Repenting from Religion

We all have gifts. I have often said that my gift is judging. I'm so good at it. I can look at someone and tell you whether they have it together or not; if they are a winner or a loser. I find it much easier to pronounce a judgment than to see people as created in the image of God. Maybe you have this gift too.

I believe the reason this comes so naturally to many is because of the division that religion can cause. To some extent we get our sense of worth from attaching or detaching worth from others based on what we see and how people live, rather than trying to enter into a relationship with them.

In Luke 18:9-14, the Pharisee "lived right". He listed all the deeds he had done, which in his mind made him good. Instead of using God as his standard of measurement, he used the "sinful" tax collector. I believe this is what happens when we eat from Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Our eyes are "opened" to be able to pronounce a verdict upon others.

Adam and Eve’s sin and the Pharisee’s fundamental sin came from a need to get life from their own knowledge of who is good and who is evil. Our fundamental sin is that we place ourselves in the position of God and divide the world between who we judge to be good and who we judge to be evil. And this judgment is what primarily keeps us from doing the central thing God created and saved us to do – to love like he loves.

Even Jesus, who was without sin, did not judge. Prostitutes and tax collectors wanted to hang out with him. They were attracted to His kind of holiness. It ascribed unsurpassable worth to people; while the “holiness” of the Pharisees detracted worth from people and repelled them.

I know when I start to judge others, it's usually because of an insecurity I have about myself. We generally tend to not like something in others that deep down we don't like about ourselves. Jesus says I have a beam in my own eye versus a piece of sawdust in others'.It is easy to overlook our own sins yet easier to spot sin in others. And that’s what religion tempts us to do. Religious people feed the hunger of their heart by striving to impress God with the rightness of their beliefs and behaviors – in contrast to the wrongness of others’ beliefs and behaviors. From this we must repent.