Within traditional Christianity and among those that practice other forms of spirituality today, many people are running after teachers; going to endless conferences, workshops, and seminars; and reading stacks of books on spirituality and religion. They are always seeking more information but seldom do they obtain genuine transformation that satisfies their inner hunger to experience God in the most intimate level. I used to be one of them. Within these environments of learning, there is a lot of popular, yet shallow, teaching. By contrast, there are few instances of people being taught to experience “pure religion” by hearing and learning from God directly through the kingdom of God that resides within their souls.
When most people think of religion, they do not think of it as a sacred experience where the Spirit of God is speaking to them and teaching them doctrine within their minds according to a book that God has authored on their lives that contains His perfect will for their life. This does not negate the fact that such a book on their personal life exists within the mind of God, and that revelation of the contents found within God’s personalized book on their life is experienceable within their mind.
The Scripture refers to this as experiencing the “engrafted word” that is able to “save our souls;” we are commanded to be “doers” of this word and not just “hearers” of it. This is a process that can only be experienced as we access the kingdom of God that resides within the soul [See Deut. 32:1-3; Prov. 4:2; Ps. 139:16-17; Jn. 7:16; Jas. 1:21-22 NKJ].
When we think of religion, we usually think of things related to the Church: people, groups, organizations, buildings, and movements. We are strongly influenced by the religious culture of our time – which is marked by competing denominations, churches, organizations, human traditions, and rituals that have all been put under the umbrella of religion.
Lately, the word “religion” has been viewed as a negative word by those who are not satisfied with what their traditional religious experience has offered them or by those who have been disillusioned by church politics, offenses, or sinful behavior of congregants and those in leadership positions.
Many believers are awakening to the fact that they are not being taught how to hear and learn from God personally. Instead, they are perpetually being taught how to hear and learn from their religious leaders and organizations. They are finding out that many religious leaders often twist life or religion to justify their religious views and why they think we should all live a certain way. The root cause of this is primarily due to a diabolical iniquity-influenced theology they received in Bible school, seminary, or through their organization’s views.
Many people who have been discouraged by their religious experience today make statements such as, “I do not want anything to do with organized or institutionalized religion,” or, “I do not want to be part of a religion. All I want is Jesus.”
Once I came to the sobering reality that my traditional religious experience did not teach me how to hear and learn from God in the way that Jesus experienced Him, I did not want to be associated with religion either – at least not religion as I had been experiencing it. This was until I found out what “pure religion” was. Fundamentally, I had been discarding what was purposed to keep me pure before God because I had been allowing man’s contamination of the word “religion” to impact my understanding of it.
A DEFINITION OF “RELIGION”
People commonly associate the word “religion” with either a Christian church or some other faith-based or spiritual organization. A deeper look into the original understanding of the word “religion” reveals a much deeper, more personal meaning.
Today there are many claiming that God did not send His Son, Jesus, to establish a religion on the earth. I agree wholeheartedly with their assessment; yet understanding the word “religion” from a root word perspective will reveal that, although God didn’t send Jesus to establish a religion on earth, He did come to be an example as to how a person could experience a “pure religion that is undefiled.” This pure religion, which can only be experienced within our minds, has two primary purposes: showing us how we are to “to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction,” and showing us how to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world.”
Most of us have been either raised in or exposed to a denomination, or non-denominational mold called a “religion.” These may be all about Jesus, but are any of them Jesus’ religion? The type of religion that Jesus experienced is found in the following verse:
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).
First John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him [Jesus] ought themselves also walk just as He walked.” The expression “just as He walked,” means to pattern your life after the way Jesus lived. He received His instructions as to how He was to live every step of His life through interaction with the Spirit of God by way of the kingdom of God within His soul.
It’s how we walk that reveals the truth about whether our “religion” is His religion, or from another outside source that just talks about Him.
Numerous biblical study resources cite that the etymological root of the word “religion” that we find in our Bibles comes from the Latin word religare. “Ligare” means “to bind” or to “connect.” Adding the “re” before “ligare” causes the word to mean “re-bind” or “re-connect.” From a biblical perspective, when the word religion is used, it is always used in reference to absorbing the knowledge that shapes your religious beliefs and lifestyle.
The Scriptures teach about two types of religion. One type of “religion” is described as spirituality that is learned through teachings (doctrines) of human beings through a religious organization setting.
The biblical example of this type of religion is when Paul was describing where he got his religion from that caused him to believe what he believed about God and the Scriptures and how he practiced his religion:
“Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5).
“For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:13-14).
Evidently, Paul’s traditional religion experience did not teach him how to hear and learn from the Spirit of God within his soul. Instead, the doctrine he was absorbing about God and Scripture came from the religious organization he belonged to. This is what caused him to persecute the Church and even approve of the death of Stephen because his beliefs were different than Paul’s and the religious organization Paul represented [See Acts 7:54-8:2].
Once Paul began to hear the voice of God, after his journey-to-Damascus experience, he began to realize how his former religious education had been compromised. This is the reason that he was inspired to give the following warning:
“Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
This is the same type of warning that Jesus gave in the following Scripture:
“Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:12).
