What does the Bible say about religion?
Answered from the commentary of Hamilton Smith, Leslie M. Grant, F. B. Hole and 12 others
The Bible speaks of religion as false when it is only an outward form, ceremony, or profession, while the heart is far from God; such religion is vain and cannot cleanse sin or give life. It also warns that religious traditions and human rules can lead people to disobey God and make His word of none effect. Pure religion before God and the Father is to care for the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Yet these acts do not save: salvation is not by works, but by God’s grace, received through faith.
True worship comes from knowing God as He has revealed Himself in Christ, and is worship in spirit and in truth, by the Holy Spirit. It is the heart’s adoration of God, not a performance of outward rites. In the Christian account given here, Christ’s finished work gives believers access to God, and the Spirit enables their praise and thanksgiving. The passages speak strongly against ceremonial religion that displaces this worship, though one passage says Israel’s outward worship was acceptable when carried out with all the heart. They also distinguish worship, which is directed to God, from preaching and ministry, which bring God’s message to people.
Religion that is real is shown in a life of faith and obedience: faith is to be expressed in works, and the believer is to walk in the good works God has prepared. It is described as being like Christ, with faith centred on Him, love for those in need, and separation from the world. The passages do not treat all religions as different forms of the same truth; they say that true knowledge of God is found in His Son.
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
There are but two religions in the world, and both are found in Gen. 3, for both commenced in the Garden of Eden. Man's religion is described in Gen. 5:7; God's in Gen. 5:21. Man's religion may assume many forms, as Brahmanism in India, Buddhism in China, Mohammedanism in Turkey, and Romanism in Spain; but one principle is common to them all, and is expressed in the little word "Do." Man is thrown upon his own resources, to work out his own salvation as best he may. God's religion, in contrast with this, is happily expressed in the word "Done." His grace has so perfectly supplied every need, that a finished work is now proclaimed to man; nothing is demanded of him but acceptance of it in simple faith.
"DIVINE RELIGION, the Bible says, is 'pure and undefiled;' so that it must come from heaven To be religious, then, in God's sense, is to be like Christ — to be possessed of His life, filled with His Spirit, and walking in His steps. HUMAN RELIGION is attending to the forms of Christianity, without divine life in the soul — form without power — profession without reality. You know as well as I do, that a person may be very sincere, and attend church or chapel regularly; sing psalms and hymns; hear sermons; say prayers, and yet have no saving interest in Christ; no divine life in the soul. Human forms, however sincerely attended to, will never meet God's righteous demands, or wash away our many sins. And these are the things which concern you most, are they not?"
119 True religion is shewn by love in the heart, and by purity - keeping himself unspotted from the world. It thinks of others, for those who are in distress, in need of protection, and the help and support of love, as widows and orphans. The truly religious heart, full of the love of God, and moved by Him, thinks, as God does, upon sorrow, weakness, and need. It is the true Christian character.
Pure religion before God and the Father is to care for those who, reached in the tenderest relationships by the wages of sin, are deprived of their natural supports; and to keep oneself untainted by the world. Instead of striving to exalt oneself and gain reputation in a world of vanity, afar from God, our activities turn, as God does, to the sorrowful, who in their affliction, need succour; and we keep ourselves from a world in which everything is defiling, and contrary to the new nature which is our life, and to the character of God as we know it by the word.
The reality of this is tested in v.26. One might seem religious, for many there are who put on such a cloak; but if he does not keep his tongue under proper control, his religion is void of value. Judaism was called "the Jews' religion," for religion is that which "binds" one to a certain course of action. Christianity is rather a setting free from bondage. Verse 27 does not describe Christianity, but it does describe pure religion, and certainly Christianity has this in common with "pure religion," though Christianity is much more. The positive side of pure religion is genuine care for those in trial, the fatherless and widows. The negative side is keeping oneself from contamination by a world of evil. These things are certainly an elementary part of Christianity, which gives motives of faith and love to act upon, rather than merely a sense of responsibility, as is the case with religion. Yet, whatever our motives may be, responsibility does not change.
