I wrote this post months ago. It fits pretty much:
I’m beginning to conclude that the big bugaboo in the New Testament is religiousity. Idol worship doesn’t mean watching too much TV. It means setting up any works-righteousness. Christ still hung around with the tax-collectors and fishermen and even a prostitute, not the Pharisees.
That’s why Paul called himself the chief of sinners. He missed the Mark so clearly. He was, in fact, setting up an entirely different target.
Any religion that’s Christ + X is still not Christ. It still muddles His message. It points people away from the Mark.
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2 thoughts on “The Chief of Sinners”
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My Dear Wormwood,
The real trouble about the set your patient is in is that it is merely Christian. They all have their individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state I call “Christianity And.” You know, Christianity and The Crisis, Christianity and The New Order, Christianity and Proper Decorum, Christianity And Vegatarianism. If they must be Christians, let them be Christians with a difference. Substitute some Fashion with a Christian Coloring. Work on their Horror of the Same Old Thing.
Nicely said. Worship of anything not fully and only God is idolatry. Worshiping one aspect or God only = idolatry. Worshiping all but one aspect of God = idolatry. Pretending to worship God when we are really serving our own feelings = idolatry. Doing “good” works to “feel” Christian without a Christ-centered focus = idolatry.