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04 August 2024
Matthew 12.22-50
Jesus is It: The Real Faith vs Religion
Religion looks just so much like the authentic faith that the two are often confused for one another. Even the religious themselves think that their beliefs are real Christianity, but religion is known by its fruit. Religion is what the religious use to control others. Religion is not so much a belief but a set of rules by which the religious govern their lives and the lives of others to appear right, and to justify their deeply held convictions which cannot set anyone free, and lack the power to transform. Sometimes these two systems of belief even exist alongside of one another within the same church or even in the same family. While they look very similar they have two very different goals. Religion typically does everything in its power to look good, even if that means crushing others. While authentic faith not only liberates those who profess it, but seeks to liberate those around them, even if that makes the believer look bad or even sinful. No where is this seen more clearly than Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees did everything to manage their optics, trying to look good, while Jesus was often accused of being the friend of tax collectors and sinners, despite actually being sinless. Real faith will lead us into the same Way of life.
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