The spirit of religion and the Spirit of Jesus!

Reflecting on Mark 3:1-6

“Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4)
As a Jesus follower, I am under the Law of Love.
The Law of Love calls us to do good, to save life!
Paul calls this “the law of the Spirit Who gives life” (Romans 8:1)
The Law of Love is not about what we CAN’T do, but what we can do!

I grew up with a negative sense of the Law: don’t do this, don’t do that.
Paul shows us in Romans 7 that this approach does not work.
By focusing on the negative, we are controlled by the negative.
This is what the religious leaders here were doing too.
They had made the Sabbath a negative law, and sucked the life out of it.
It was not a gift of goodness, it was a burden of prohibitions.

Jesus takes us beyond this ‘righteousness of the Pharisees’.
Jesus shows us what it looks like to “do good” and to “save life”.
And He calls His followers to obey His commands to “do good” and to “save life”.
This is God’s will, the commands of Jesus we are to obey.
This is what love does, and what the Law of Love is all about.

My sense of christianity is that it is more negative than positive.
We are more like morality police, looking for a reason to accuse others.
We criticize and condemn those who do not ‘keep the law’ like us.
Yet our keeping the law is judgmental, burdensome, life-sucking.
People are not drawn by the goodness and life of christians.
Christians are at war (culture wars), attacking those who do not agree with them.
We need to stop looking for a reason to accuse others.
We need to start looking for a reason to do good and save life!

I am convinced that there are only two laws: love God and love people.
All of the other commands are ‘for examples…’
‘If you love God and people, then for example you will not murder them!’
If we love like Jesus, giving ourselves for others, we will not harm others.
We will not deceive them, rape them, cheat them, disrespect them.
The negative things are overcome when we set our minds on what the Spirit desires.
We aim to demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc.
We don’t do it perfectly, but we increasingly do it better.
We become known for the positive, because our focus is on the positive.

This story contrasts the spirit of religion and the Spirit of Jesus.
The spirit of religion looks for a reason to accuse!
This is what many experience from christianity today, and it is not Jesus.
The Spirit of Jesus looks for a way to do good and to save life.
Do you focus on the negative, on the bad things we shouldn’t do?
Or do you focus on the positive, on the good things we are free to do?
The one is the spirit of death, the other is the Spirit of Life!

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, set me free from the spirit of religion, always focusing on what is wrong and bad. Set my mind and heart of the fruit of the Spirit, that I may increasingly produce this good fruit - on the Sabbath day and every day!