Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Well, hey, friends, welcome to day three of this week of the weekday podcast. I'm so glad you're with us. We've been in a similar theme all week long and talking about why religion could be the very thing that's getting between our relationship with God and where he wants us to be. And when I talk about religion, I'm not talking about faith, I'm not talking about spirituality. I'm just talking about a system.
[00:00:28] This is the way I describe it. A system that tries to earn our way into the presence of God. And it just gets in the way. Here's what Paul says in Romans 8:5. He says, for those who are according to the flesh, they set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the spirit, they set their mind on the things of the spirit. Now, this one is a little bit harder to say out loud, but I think this might be one of the more important episodes of the week. When you've been trying to run on self effort for long enough, when, like when you've been checking all the boxes, doing all the right things, trying to earn your way into God's good graces, something quietly starts to change on the inside of you. You start to notice, and this is what I've seen. You start to notice everybody who isn't doing what you're doing. And slowly, without even meaning to, you stop being a companion to the people around you and you start becoming a judge of them.
[00:01:16] Now, I know this is from the inside. When I was younger, I read my Bible a lot. I highlighted a lot. I wrote in the margins. I had one of those big Bibles that look super spiritual. But what was quietly growing in me was a kind of scorecard for other people.
[00:01:30] Now he's not doing it right, she's not living it right. I'd become really good at highlighting scripture, but really bad at loving people the way that Jesus did. So when Paul writes in Romans 8:5 that the person whose mind is set on the flesh keeps their focus on external things, he's talking about behaviors and codes and checklists. Like when your whole posture towards God is performance based, you naturally start measuring everyone else based on that same standard. And what changed me, and honestly, this church community has been a big part of it, was actually sitting with real people kneecap to kneecap, hearing their struggles, their pain, their story. And when you do that for long enough, you stop seeing people as rule breakers. You start seeing people as, well, people that are made in the image of God, that are on the same journey because here's what I absolutely know. None of us have arrived. I know I certainly haven't.
[00:02:19] And here's the thing that always gets me. Jesus only got into arguments with the rule keepers. Think about that. The people who were breaking every rule ran towards him. The woman caught in adultery, they ended up at his feet. Zacchaeus climbed up in a tree just to get a glimpse. The tax collectors, they crowded around his dinner table. He was the kind of person that the broken people ran towards, not away from. So here's a simple question to sit with today. Do the people closest to you feel safe enough to bring you their real mess? Their doubts, their failures, their worst weeks without having to clean it first? See religion, it produces judges. Jesus produces neighbors. Which one are you becoming? Think about that today and let's live it out. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.
