We all, at some point, act influenced by a spirit of religiosity. This spirit makes us believe that we are better believers or superior believers because we do certain "spiritual" things. We think that these acts lead us to be right with God.
People who operate under these spirits use the bible to condemn the behavior of others. Even under the spirit of religiosity, they begin to implement biblical laws falling into legalism that not only limits them in their walk with Christ but also limits the people around them. Religiosity hurts people who try to get closer to Jesus. Religious people position themselves as judges, judging anyone who does not think like them.
Our model should be to imitate Jesus. However, these people with religious spirits are not at all like him. For the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were the holy of the time. Matthew 23: 27-28 says: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
The religious people spend too much time judging and pointing out others without looking inwardly at their own condition. They think that by their "sanctified" acts, they have won heaven. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for this very reason. They demanded that others comply with established laws, but inside they were no better than others. Their condition was most likely very deplorable, and they were far from the perfection they expected so much from others.
It is my opinion that if the religious people came across Jesus today, they would be surprised. Religious tend to present a sanctified Jesus, all correct in his way, a follower of the laws. What I read in Scripture gives me a Jesus who is the total opposite. Jesus was a revolutionary. He came to abolish the law that puts so much pressure on the people.
For this reason, Jesus was not very appreciated by the teachers of the law of those times. Jesus came to save what had been lost, not to condemn. John 3:17 says: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jesus summed the law in 2 commandments. Matthew 22: 36-40 says: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus summarized the entire law, which had more than 600 specifications in 2 quite simple ones. Love God and love your neighbor. My ex-husband, years after the divorce, accepted the Lord as his savior. He attends a very strict church in which many things are considered out of God's will. On one occasion, I remember that He happened to pick up our son before I went to church, and he said to me: Are you going to church with all that makeup? You look like a clown. A spirit of religiosity made him see that I was disqualified from God's grace by wearing makeup.
Religiosity thinks that external and insignificant things such as makeup, women wearing pants, tattoos, etc., separate you from God, which is contradictory to the philosophy of Jesus, who always walked with outcasts, lepers, prostitutes, thieves, etc. These religious spirits prevent us from loving our neighbors as they are. When someone enters the church looking for an encounter with God, and first they meet with John the spiritual, Chances are we will cancel the plan that person had to seek God, and that person will think that if the church rejects him, God also rejects him.
Do not forget that as Christians, we are representatives of God on earth. If someone turns away because of your accusing finger, one day, you will have to give an account to God for that soul that did not reach salvation thanks to your religiosity.
If you are reading this and at some point, you were marked or rejected by someone operating through a spirit of religiosity, I want to ask your forgiveness. Allow me to introduce you to a God of love who accepts you regardless of your condition. A God that the day I arrive broken before his presence, received me with arms of love and that love has sustained me until today. I invite you to experience God personally without going through the lense of scrutinizing people who do not operate based on love. If God loves me and forgives me, you are no exception. Come as you are and allow the Spirit of God to work in you.
