord, Lord”.  Jesus tells them “Depart, I know ye not”.  What a sad story of people who thought they did everything right but didn’t know God and more importantly weren’t known by God.

Reading and studying the Gospels, I found Jesus to be a loving and compassionate individual, to all but one group of people.  So did God show favoritism by NOT treating these people the same as he did the common sinners.  These people that Jesus constantly confronted in abrupt terms were the religious people of His day.  These were the rulers of the Jews.  These were those that thought of themselves as being better than everyone else.  These are the people that thought they knew more than everyone else, including God who was standing before them.  These were the keepers of the law of God, who added to the Word of God and made it of no affect due to their traditions and decrees.   Jesus was not kind to these people and said some very blunt things to them.  He called the children of Satan (John 8:44).  He called them serpents, a generation of vipers (Mat 23:33).  He said many things to them that can still be said to people even in the church today.

Religion has always been man’s attempt to please a God they do not know.  Most of the time religion involves strict rules of thou shalt not do this and that.  Many religions people punish themselves, do without things, even hurt themselves by beating their bodies with chains or other crazy things.  All in an attempt to make themselves worthy of something that God has already given to them for free.  But religious people go so far above and beyond that simple definition and description.  There are religious people probably sitting next to in church.  Full of themselves and how good they are.  They are so much better than you and I.  Try to teach them something new and they scream heretic, hearsay, garbage, junk.  They close their minds, ears and eyes to the truth and are content with what they think they know.  Happy to live in ignorance and remain ignorant.  You probably noticed I take after Jesus, I confront religious people straight on, I’m not trying to please everybody with a watered-down teaching that just let’s everyone do as they please.  Jesus wasn’t like that, and we shouldn’t be like that.  Jesus would commune with sinners, eat with tax collectors and call religious people idiots.  Ok, I admit idiots, was my interpretation of some of His strongest words.  Love all of those that will open and let you into the doors of their hearts but confront those religious types of people who say that we are wrong in doing that.