Rev. Dr. L. Tsanso
Religion is the belief in the existence of a god or gods, and the activities that are connected with the worship of them. It also can be defined as one of the systems of faith that are based on the belief in the existence of god or gods. Religion is a particular interest or influence that is very important in some ones life.
“Religion is man’s quest for God and is originated on earth. Religion is man-made; Religion is the story of what a sinful man tries to do for a holy God; Religion is good views.”
“What we need in religion is not new light, but new sight; not new paths, but new strength to walk in the old ones; not new duties, but new strength from on high to fulfill those that are plain to us.”
Let our religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair
Having said so, lets keep in mind that religion expresses the importance of life, (Social life, Private life, personal life, Physical life, spiritual life, economic life etc etc) which is being controlled by some one above human being. Therefore, knowing the meaning of life either for personal life, family life, social life or life of a community or a country as a whole is inevitable.
Knowing the meaning of life -
The meaning of life is for us to discover that we are true children of an infinitely loving and merciful God, to find out what our responsibilities are to our Creator, and to fulfill those responsibilities.
In His infinite goodness, God could not keep all to Himself the happiness of existence He enjoyed in heaven. Just as we may love our pets very much, cats and dogs are just not able to share with us the happiness we feel from music, sunsets and Foot Ball. Only our children can do that. This is why God had to create us as His true children. But complete free will is the essence of His nature. So we, His true children, also had to have complete free will, only without the infinite power and wisdom. That makes things difficult. That makes it possible and even likely for us to refuse to accept God’s authority.
God knew that even though He would start out giving us Paradise to live in, we would soon think that we were His equal and rebel against Him. He knew that we would not like the idea of anyone in authority over us, and that we would think that we could make the rules for our lives ourselves. He knew that then He could not leave us with Him in Paradise, and that once we left that we would be severely tested in this new world, a world of random events and pain and sorrow.
He knew that some of us would continue to heed our conscience, and be kind and good, and have faith that God knows best. He knew that others would feel pain and sorrow, and blame Him. God, in his infinite goodness, has arranged a way for us to return to Paradise . All it requires is a short stay in this hard world of temptation and pain. All it requires is to prove to Him that we will not rebel against Him again, and to realize that God knows better than we do how to rule the universe. But man’ rebellious nature has not changed. Man still turn away from God and think that they know best how to lead their own lives. So how can man live forever with God in happiness? God’s great Plan, from the beginning of time, was to do atonement Himself for the many sins of mankind. Christianity spells out the mechanism by which God is able to forgive man for turning away from Him and not obeying His commands. Coming to earth as Christ and doing infinite atonement for our sins as true God, and yet being able to do it on behalf of mankind as true man, has always been God’s plan. (“In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”). That is the great miracle of Christianity. Above all, to believe in God is to have complete trust in His love and His commands. Being obedient to His commands allows us to receive His grace, which in turn will lead to faith and salvation.
And what is God’s greatest command?
“Love the Lord thy God with your whole heart, and love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is how Christ put it. That is what the entire word of God boils down to. You love yourself quite a bit. You go to great trouble to make sure you are fed when you get hungry. Do you do the same for all other people on earth? If not, you are not obeying God’s command. You go to great trouble to make sure that you have warm clothing and shelter when you are cold. Do you do the same for everyone else on earth? If not, you are not obeying God’s command.
In the Bible, Christ said that if you do not feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and comfort the lonely, He will cast you into the eternal fires of Hell Himself. That’s what it says, right in the Bible. It is not enough to sit like a vegetable and think you are doing nothing wrong. You are commanded to act. You are commanded to relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings. The meaning of religion is to do that because God is our common Father, making us all brothers and sisters. We do our best to make life happy for our brethren, out of love and respect for God. For Christians, this is what is meant by living our life in Christ. True peace in this life knows that when we do that, we are assured of being eternally happy.
But the question is - how can we love God? He does not expect us to be able to love Him in the way that we love other people, since no one personally has ever actually seen Him or heard Him. Jesus Christ spent His three years public ministry here on earth showing us how to live. What did He do? He helped other people. He fed them, he cured their sicknesses. In His teachings he repeated, over and over, stories about Good Samaritans who took care of complete strangers by tending their wounds and giving them shelter; and of how terrible it was for a rich man to ignore the hungry beggar at his gate. (The beggar went straight to heaven; the rich man went straight to eternal torment.) The entire focus of His teachings was for us to take care of His other children. This was His life. This is what He taught.
