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I believe I know why you say Christianity is not a religion. You are trying to emphasise that Christianity is really about a relationship with God made possible because of the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus, and facilitated by the Holy Spirit in you. I get the need for that distinction and emphasis, but does that really mean Christianity is not a religion?

A religion is simply a way of life that is guided by a set of beliefs at the core of which is the belief in the supernatural. Religion being a way of life will involve routinely repeating certain meaningful activities which then makes them rites or rituals. The discomfort many people have with the idea of religion begins with automatically thinking that routine, rites and rituals are inherently suspect or even bad. This is a problematic assumption.

Apart from atheists who hold tenuously to the idea that they are irreligious, the remainder of people who are uncomfortable with the idea of religion tend to identify instead as spiritual, and by this, they suggest or imply that the expression of this spirituality is not structured or guided by rules. They will typically fall somewhere on the continuum of exuberant charismatic free-styling on one end, and new-age faux serenity on the other. Guess what, the pursuit of anti-structure does nothing but push people into mild to madding chaos.

Chaos in reality is completely anti-spiritual. For starters, who could be more spiritual than God who is Spirit? From all we know of God, chaos is certainly not one of His manifestations. In fact, we get our first glimpse into the working of God’s mind reading of how He called a world that was empty and formless (Gen 1:2) into order. God then proceeds to set the order of the seasons, the structure of physical geography, the order of governance, etc. Nothing in Genesis suggests to us that formlessness is something God would create or appreciate, and nothing in the glimpses of heaven that we catch in revelation suggests that it will be a place without order or form. In fact, its form and order appear to be part of its majesty.

Unsurprisingly, unrestrained – unstructured if you like – spiritual activity is recipe for confusion, prompting Paul to say to them, “God is not the author of confusion.”

Perhaps we should leave the high level matters of creation and heaven and divert our minds to more practical matters like how we worship when we gather as a church. Apparently, the church in Corinth was one that according to Paul had a daily experience of the the Spiritual. In his actual words, “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7). Yet, it appears however that the profuse presence and manifestation of the spiritual was causing more problems than one would think. It was leading to disorderliness in the church. Unsurprisingly, unrestrained – unstructured if you like – spiritual activity is recipe for confusion, prompting Paul to say to them, “God is not the author of confusion.”

Spirituality is not formlessness or a lack of structure. Paul in fact proceeds to give them a structure for public worship undergirded by the fundamental truth that “the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet.”

Spirituality is not formlessness or a lack of structure.

Having hopefully discarded with the idea that spirituality is swaying mindlessly to some ethereal music that only you can hear, let us attempt to redeem the idea of religion before we surrender it to that insatiable spirit of the times that seeks to strip words of their true meaning, and render us unable to live out the meaning of those words any longer.

One might half-jokingly say that the universe is religious. The reason that the earth can sustain life is because the universe faithfully follows a certain order. People who live in this universe are also generally religious about the practical aspects of life. Think of a farmer who says something along the lines; I will only water my farm when I am inspired or moved to do so. I suppose one might chuckle at his foolishness.

Jesus for sure was religious – Luke 22:39 tells us that he habitually went to the mount of Olives to pray. Luke 4:16 also tells us that it was the custom of Jesus to go to the synagogue weekly. The consistent practices of the religious life – the routines, rites, and rituals that we call religion are like the watering of our farm that does not depend or wait for some elusive inspiration. We do them because we know from the word of God, and the examples of Jesus and the cloud of witnesses that these things lead to the prosperity of the soul.

And yes, Christianity is a relationship, but relationships have rules of engagement. To be a Christian is to be an apprentice of Jesus – building our own lives by daily observing his own.

And yes, Christianity is a relationship, but relationships have rules of engagement. To be a Christian is to be an apprentice of Jesus – building our own lives by daily observing his own. Know this: a fundamental rule of engagement in our relationship with Jesus is a call to ‘religiously’ daily take up our cross.

Know this: a fundamental rule of engagement in our relationship with Jesus is a call to ‘religiously’ daily take up our cross.

I understand the objections. It is valid that doing things (especially things that the bible does not prescribe) by rote does not foster our relationship with Jesus. The response to that is however not to stop doing things. It is to stop doing things mindlessly.

Meanwhile, the bible does prescribe certain rites and rituals – baptism and holy communion for instance. Giving things like these the place the scripture gives them is being obedient, not being religious (as used in the pejorative sense). Jesus also instructs us to watch and pray, lest we fall into temptation. Now, while he gives a framework for prayer and offers us the example of his own prayer life, he doesn’t expressly prescribe time. Common sense however confirms that if you don’t have a time for prayer, you will not have time for prayer.

If you don’t have a time for prayer, you will not have time for prayer.

Routine, rites, rituals are not the problem, it is mindlessness that is the problem. You can ritually participate in the Lord’s Supper and proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes, which activates the testament, or you can participate mindlessly – not discerning the Lord’s body, and according to 1 Corinthians 11:30, “That is why many of you are weak and sick, and some have even died”.