View of the quiet waters of the Rhône River, and in shadows on the opposite bank, Avignon, France. Just visible against the blue sky, the outline of the bell tower of Avignon Cathedral and the massive roof line of the Palace of the Popes.

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“Religion almost did me in,” she said, then paused, waiting for my response.

I had no words. But I believed her – and I could identify. She saw it in my eyes.

As we sat in my home, silently grieving together, three images flashed through my mind, three moments from the previous year in my life.

Moments on the cusp

The first

I had just limped away from a cruel religious pummeling that would not stop. Alone in my car, driving who knows where, I cried aloud to God, “Whatever that was, I don’t want it to blindside me again! Lord, I want to see!”

The second

A few weeks later, my college-age daughter and I visited the largest Gothic building of the Middle Ages – the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France.

Exploring the massive rooms, we learned, by audioguide, why seven popes ruled from there in the 1300’s. We roamed the inner sanctum of their intrigues.

Then, I stood in that monstrous shell of a palace, staring at the barren ostentation of religion. And I marveled: So much from so long ago and so far away sounded so familiar.

The third

A few more weeks passed. At home, reading the novel, The Face of God, I came upon a key scene – set in the Palace of the Popes.

Oh my! In my mind, I stood there again, as an American pastor named Daniel asks his college-age son Tyler, “Did any of this stuff draw the people one inch closer to God?”

Earlier in the story, Tyler has shocked his dad by saying, “Religion kills” – and then asserting: It crucified Jesus. And it caused the death of their beloved wife and mom.

In this scene, Tyler says more. I read and reread his words:

Religion is religion, Dad. It doesn’t matter how you disguise it. It’s all about guys in charge wanting to stay in charge. Get your little God machine built, stay as comfortable as possible, keep it running as long as possible.

Daniel protests, and the conversation turns to talk of “defending truth” and having “a responsibility to the people.”

But Tyler presses in. “All religion cares about is being right and being in charge,” he insists. “Being in charge and making sure everyone who disagrees is either converted or destroyed.”¹

The fourth

One after the other, each of those three moments flashed before me, in that fourth moment when a woman confided to me, “Religion almost did me in.”

The precious and the worthless

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. (Matt. 11:28 MSG)

What a tender invitation! Jesus knew: I too was crushed. And spent. I wanted to go with him. But how could I, when so much that I had always connected with him was not him?

It helped to have a name for the counterfeit. Yet the precious and the worthless in my faith-life still seemed hopelessly tangled together. How could I possibly separate out the one from the other – and go with God?

“Yes, Lord!” my heart cried. “Just please show me religion as you see it. And please show me yourself.”

Was it my imagination? Or did he reply, “I thought you’d never ask.”

Religion that God accepts

 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:26-27 NLT)

Hmm. There is religion that God calls worthless, and religion he accepts.² In God’s eyes, worthless religion involves pride and self-deception, and the words and deeds they produce. “Pure and genuine religion” involves:

• Speaking what is full of grace.³
• Helping the forsaken and vulnerable.⁴
• Living in the world without drinking the Kool-Aid.⁵

How telling!

Religion that God accepts
“as pure and faultless”
has to do with the life
that each of us who knows him
lives before him.

It has nothing to do with systems, except to alert us to any toxicity in them, and to keep us from swallowing the poison.

Religion that God abhors

Religion, as Tyler described it, has everything to do with systems – the religious systems that people build, and use to gain power-over, in this fallen world.

God detests religion
anchored in loyalty
to a system.

Repeatedly, the Spirit of Christ and the Word of God warn us: Such religion can entwine itself with true relationship to Christ and squeeze the life out of us. It can teach us to call what is godly evil, and what is toxic good. And thus, we swallow – and dispense – what destroys.

Repeatedly, the Spirit and the Word warn against these three religious mindsets not from God:

1) Full of ourselves, sure we’re right

All religion cares about is being right.

We as Christians tend to see ourselves as defenders of truth.

It’s sobering to realize: So did the Pharisees.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day studied and memorized the Old Testament Scriptures. They taught everyone else how to serve the one true God.

But collectively, they did not know, or live, the truth. Instead, they did everything in their power to silence the Truth. Convinced they were better than others and right about God, they misled others and fought against God.