Strictly speaking, our entire meaning of life is to love God with our whole heart. But God is perfect and complete. He does not need our love for Himself. He cannot “need” anything. So what can this mean?
We are to show our love by caring for His other children, just as he has told us so many times in the Gospels. But is this not a case of “chasing our own tail”? Why would He create billions of people who are all supposed to care for each other, instead of just seeing to it that they do not need to be cared for by anyone but Himself?
He does care for us, in the most important way. He always shows us the straightest road to salvation, and He does this of His own free will. But as His true children, we must also–by our own free will--be able to do as He does, and take care of the worldly needs of our fellow human beings, even though doing so is inconvenient or even painful, and goes against our own perceived interests.
By following God’s commands to care for our brethren, we will receive all of His grace, which in turn will strengthen our faith, make our lives here on earth as happy as possible, and assure us of eternal life by proving that our faith in Christ is true and real.
The little-understood paradox, then, is this: the only way we can be happy ourselves is to follow God’s commands and make other people happy. Selfishly trying to make only ourselves happy is self-defeating. It is impossible. But if you can make just one other person happy, or relieve their suffering, your life will be a resounding success! And this is always possible for you, every day. Even a single kind word can lift someone’s spirits and make them happy. In is said that in WWII concentration camps, some prisoners shared their small rations of food with others, even though it meant certain death by starvation themselves. And survivors tell us that in the midst of all that horror, other prisoners sang joyful songs to make everyone feel better.
The key to all happiness, both in this world and in the next, is so easy. It is complete unselfishness. The essence of our faith is a dream, a vision, a possibility. It may be that we can all live with one another in peace and affection. It may be that the whole of humankind can become one family. This is the story Jesus told us. This is the faith that keeps us Christian; this is the vision we see in the eyes of our children before they fall asleep at night. It is not a faith of rules, though perhaps rules are necessary. It is rather a dream of what is possible if God really loves us the way Jesus says He loves us: with a parent’s tenderness and a lover’s passion.
Among all God’s living creatures we are special and unique, because He made us in His image as His true child. We are an infinite being who will live forever, capable of doing good that we cannot even dream about right now. Deep down we know all this, and we yearn to have it all explained and brought out into the light.
It is natural for us to return God’s love. God told us to show our love for Him by caring for and loving all of His other children, our fellow human beings. We are to feed other people when they are hungry, shelter them and clothe them when they are cold. We are to comfort them when they are sorrowful. We are to always be a joyful beacon of light in a sad, dark world. We are to forgive our worst enemies of everything that they do to us that is mean or hurtful, and return their hatred with kind words and cheer. We are to especially honor and take care of our parents. And we are to do all this simply because we are true children of God. It is our nature.
It is not easy. But the great miracle of the Living God is that every time we stray off the path, every time we offend our Father, He will instantly forgive us completely if only we ask Him to in the name of Jesus Christ, who came to earth and suffered and died so that this forgiveness would be possible. For anyone, this is wonderful news! It is more than that, it is everything.
If we do not follow Gods commands and do good works, then listen to what God had to say:
Then He will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep he will place on His right hand and the goats on His left. Then He will say to those on His right: “Come! You have my Father’s blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. For
I was hungry and you gave me food;
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink;
I was a stranger and you welcomed me;
I was naked and you clothed me;
I was ill and you comforted me;
I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Then the just will ask Him,
“Lord, when did we do such things to you?”
And the Son of Man will answer them:
“I assure you, as often you did any of these things
for the least of your brothers, you did it for me.”
Then He will say to those on His left:
“Out of my sight, you evildoers, condemned into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!
I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected
to do these things for your brethren, you neglected to do them for me.”
This is a true saying, but an optimist would say that in spite of everything, there are a great many good, decent people living quiet lives of loving and helping. They are the jewels of mankind, shining in the dark and having immense value.
What is the true religion any way? It can be summarized in one single sentence, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbors as you love yourself”
