In the National Football League, there are “contenders” and “pretenders”—teams that are solid and have the makings of a championship squad, and teams that are off to a good start but have identifiable weaknesses to where everyone expects they’ll collapse as the season wears on. In the art world, there are originals and forgeries—paintings that arose from the creativity and imagination of the artist, and bogus works that attempt to mimic and recreate the inventiveness of the original.
As it relates to following Jesus, there are folks who are the real deal and there is false piety. There are folks who pursue Him with genuine passion and fervor, and there are those who are merely religious.
Over the course of three-plus decades of pastoral service, I’ve observed a great many people who professed to be followers of Jesus. From those observations, I’ve seen a few things that separates true Christ followers from those who are religiously pious. By no means is this an exhaustive or comprehensive list; it’s just some things I’ve picked up and witnessed along the way.
· Religiously pious people withdraw from those who don’t hold the same view as them. With genuine followers of Jesus, there’s a willingness to allow for disagreement on non-essential things without it negatively impacting the relationship.
· Religious piety tends to make a person self-important and unteachable while, with genuine followers of Jesus, there’s an openness to learn from anyone—even those with whom we disagree on important things. Those that are religiously pious often demonize outsiders and/or those with whom they disagree and develop a bunker mentality.
· Religious piety views God as isolated and far-off from the world and are typically disgusted by the rebellion and disobedience of society. While God is a transcendent being who is beyond our grasp in terms of His splendor and glory, genuine followers of Jesus also see Him as an immanent being who is close at hand and active in the world. As a result, they don’t separate themselves from everyday life and so-called “sinners,” but they engage with them and the surrounding world.
· Religious piety has a sentimental and smug standard of holiness that is typified by the pious person always being right and righteous. As a result, they are quick to label any dissent or disagreement as persecution and assume the role of victim. They believe they have a monopoly on true righteousness and everyone else is grossly deficient. Genuine followers of Jesus, meanwhile, have a standard of holiness that is winsome, appealing, and available to the surrounding world.
· The more you get to know religiously pious people, the more you’re disenchanted with, and turned off by, them. The more you get to know genuine followers of Jesus, the more you’re inspired and intrigued by them. You want to know what makes them tick and explore the discernible difference in their life for yourself. Mark Twain once described a man as “a good man in the worst sense of the word.” I’m convinced he was not talking about someone that was a genuine follower of Jesus but merely religiously pious.
And here’s the problem: Excessive religious piety kills the missional orientation of the church. When professing followers of Jesus are reduced to merely being pious, the result is a church that is turned in on itself … a place that is typically judgmental and legalistic … a group that insists on exacting unrealistic standards towards others and assumes the role of jury, judge, and executioner with tremendous gusto.
In breaking down why this happens, it seems to me there are a couple of primary motivators.
First—laziness. Religious piety is lazy because, to use the words of Michael Frost, it “outsources the need to do the daily work of keeping in step with the Spirit of God. Discerning what Jesus would do in any given situation … is actually hard work.” All religious piety asks is that you follow the external rules—don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t gamble, etc. But if you’re going to engage with broken and hurting people and participate in a fallen world full of inequitable and unjust systems, you’ll have to make dozens of judgment calls every day. We will periodically make some choices on the basis of trial and error and occasionally get it wrong. The realm of interacting with real people who have real world issues and concerns is full of gray whereas the world of rule keeping is black and white.
Second—fear. I believe, at the end of the day, excessively pious people are afraid they’ll somehow offend God. They’re also afraid non-Christians are out to get them and bent on persecuting them because of their holiness. The result? An unwillingness to move outside the holy huddle and connect with people that are part of the outside world. The apostle John says in 1 John 4:18 that “perfect love casts out fear.” While it doesn’t mean we should live with a carefree and happy-go-lucky attitude that doesn’t plan for or acknowledge the future, we should recognize we can engage with people who are part of the surrounding world with assurance and courage. For the one whose methods we are following, and whose character we are striving to emulate, has given us His word that He’ll be with us.