The pride that blinds and binds

Religion teaches us to believe we too are right about all things pertaining to God. It puffs us up with the pride that blinds and binds. It teaches us to silence what does not agree with us. It tells us to close our ears to anyone who:

• is not in our camp;
• does not echo everything we believe;
• does not keep the rules we teach;
• seems inferior to us and/or a threat to us.

In Romans 10, Paul lamented this mindset in his own people. They’d had “plenty of opportunities … to listen and understand” the truths that challenged their beliefs about themselves and God. Yet still, they refused to accept that they “had no corner on [God’s] message.”

And so they did what Moses had foretold:

When you see God reach out to those
    you consider your inferiors – outsiders! –
    you’ll become insanely jealous.
When you see God reach out to people
    you think are religiously stupid,
    you’ll throw temper tantrums. (vv. 18-19 MSG)⁶

The humbling that keeps us teachable

None of us has a corner on God’s message either. And the Lord does not teach us to fixate on “being right.” Rather, he stirs us to press in to know him – and he reminds us that his ways are “past finding out.”⁷

In love, he humbles us, and teaches us to humble ourselves. Humility keeps us teachable. Refusing to assume, “We’re right, and they’re wrong,” we become open:

• To learn new things, even uncomfortable things, that God wants to show us.
• To learn what is – and is not – his voice, speaking through people.

2) Eager to rule, trusting in might

All religion cares about is being right and being in charge.

Down through time

When Jesus established the church, he created a holy people with a holy mission. Then, he returned to the Father and sent the Spirit. By the Spirit, God himself would indwell his people, powering both the holiness and the mission with love.

Three hundred years later, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. How wonderful that must have sounded to the persecuted church! A Christianity protected by the government. A Christianity that could influence the government.

The church system that Constantine approved soon grew to become the dominant religion in the empire. Church leaders who embraced the ways of empire gained great political clout. In time, this system began to teach papal infallibility and papal supremacy, in effect: The pope is right, and the pope is in charge.

The people of God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God were marginalized. The Body of Christ, vandalized. Ultimately, the shift to religious system ushered the church into the Dark Ages.

In the 16^th century, the Reformation confronted some of the flawed assumptions and practices under which the church had operated for so long. The people of God reconnected with the Word of God. A radical shift took place.

Yet, many elements of systemic religion remained firmly entrenched.

Still today

Even now, we tend to identify “the church” with structures implemented under Constantine – not with people from every tongue and tribe and nation, moving as one with the Spirit of God.

Even now, we tend to equate “obeying God” with following wherever our religious leaders lead. Yet Jesus warned us against blindly following human leaders. He taught that obeying God hinges on loving God and loving people.⁸

Still today, if someone promises to connect God and government in a way that gives our brand of Christianity special status and clout, we may want to believe, “This is from God!”

Yet still today, such religion is of this world. Christ’s kingdom is not.⁹

When the Lord sees religiosity masquerading as true worship, he does not mince words.

I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice – oceans of it.
I want [righteousness] – rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
(Amos 5:21-24 MSG)

3) Cruelty hidden in plain sight

All religion cares about is being right and being in charge … Being in charge and making sure everyone who disagrees is either converted or destroyed.

Anyone who has been going to church for any length of time has been taught a mixture of religion that God accepts and religion that he abhors. How can we know what is worthless and what is godly? For starters, it’s not from God if:

• It is spiritually impotent but self-important.
• It’s all about control, control, control.
• It. Is. Cruel.

One day, Jesus confronted all of that. As his people’s religious leaders kept trying to silence and trap him and plotted to kill him, he called out their arrogance, their obsession with power, their covert abuse.

With everybody listening, Jesus spoke to his disciples. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preen in the radiance of public flattery, bask in prominent positions, sit at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless.” (Luke 20:45-47 MSG)

Exposing cruelty

Still today, mistreatment of people can hide behind a shiny, holy façade. What’s more, we do not want to see cruelty in the faith-group where we belong. We do not want to believe it could lurk there.

Thus, when something hurtful is happening in a church culture, it’s often downplayed, rationalized, denied. And if, say, betrayal, or shunning, or bullying, or stirring up resentment and fear, or silencing people’s voices, or dehumanizing whole groups goes unchallenged by people you trust, you may look right at it and not see it as cruel.

