God is Spirit, not Religion

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(John 4:24)

It is always interesting to speak with those hearts that are outside of Christ but inside Churchianity (a term used by the likes of T. Austin-Sparks and Oswald Chambers). I frequently hear people say "He is so religious" or "Her religion is so strong." I don't think many people realize this, but Jesus never mentioned the words religion or religious - at least not as recorded in the Scriptures. The Lord never said a word about religion or the religious! NOT ONE WORD!

I did a little exercise this morning with my Strong's Concordance (I have a 1974 edition, highly recommended by a dear friend in Christ, which is much preferred to the newer editions). Here's the exercise I did and the results from it:

I wrote down 6 words on a piece of paper - Religion, Religious, Spirit, Spirits, Spiritual and Spiritually. I went into Strong's and counted how many times each word is mentioned in the Scriptures. Here's the tally:

Word - Count
Religion - 5
Religious - 2
Spirit - 494
Spirits - 37
Spiritual - 27
Spiritually - 3

Religion and Religious get 7 mentions combined. Religion is mentioned in Acts 26, Galatians 1:13-14 and James 1:26-27. The word is never mentioned in any of the Gospels. The word Religious is mentioned in Acts 13:43 and James 1:26.

Pretty interesting, isn't it?

Compare the mentions of religion and religious to the word Spirit and its derivatives. Combined, these words are mentioned 561 times! The word Spirit is mentioned frequently in the Gospels. Jesus spoke frequently of the Spirit and all things Spiritually.

Those who are in Christ are not religious - they are Spirit. They are Spiritual beings, not religious beings. Why is this, you ask? For one simple reason:

God is Spirit.
(John 4:24)

Jesus said: "God is Spirit and those who worship Him must - MUST!!! - worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Jesus never said "God is religion and you must become religious."

The Lord never spoke about religion - only about the Spirit.

Those in Christ will always speak about the Spirit. The Spirit transcends religion. Ask yourself a simple question:

What religion is God?

If you are having difficulty answering this question, good for you! It's a silly question. God is Spirit. He doesn't belong to some religion. He is not religious. He is Love, Light and Life.

Note that in the Scriptures, the word "is" is italicized. God is Spirit.

Indeed He is!

May you enter into Christ by falling on the stone, becoming utterly broken, and may you worship God in spirit and in truth, always and forever.

Agape,

Steve