For what, let us ask, is true worship? It is simply telling out, in the presence of God, what He is, and what He has done. It is the heart occupied with, and delighting in God and in all His marvellous actings and ways. Now, if we have no knowledge of God, and no faith in what He has done, how can we worship Him? "He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." But, then, to know God is life eternal. I cannot worship God if I do not know Him; and I cannot know Him without having eternal life. The Athenians had erected an altar "to the unknown God," and Paul told them that they were worshipping in ignorance, and proceeded to declare to them the true God as revealed in the Person and work of the Man Christ Jesus.
It is deeply important to be clear as to this. I must know God ere I can worship Him. I may "feel after him, if haply I may find him;" but feeling after One whom I have not found, and worshipping and delighting in One whom I have found, are two totally different things. God has revealed Himself, blessed be His Name! He has given us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. He has come near to us in the Person of that blessed One, so that we may know Him, love Him, trust in Him, delight in Him, and use Him, in all our weakness and in all our need. We have no longer to grope for Him amid the darkness of nature, nor yet among the clouds and mists of spurious religion, in its ten thousand forms. No; our God has made Himself known by a revelation so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool in all beside, may not err therein. The Christian can say, "I know whom I have believed." This is the basis of all true worship. There may be a vast amount of fleshly pietism, mechanical religion, and ceremonial routine, without a single atom of true spiritual worship. This latter can only flow from the knowledge of God.
Worship must be “in spirit,” the very opposite to being “in flesh,” as ritualism supposes. It must be “in truth” (i.e. in godly recognition of all that God is as perfectly revealed in Christ, for “truth” connects itself with the knowledge of God), in contrast to being “in nature” or “in reason,” as rationalism supposes.
The Father seeks worshippers — precious thought! But He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. This implies that the inner man is engaged under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that His truth is known and controlling the soul. This is in direct contrast with mere forms, which require neither God's truth nor His spirit, and can never satisfy His heart.
Further, not only does the Father desire spiritual (in contrast with ritual) worship, but His solemn "must" comes in — "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." His nature is now fully revealed; what God requires — what is suitable to Him — is now declared in consequence. Men who come before Him with mere external rites treat Him as if He were a nonentity as the deities of the heathen; the Christian who has been brought to know Him, yea, who has been born of Him, understands that spiritual worship alone can suit such a God as ours. May we ever delight to render it according to His word.
In John 4:24 we are told that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" As God is a Spirit, spiritual worship is all that He accepts. He must be worshipped "in spirit and in truth." Spiritual worship is in contrast with religious forms and ceremonies which the unregenerate man is capable of. These are not that spiritual worship which God is looking for. True Christian worship is the expression of the new, inward, divine life in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit, and manifested in utterances of praise, adoration and thanksgiving. This sets aside all human formulas, imposing ceremonies and rituals practiced by human will and the energy of religious but unregenerate man.
But Israel has become corrupt; and as God gave up the Gentiles to their lusts, so has Ho scattered for a time His chosen nation, and set aside its polity. Now corruption in worship has almost always consisted in re-establishing what God has disowned. Just, therefore, as natural religion is the assertion of man's ability to take that place before God as a creature, which as a sinner he has lost, so national religion is the return to Judaism which God has disowned. People-worship without, and priest-worship within, is not now the order of God; nor has God now any other worshipping nation, than that which is formed by the whole body of believers, called out of every nation, and people, and tongue, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Verses
- James 1:22–2722But be ye doers of [the] word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves. 23For if any man be a hearer of [the] word and not a doer, he is like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror 24for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like. 25But he that fixes his view on [the] perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in [it], being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of [the] work, he shall be blessed in his doing. 26If any one think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is vain. 27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
- James 2:14–2614What [is] the profit, my brethren, if any one say he have faith, but have not works? can faith save him? 15Now if a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16and one from amongst you say to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body, what [is] the profit? 17So also faith, if it have not works, is dead by itself. 18But some one will say, Thou hast faith and I have works. Shew me thy faith without works, and I from my works will shew thee my faith. 19Thou believest that God is one. Thou doest well. The demons even believe, and tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and that by works faith was perfected. 23And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called Friend of God. 24Ye see that a man is justified on the principle of works, and not on the principle of faith only. 25But was not in like manner also Rahab the harlot justified on the principle of works, when she had received the messengers and put [them] forth by another way? 26For as the body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.