Christianity was never intended to be made up of mindless and robotic men and women. People can come to different conclusions without being sinful in doing so.
The word religion has a bad reputation. Truly, religion that offers no change of heart is bad, but there is religion that changes a man’s heart before God.
The world is full of religion, but this religion bears little to no resemblance to the truth of the scriptures. Why? Because man-made religion is vain.
In the Bible, jealousy, similar to anger, is closely associated to a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 29:20; Psalm 79:5; Ezekiel 36:5; Ezekiel 38:19). As man provokes the Lord to jealousy, the Lord responds with judgment. At times, that judgment may be the consumption of the one who provoked the Lord. At other times, that consumption may be directed toward the very thing that the man put before the Lord. Either way, God’s jealousy is a consuming fire (Zephaniah 1:18; Zephaniah 3:8). In one biblical instance, the zeal of a man named Phinehas stopped the consuming fire of God’s jealousy (Numbers 25:11). Men should wisely seek the Lord today in hopes of delaying the fire of God’s wrath and anger upon their nations and homes.
Why did men marvel when they heard the Lord Jesus speak? The reason is quite simple. The Lord spoke not as the other religious leaders spoke, but with authority! No scribe or man could have any greater authority to speak on the behalf of God than He who was God come to earth in flesh. Everything the Lord did during His earthly ministry testified of His absolute authority. At one point, the Bible says that all people were amazed when they saw the Lord command unclean spirits with authority and those spirits obeyed Him. In addition to this, the Bible declares that God the Father gave authority to the Son to execute judgment (John 5:27). Ultimately, any authority possessed by the people of God stems from the authority of God’s Son.
When speaking of anger, the scripture uses descriptive terms that could equally be applied to the truths concerning fire. In doing so, the Bible makes a connection that can help believers gain a better understanding of the benefits or dangers of anger. According to scripture, anger can be kindled, a term used to describe the starting of a fire (Exodus 4:14; Numbers 11:1; Deuteronomy 32:22; Jeremiah 15:14), either a little (Psalm 2:12) or greatly (Numbers 11:10; 1 Samuel 11:6). The Bible also describes anger as waxing hot (Exodus 32:19), another connection to fire. These similarities are by divine design. As is true concerning fire, anger can be useful and productive, but it can also be destructive and harmful, especially when it gets out of control.
The traditions of men produce lives lived in vain. According to scripture, the word conversation means much more than merely words being spoken from one person to another. The context shows that the word refers to the way in which a person lives his life (2 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Peter 3:1). As such, those who build their lives upon the traditions of men may work very hard and be even deemed faithful. Yet, this life is all for naught because their lives are built upon vanity. Sadly, some of the most faithful followers of religion are those who are promoting the traditions of men from which they will gain no eternal benefits. The only conversation that proves fruitful in eternity is the one built upon the commandments of God.
Most men have no trouble creating and recognizing the trouble they have created but often experience great difficulty in finding any necessary solutions. In the wilderness, the children of Israel readily identified problems, but rarely, if ever, offered suitable solutions for these problems. Their expectation was that someone else could provide the solutions so long as they found satisfaction in complaining. Even today, this scenario repeats itself in businesses, churches, and family lives. People can complain about problems and often lack the ambition or the wherewithal for finding any lasting solutions. The average person finds enjoyment in expressing his complaints but leaves the solutions to others. This has greatly troubled the workplace, the home, the church, and every nation.
The sorry state of biblical spirituality in the world today clearly reflects the fact that too many people think far too highly of their levels of discernment. In fact, many of the most beloved teachers when compared to the Bible would be considered false teachers. Yet, scriptural ignorance insures that the masses will never realize the extent of the deception. For this reason, multitudes are led away from faith in the words of God. The apostle Paul insured that believers are warned of the impending dangers by pointing out that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). For this reason, believers should not marvel when his followers are also “transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:15). This should serve as a sober warning to the saints of God that the Devil has his minions doing his bidding. In fact, they tend to be the most expressly and outwardly religious. These people serve Satan within churches all over the world with the sole purpose of leading people astray.
Food is a necessity for sustaining life. Interestingly, the Bible records several instances where a man’s need for food became a source of great temptation. For instance, Esau was willing to sell his birthright because he considered one meal more valuable than his future inheritance. The Bible also records several instances where the children of Israel allowed their desire for food to incite rebellion against the Lord (Numbers 11:4-6). Another very important example of appetite involves the earliest narratives recorded in Genesis involving an overwhelming appetite. In the garden, Eve partook of the forbidden fruit when she “saw that the tree was good for food” (Genesis 3:6). Due to the many examples of inordinate appetite leading to sin, it comes as no surprise that the Devil first sought to tempt the Lord by commanding stones to be made bread (Luke 4:3) after He had fasted for forty days.