Still today, Jesus exposes cruelty hidden in plain sight and challenges us to see.

If he has opened your eyes and heart – if you’re grieving what you’ve seen – please know: Evil done in the name of God appalls the Lord God. He hates heartlessness. He despises oppression and abuse. He will judge the cruel. He rises up in behalf of those wrecked by religion in the church.

If you haven’t seen cruelty in the church, but you’re willing for God to show you, take a step back, look around – and humbly ask him for eyes to see.

Ah, but do not look around at “them” – their religion, their brand of Christianity, their church. Instead, ask God to help you see your people, your church culture, your Christian family. Ask him to show you you. Ask him to show us us. Then, facing down fear, shame, pride – look at what he reveals.

Emerging whole

Religion that exploits the weak and helpless opposes God.

Religion that uses the name of the Lord to coerce, silence, “do in,” anyone not joining us, or anyone not obeying us, wars against Christ.

Further, such religion cruelly misleads those who bow before it. It deceives them into believing: This is the way to worship God. Ultimately, it leads them into a pit.

Paul experienced religion’s cruelty, and grieved it. He grieved for his people, including the leaders trying to destroy him. “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart,” he cried. Paul saw they were heading for a bridge out.  

“I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge” (Rom. 9:2; 10:2).

Paul had been there. In his zeal, he too had persecuted people who knew the Lord. Then, Paul met Jesus, and came to him, and set out on a lifelong journey to know the Lord, personally and experientially.

Religiously speaking, Paul lost everything for Christ. The leaders who opposed him still had all that he’d previously valued. Yet even as he shared in Christ’s sufferings, Paul knew “the surpassing worth” of Jesus’ life in his very being, and the power of his Lord’s resurrection.¹⁰

He wanted everyone else trapped in religiosity to come to the Lord Jesus too.

Jesus experienced religion’s cruelty, and overcame it. Religious leaders who could not control him engineered his brutal death.

Yet the Lord Jesus lives! Religion could not destroy him, and it cannot destroy those who live in him.

Even when we suffer for following Christ, something freeing and healing is happening within us. In Christ, we emerge from the pummeling and the erasing, alive and whole.

Recover your life

Oh. Dear. God. How did I agree for so long with so much that opposes you? How did I not see it?

And still, the Lord Jesus answers my questions with questions, and with an invitation he extends to all.

Are you tired? Worn out?
Burned out on religion?
Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.

I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.¹¹

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This post is based on an e-column titled, “Religion vs. God,” and published February 14, 2006. The first version of this post went live December 5, 2024, under the title, “Burned out on religion? I will give you rest.” Now I’ve retitled it, renovated a bit and reposted.

Featured image by Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Posts exploring the rest God gives

• I shall not want: Resting in God’s provision
• He restores my soul: Resting in God’s unforced rhythms
• I will fear no evil: Resting in God’s very present help
• My cup overflows: Resting in God’s favor
• Now and forever: Resting in God’s love

See also

• Christ alone – counting the cost, going with God
• A song, a Savior, his love for us all
• Facing shame – so freedom and favor can flow
  
  
• Come out! Be free!
• Humble your soul, release your spirit
• Believer! The truth will set you free

Footnotes

1. Bill Myers, The Face of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002),137, 138. Trigger warning: Regretfully, I cannot recommend this book. It does not even begin to separate out the precious, that is Christ in us, from hurtful Christian religiosity. See my post, The people I quote. ↩︎
2. Notice that these verses do not deal with how to attain salvation, but rather with God-approved ways to live it out. ↩︎
3. See also Colossians 4:6. ↩︎
4. As The Message puts it, “reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight” (James 1:27). ↩︎
5. See also Jesus’ prayer for his own in John 17, especially vv. 6-19. ↩︎
6. See also Deuteronomy 32:18-21. ↩︎
7. See Philippians 3:10-14; Romans 11:33-35 NKJV. ↩︎
8. Don’t blindly follow, Matthew 15:14; Luke 6:39. Love God and people, Matthew 22:36-40. Love one another, John 13:34-35; 15:9-17. ↩︎
9. See John 18:36. ↩︎
10. See Philippians 3:3-14. ↩︎
11. Matthew 11:28-30 MSG. ↩︎