From a Christian perspective, this is how many people experience their religion. Instead of it coming from Judaism as Paul’s religion did, it may come from a Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Baptist, Assemblies of God, Word of Faith, or Church of God in Christ religion – just to name a few of the hundreds of religions that exist today.
Returning to the definition of religare, which is defined as “to rebind or reconnect,” if all we do is go to Church or any other spiritual environment to hear about God and the Bible, this will be the extent of our rebinding or reconnecting. Another religious “rebinding or reconnecting” experience is far more effective: learning how to hear from the Spirit of God Himself so that He can teach you who He truly is. He can also teach you His interpretation of the Bible, and how He wants
Many people now see organized or traditional religion as a system of control based on dogmatic belief, which has thwarted their progress of experiencing God-consciousness within their souls.
PURE RELIGION
The other form of religion, which is biblically described as “pure religion” in James 1:27, is experienced from the teachings (doctrine) of the Spirit of God Himself. This pure religion is experienced inwardly through a meditative mindset that is intentionally purposed to experience the kingdom of God that resides within the soul of a human being.
From an ancient Hebrew perspective, the word most associated with the religion that is experienced within our souls is the word yada, which is defined as “knowledge that is acquired through an intimate relationship and experience.” We see the purpose of the experience more clearly when we define the word “pure” in the critical phrase “pure religion.” The word “pure”in this key verse from its Greek perspective is the word katharos. It is defined as “what is clean and clear.”
Interestingly, its translation from the Hebrew perspective uses the two words tomand yosherto describe this type of religion as what makes someone “mature, whole, full, complete, perfect and upright.” This is the same definition for the word “perfect” that Jesus used in Matthew 5:48 when He said, “Therefore be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”
This is a spiritual maturing process that God inherently designed all of humanity to experience if adequately taught how to do so, which is exemplified in the following verse:
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).
What does it mean “to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”? How is this a result of experiencing “pure religion that is undefiled” from the Spirit of God?
Though the above verse contains legitimate instruction in a physical sense to make sure that we all do our part in making sure the fatherless (orphaned) and widows are taken care of, there is a deeper meaning and life application to this verse that we must consider.
The more profound meaning and application that this verse is purposed to teach is: a description of someone who visits with people who are spiritually fatherless or widowed because they are not experiencing the Spirit of the Father within themselves – who is biblically described as “a Father to the fatherless” and a “Husband and Defender of widow” as well (Ps. 68:5; Rev. 21: 2) – in order to teach them how to experience the kingdom of God within their minds.
And what does it mean to stay “unspotted from the world?” We have passages of Scripture that inform us that friendship with the world is enmity with God; others state that we are in the world but not of the world. They tell us to not conform to this world. What do these Scriptures mean today? What does it mean to be a friend of the world?
How does one become “spotted” in this world?
Have you ever wondered what spots, blemishes, and wrinkles are from a biblical perspective or what they represent? Many assume they are the imperfections in the life of the believer or sin in the Church. This is true, but only the voice of God within our souls can ultimately reveal to us if we are guilty of them and how to rid them from our lives.
Doesn’t it make sense that if one wants to remain unspotted from the world and not be a friend to it, then the Spirit of God Himself would be the best informer as to where these spots, blemishes, and wrinkles are that are marring life’s existence in some way?
The Bible explains that the spots and blemishes are more than just moral imperfections. The spots and blemishes are also false leaders, false teachers, and false prophets within the Church: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you . . . They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you” (2 Peter 2:1, 13).
Ultimately, the purpose of teaching people how to experience “pure and undefiled religion” is so they can connect the believer back to God, which is where they originated. Otherwise, the believer ends up being “fathered” and “married” or in a covenant relationship with a traditional religious leader or organization as opposed to with God Himself.
The sad reality is that much of what has spotted the world are religions that are not purposed to help the believer discover and develop the kingdom of God that lies within the soul of every human being. Many times, their primary goal of these religions seems to be more to connect the believer to their organization than to God directly through the Holy Spirit that resides within.
Now that we have taken A Deeper Look into the biblical concept of religion, questions worth asking to seriously are: Who would you want to continually get your religion (religious education) from concerning God, the Scriptures and how to live your life according to the will of God? Would you rather get this type of knowledge from other people, self-study or the Spirit of God Himself?
This article contains content from The Mystery of the Kingdom of God Revealed chapter 10: Traditional Religion Versus Pure Religion.
Stay tuned for my next post titled: Human Indoctrination Versus Godly Indoctrination
Best Regards,
Julio Alvarado Jr.
2 comments on “A Deeper Look into: Traditional Religion Versus Pure Religion”
That is pretty deep. Hearing from God on a daily would be great. My mind seems empty on hearing the Word, let alone hearing from God giving me daily instruction. My studying the Word daily seems to just be words and nothing else.
Greetings Willie. I’m currently teaching a series on my Youtube channel called “How to practice still-minded meditation to hear and learn from God” using the “Our Father” prayer template that Jesus taught. You are also welcomed to friend me on Facebook and then request entry into a private Facebook book where I am also sharing the same knowledge. And if I can help you personally, I am also open to having a phone or video connectivity as well.