Part of our post-modern, politically-correct world is the constant changing of our vocabulary. Certain words become bad, and one of them is religion. The sad thing is the one place where Christians have participated in post-modern political correctness the most enthusiastically is in trashing the word religion. It's a thoroughly biblical word, and what has been put in its place is relationship. We hear it again and again, Christianity is not a religion; it's a relationship. Implying rather strongly that religion is a bad thing and relationship is a good thing. Is that necessarily true or an either-or?
You won't find the word relationship if you read through all of Scripture. What you will find are words like fellowship and communion. What does fellowship mean? What does communion mean? Communion and fellowship are communal things that take place, not individual. So this relationship, if you want to say, of course, there is individual faith, but we are brought into a collective body - the body of Christ, His Church. And within that body is how we have communion with Christ and with one another.
What's odd about this relationship idea; Scripture is very clear on how we have that relationship with Jesus; he calls it communion. What is communion? That's the Lord's Supper; that's the fellowship. Jesus is coming to us in His body and blood in the bread and wine to give us His life, salvation, and forgiveness of sins. You can't get any closer to Christ than that. So when we see how the New Testament speaks, it's something beautiful that blows this whole idea; "it's not a religion; it's a relationship" out of the water. Even the relationship they think and want to have with Jesus is nothing in comparison to the communion we individually and collectively have with Christ.
-Pr. Richard Futrell
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