What is religiosity?

"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?"

The same principle applies all through, "If anyone thinks he is religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this [man's] religion is vain" (ver. 26). The word "religious" here used refers to the manifestation. It is neither εὐσεβὴς, pious or godly; nor is it λατρεύων rendering a religious service or worship to God. It means religious practice outwardly paid. Compare Acts 26:5; Col. 2:18, 23.

Again, the form is hardly "seemeth" but "deemeth," or "thinketh himself." It is not what appears to others that is in question, but his thought of himself. Wiclif and the Rhemish are right, following the Vulgate; Tyndale misled Cranmer, the Geneva V. and the Authorised. The very fact that it is not deeds but only the indulgence of speech gives occasion to self-deception. But he who calls on the Lord's name is bound to follow His steps, and not to misrepresent Him, Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; Who, reviled, reviled not again, and, suffering, threatened not. On the contrary as He was fairer than the sons of men, so grace was poured into His lips: therefore God blessed Him for ever. But each of us has imperative need to "bridle his tongue"; for we have an old man which was wholly absent from Him. If we do not, the evil of fallen nature finds a ready exit there; which, if we fail to judge, deceives the heart. And this man's religion is as vain as his is faithful who abides close to the perfect law of liberty.

One great principle of religious forms of evil is, that they are always suited to the flesh. There is a religious tendency in man: he will bow down to something. You may find a hard spirit here and there rejecting every thing; but, as a general truth, man must have his religion. The "form of godliness" is just suited to this. Nature through it seeks to satisfy its holiness, whilst at the same time man's will comes in, man is exalted. Whatever the flesh can look at, or do, or cling to, as man's works, ordinances, etc. etc., all these things will be esteemed. If it be but a "form of godliness," though the straitest sect of the Pharisees, a great deal of truth may be held, there may be intellectual clearness, of doctrine and the like; all this is within the compass of the flesh, and will be accredited by it. But there is one thing the flesh can never do, it can never trust simply in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life, and have "peace with God."

Outward things are easy to do; man likes to make his religion of them, for they do not need a pure heart; man likes to do them, and to exalt himself and to distinguish himself from others in doing them. By them man boasts of great piety before other men, and gains a great reputation for it; but he can be bad at the same time; these outward acts do not bring him into the presence of God who searches the heart. Man by these acts is religious without possessing holiness, and he finds that this just suits him. One does not find Pharisees only in our Lord's time; they are to be found in all times. This system always attaches itself to the influence which a man exerts over another by means of a position outwardly holy; it is not the faith which possesses truth and grace for itself (which truth and grace came by Jesus Christ, and which produce holiness and communion with God who reveals Himself in them), but the official influence that a man uses to his own advantage, carelessly leaving on one side the will and the commandments of God. Thus it was amongst the Jews; they washed their hands, but not their hearts; they were very scrupulous about that which entered their mouth, and careless about that which came out of their heart.

Thus is man's religion always; he can observe such a religion as this, and deck himself with it as with a glory. But he cannot get real holiness in this way, and this is evident to the eyes of God, who sees all that goes on in the heart. True holiness shews itself in the practical walk; one may fail, but the soul sustained by grace only seeks the approbation of God; it has the consciousness of failure, and rejoices in God, for it is He who dwells in the soul, and keeps it humble. But the Pharisees and Sadducees amongst the Jews profited by their reputation and position to induce the pious to give many gifts to God, whom they represented. Thus duties towards parents were slighted, and God's law countermanded. They honoured God with their lips, but their heart was far from Him. They drew near to Him with their mouth, but not with their heart; this was full of covetousness and iniquity. God refuses altogether this kind of honour. "In vain do they worship me," says the prophet Isaiah, and the Lord repeats it. God wants a pure heart sanctified by the Spirit and by the truth; and He wants a worship which is to be rendered in spirit and in truth: the Father seeketh such to worship Him. He wants grace, but the truth is required to be able to draw near to God, a heart where the divine life exists. All this human religion, outward, Pharisaical, priestly, is judged of the Lord once and for all times. God demands a pure heart and true obedience. Men put on this kind of religion, giving honour in it to antiquity and to the traditions of their ancestors, to which man's imagination attributes great value. All that is seen through the shades of antiquity is imposing enough; but with God it is a question of the heart, and it was the same then as it is now with us: we are before God, and He sees us just as we are. Man's actual state is the question.

