Jesus went across to Mount Olives,
but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone
and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery.
Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
John 8:1-6 The Message
This is an incredible story with great lessons to learn.
I want to focus on verse six.
“They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.”
John 8:6 The Message
The religious leaders did not care about the woman’s actions; they care about trapping Jesus.
This is classic Religion.
Let me explain.
The Oxford Dictionary defines Religion as the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.
For years taught, Religion was a manmade attempt to get close to God.
One day God the Holy Spirit spoke to me while reading the Bible.
Jesus was talking about the teaching of the religious leaders. He told his followers to beware of it.
In another place, Jesus spoke directly to the religious leaders, telling them they were of their father, the devil.
I realized their ideas were satan inspired.
God’s adversary, the devil, is about attacking God by attacking his creation.
Since it is in humanity’s DNA to worship, the devil devised a plan to wrap humanity up in rituals about God that keep them from having a relationship with God.
When you think about it, it is an ingenious plan.
He tells the religious to depart from him in one place because he never knew them.
In the story of the foolish virgins, he told them he did not know them.
The Apostle Paul writes to his student Timothy, telling him people will act religiously but reject the power of God that could make them godly.
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.
For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.
They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
II Timothy 3:1-5 The New Living Translation
He tells his apprentice to stay away from such people.
I cannot tell you the number of times I have encountered people who walked away from God (in reality, they walked away from Religion) because he did not answer, help, or show up the way they thought he should.
Perhaps this describes you. If so, I pray, according to the New Testament book of Acts chapter one, that Jesus will:
- appear to you
- prove to you in many ways that he is alive
- talk with you about the kingdom of God
During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
Acts 1:3 The New Living Translation
The most well-known verse in the Bible says that
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 The New International Version
- God loved
- God gave
- God wants you to believe
- God wants you to live forever—with him
- God made a way through his Son Jesus
A close personal relationship with the Godhead is needed now more than ever.
A close personal relationship with the Godhead is a journey. I invite you to follow along. As I learn, I will pass it along so you, too, can learn. I hope that as you learn, you can pass it along so that I (and others) might learn.