You can listen to the full audio version here: Whispers of Grace - Religion (James)

“Christianity Isn’t a Religion, It’s a Relationship”… Right?

Back in the day, when I was on staff with Campus Crusade, I can’t count how many times I’d sit across from a college student and hear something like, “Yeah, I don’t do religion. It’s just not my thing.” And my go-to response? “Ah, but see—that’s the beautiful part. Christianity isn’t a religion. It’s a relationship.”

I thought I had a killer line. And sure, there’s truth in it—Christianity is deeply relational. We have a relationship with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. But here’s the thing: I was wrong. Christianity is a religion.

Our Word of the Week: Religion

This week in our Whispers of Grace series—our summer journey through 15 New Testament words of life, loosely guided by Dr. Nijay Gupta’s book—we come to the word “religion.”

Surprisingly, the word doesn’t appear much in the Bible. But while it might not show up often, it’s definitely assumed throughout the text. And one of the clearest spots it does show up? The book of James.

James Doesn’t Pull Punches

James is that person in your life who tells it like it is. You either love him for it, or you bristle every time he talks. Even Martin Luther wasn’t a fan—he questioned whether James should even be in the Bible because it felt so different from Paul.

But different doesn’t mean wrong. James and Paul ultimately land in the same place. James just takes the direct route.

In James 1:22–27, we get the clearest biblical look at what religion actually is.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
—James 1:22

James is basically saying, “Don’t just nod along in church. Do something.” He’s like Nike before Nike: Just do it.

He continues with this brilliant illustration: someone who hears the word but doesn’t act on it is like a person who looks in a mirror and immediately forgets their reflection. That’s not spiritual maturity—that’s spiritual amnesia.

Integrity and the Gospel

This is really a call to integrity. If we claim to believe something but our lives don’t reflect it, do we actually believe it? Or are we just big talkers?

I think of this golf video I saw: A guy claims to be a scratch golfer (that means really good), but his swing looks like he’s swatting flies. The commentary? “Yeah, he’s plus 10 after six holes.” No integrity.

James is saying: If you’re all in on church attendance, Bible studies, and Christian activities—but your life outside Sunday morning doesn’t reflect the Gospel—you’re that guy on the golf course. You’re faking it.

Words Reveal the Heart

James drills deeper in verse 26:

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”

C.S. Lewis put it this way:

“If the divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much worse. Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst.”

Why? Because our words reveal what’s really going on inside us. Garbage in, garbage out. If what’s coming out is mean, judgmental, or graceless, it’s probably because that’s what’s going in. And if our speech doesn’t reflect the Gospel—James says our religion is worthless.

All of Life as Worship

True Christian religion isn’t about ritual or rote practice. It’s about Gospel-shaped living.

Paul says it best in Romans 12:1:

“Offer your bodies as living sacrifices—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

In other words, our whole selves—actions, speech, relationships—are the living out of our beliefs. That’s religion in the biblical sense.

Jonathan Edwards, perhaps America’s greatest theologian, wrestled with this his whole life. Despite his deep understanding of grace, he constantly asked himself: “Is my whole life reflecting the Gospel?” Because he knew that if it didn’t, his religion was hollow.

Soaked in Grace

This sounds intense—and it is. But remember, the whole conversation is soaked in grace.

When Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” He meant it. Your redemption is complete. But grace doesn’t eliminate the call to integrity—it empowers it.

We evaluate ourselves not out of guilt or shame, but out of a deep desire to live a life that reflects the beauty of what Christ has done.

What Does Pure Religion Look Like?

James doesn’t leave us hanging.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
—James 1:27

Crystal clear. Take care of the vulnerable. Watch your heart. Stay unpolluted by the world.

In James’s time, widows and orphans were the most vulnerable in society—powerless, voiceless, dependent. So today, who are the modern-day widows and orphans? The outcasts. The isolated. The invisible.

That’s where James says our religion should go.

Religion Means Reconnection

St. Augustine had a beautiful take on the Latin word religio. He said it comes from re- (again) and ligare (to bind or connect—like a ligament).

So religion, at its root, means reconnecting—re-ligamenting. Rebinding the broken. Reconnecting people to God, and people to each other.

I think of my oldest friend, Vince—the middle linebacker and the band geek who became lifelong brothers in Christ. We were ligamented together by the Gospel.

That’s what the Gospel does—it binds us to God and binds us to each other. Religion isn’t about rules. It’s about reconnection.

Questions to Wrestle With

So let me leave you with two questions I’ve been wrestling with this week:

  1. Does my life—the way I act and the words I speak—truly reflect the Gospel?
    Would someone who sees me live say that I’m marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control?

  2. Who are the people on the fringes of my life and community that I’m being called to love?
    Am I seeing them? Caring for them? Going to them with the reconciling love of Jesus?

These two questions go hand in hand. If we’re doing the first well, the second will naturally follow.

Let’s not merely listen to the Word. Let’s do what it says.