Looking Through A Religious Filter

“Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” Matthew 15:3

It's important for us to use God's Word as the filter for our minds to prevent us from absorbing the negative attitudes of the world. But have you ever thought about how harmful religion can be to your thinking?

Religion? How can that be negative?

We all know there are many different religions in the world each with its own interpretation of how to appease God or in some cases many gods. We don't think about the fact that even Christianity has its “religions”.

When the church (Christ's body) was born after Jesus' ascension, the Bible says they were all of one accord. (Acts 2:1, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12,Philippians 2:2). All through the New Testament the believers all had the same mind set. They were followers of Christ doing what He taught them.

Over the centuries, the devil blinded people and tried to put out the light of the gospel. People stopped believing the truth and replaced it with human thinking and reasoning. But no matter how hard evil tried, the Word of God cannot be snuffed out. Men, such as Martin Luther, came to be enlightened and the traditional teachings passed down for years were questioned. This started the Reformation.

However, men's hearts continue to try to reason and twist the scriptures to make it fit into their mold. Many denominations have formed since the Middle Ages because their founders took a few scriptures out of context and built an entire doctrine on them.

Sometimes generations have passed without anyone questioning whether some belief is really the truth of the Bible. It's accepted because “that is the way we have always done it.”

Or we are told some things passed away with the apostles and it is not for today.

This is how our thinking is filtered by religion. When we accept teaching because it is from a certain denomination or person and not the Word, our thinking is going through a “religious filter”. It is keeping us from hearing what God is actually saying because our minds have been programmed for years thinking that just because a church believes a certain way it must be of God.

To hear God, we need to remove the filter that prevents His truth from being revealed.

Have you had any “religious filters” in your life?