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.

It is clear then, from verse 25, that we are to be doers of the work and not merely hearers of the word. Even our doings however need to be tested, for a man may seem to be religious, zealous in all his works, and yet his religion be proved vain by the fact that he does not bridle his tongue. He has not learned to be "slow to speak" as verse 19 enjoined. In giving rein to his tongue he is giving rein to self.

Now pure and undefiled religion, which will stand in the presence of God, is of a sort which shuts self out. He who visits the fatherless and the widows in their affliction will not find much to minister to the importance or the convenience of self. He will have to be continually ministering instead of finding that which will minister to himself, if he moves amongst these afflicted and poor folk. The world might minister to self in him. Yes, but he keeps himself separate from the world so that he may not be spotted by its defilements.

"Unspotted from the world" is a strong way of putting it. The world is like a very miry place in which all too many love to disport themselves. (see 2 Peter 2:22). The true Christian does not wallow in the mire. Quite true! But if he practices pure religion he goes further. He walks so apart from the miry place that not even splashes of the mud reach him.

Alas! for the feebleness of our religion. If it consisted in outward observances, in rites, in ceremonies, in sacraments in services, Christendom might yet make a fair show of it. Whereas it really consists in the outflow of divine love which expresses itself in compassion towards and service to those who have no ability to recompense again, and a holy separateness from the defiling world-system that surrounds us.

From all this we learn the solemn truth that the most Satanic resistance to God's testimony, in the world, is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but "the form of godliness," and "deny the power thereof." Persons of this class can do the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same phraseology, profess the same opinions as others. If the true Christian, constrained by the love of Christ, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, circulates the scriptures, distributes tracts, supports the gospel, engages in prayer, sings praise, preaches the gospel, the formalist can do every one of these things; and this, be it observed, is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth "in the last days" — this is the spirit of "Jannes and Jambres." How needful to understand this! How important to remember that, "as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do" those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors, "resist the truth!" They would not be without "a form of godliness;" but, while adopting "the form," because it is customary, they hate "the power," because it involves self-denial. "The power" of godliness involves the recognition of God's claims, the implanting of His kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of this. "The power" of godliness could never comport with any one of those hideous features set forth in the foregoing quotation; but "the form," while it covers them over, leaves them wholly unsubdued; and this the formalist likes. He does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him "to make the best of both worlds." He knows nothing of giving up the world that is, because of having found "the world to come."

This is the law of perfect liberty and in doing this there in blessedness. Then follows a definition of pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father. Religion does not mean here the inner life, but the outward manifestation of it. The fatherless and the widows are God's special objects of love and care; to visit such in their affliction is Christlike, How often this is quoted by those who do not believe in the gospel of grace and in the cross of Christ, as if works of kindness were the true religion, by which man is saved and pleasing to God. The whole chapter shows how erroneous such an application is. And the other definition "to keep himself unspotted from the world," a true life of self surrender and separation, is generally overlooked.

What then is pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father? It is "to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27.) Not the visiting of the fatherless and widow alone, and not alone the keeping of self unspotted from the world, but both to go concurrently. The first alone would be merely philanthropy without Christ, the latter alone would be monasticism, also without Christ, while the two together would shew something of Christlikeness: holiness combined with self-sacrifice for the sake of all, who have need upon the earth.

In Christ I am not "living in the world," I am "dead with him to the rudiments of the world," v. 20-23. If really dead to the flesh, I cannot be looking to ordinances to get the flesh bettered. But the tendency of our hearts is ever to this. And God has met that tendency. If the flesh must be laboured to see if any good could be got out of it, He has taken it up and proved that, after all that had been done for it that could be done, there was no good in it - God could get no good from it. Still here is our danger; religiousness in the flesh is that against which there is this special warning. And with all its specious appearance, what does the apostle call it? "Will-worship." It may have a great character for humility, but it is the most positive and terrible pride before God; it does not look like this; it looks like mortifying the flesh and putting it down.