What Should Be Religion’s Role in Life?
For a great many persons today religion is merely a means to achieve their own ends. What religion’s role in life should be, God’s Word clearly shows.
NEVER before has so much been said about religion in such lands as the United States. Yet, paradoxically, never before has religion exercised less influence in politics and business. As is so often the case, the increase in quantity is accompanied by a decrease in quality. Why? Because of a failure to appreciate what should be religion’s role in life.
Testifying to this state of affairs in the United States is the article that appeared in the Los Angeles, California, Sunday Examiner, February 9, 1958, on the subject “How Many Americans REALLY Believe in God?” It stated that “95 per cent say they do, but,” and then it went on to elaborate on the “but.”
“In one survey four fifths of all adult Americans questioned said they believed the Bible to be the revealed Word of God,” but 53 percent of them could not name even one of the four Gospels.
“Another poll revealed that eighty per cent of Americans claimed to believe Christ is God. But when thirty outstanding Americans were asked to rate the hundred most significant events in history, the birth of Christ came fourteenth, tied with the discovery of the X-ray and the Wright brothers’ first plane flight.”
The Examiner also told of Catholic priest Fichter taking a poll of 10,964 Catholics of a typical New Orleans parish. Of that number, he found 4,216 who “were for all practical purposes ‘dormant.’ They neither attended church nor contributed money nor sent their children to religious classes.”
“Finally and probably most significant was a poll in which Americans were asked first whether they felt religion was ‘very important.’ A vast majority said it was. Then they were asked, ‘Would you say that your religious beliefs had any effect on your ideas on politics or business?’ Fifty-four per cent said, ‘no.’”
In line with the foregoing the New York Times, October 14, 1957, told of Methodist bishop Richard C. Raines deploring the growing tendency to consider God merely “something extra.” “In true religion,” he emphasized, “God decides and man seeks God’s will and follows it.” And The Christian Century, February 12, 1958, told of Episcopal bishop Albert R. Stuart of Georgia saying that Americans lacked a sense of vocation and conviction about their religion.
EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION
The term “religion,” in its most literal and its simplest form means a system or form of worship, a rendering of service to a deity. According to the Word of God, true religion, the Christian religion, is not an extra, mere incidental thing, as though it were but a means to an end. It is and must be for us the goal, the end itself, the chief purpose in life. It must be the guiding, impelling, motivating force, the dominating factor in our lives. It is indeed a matter of God’s deciding and our carrying out the divine will regardless of consequences. It is truly a vocation, a way of life, based on knowledge and faith, reason and conviction; a love of truth and righteousness.
As God told the Israelites: “I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.” And again, “You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force.” Worship of him must be undivided. That is why he warned his people not only against the worship of pagan deities but also against letting material prosperity cause them to forget him.—Ex. 20:1, 5; Deut. 6:5; 8:10-14.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, stressed the same thing: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” “He that has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me.” “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake and follow me continually.”—Matt. 6:33; 10:37; 16:24.
And by his own course of action Jesus illustrated what he taught. At God’s appointed time he dedicated himself to do God’s will, being baptized in the Jordan by John in public testimony thereof, after which he received God’s holy spirit. From then on he no longer worked at his carpenter trade, nor did he choose some career especially pleasing to himself. No, from then on he carried out the divine will for which he had come to earth: “For this purpose I have been born and for this purpose I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.”—John 18:37.
His apostles and early disciples followed his example. Peter, Andrew, James and John left their fishing business to join Jesus in his ministry; Matthew left his position as tax collector. Well, therefore, could Peter say: “Look! we left all things and have been following you.” Likewise Paul gave up his honorable position as a Pharisee.—Mark 10:28.
The dominating role that religion should play in life is further highlighted by Paul’s likening the Christian to a soldier: “No man serving as a soldier involves himself in the commercial businesses of life, in order that he may meet the approval of the one who enrolled him as a soldier.”—2 Tim. 2:4.
PART-TIME MINISTRY ACCEPTABLE
Not that every Christian soldier must literally leave behind everything as did Jesus and his apostles. It is also the divine will for a Christian to “provide the right things in the sight of all men,” and to “provide for those who are his own.” Failure to do so would mean “he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith.” Obeying these commands may limit one’s preaching activities, but the Christian will not voluntarily involve himself in commercial or other schemes for self-gain. All other activity will merely be for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the ministry, as it were.—Rom. 12:17; 1 Tim. 5:8.
In passing it might be noted that the same principle applies to hobbies. A Christian does not take a hobby so seriously as to become a slave to it. He will merely indulge it to the extent that it still serves the end of recreation.
The case of the sincere enlightened Christian therefore is just the opposite from that of the nominal Christian. Instead of using his religion to serve some other personal end, he makes everything else in life serve the ends of his religion, and what does not, he eliminates. Employers invariably find the Christian to be dependable and efficient, be he an African copper miner or an American private secretary. Occasionally, however, an employer does complain. On what score? That the Christian witness of Jehovah is not consumed by an ambition to get ahead in the world, is not competing with his fellow workers for the most lucrative positions. The employer fails to appreciate that for a Christian the dominating role in life is not wealth, fame, prestige or power, but religion, doing the divine will. After all, for him such a job is his avocation; his vocation is the Christian ministry.
For very good reasons the Christian ministry comes first. By means of it due honor is brought to the Creator, Jehovah God, by bearing witness to his name; thereby the reproach and shame that selfish and ignorant men have heaped upon the name of Jehovah are removed. Further, by means of the ministry the way of salvation is pointed out to men of good will so that they may flee the impending destruction of Armageddon. Also, Christian ministers warn the wicked so that the wicked may be fully responsible as well as know the reason for their destruction. And finally, by engaging in the Christian ministry one assures salvation for himself, as Paul shows: “For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Rom. 10:10.
To discharge his obligations properly along this line the Christian, like the early Bereans, must be “carefully examining the Scriptures daily.” He must heed the command: “Do your utmost to present yourself approved to God, a workman with nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright.” He must show that he appreciates that “all Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”—Acts 17:11; 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:16, 17.
In addition to private study of the Bible together with Bible-study aids, a Christian must heed the command: “Let us consider one another to incite to love and right works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near.” That means he must attend congregational meetings, of which there are five each week for the Christian witnesses of Jehovah. By such meetings the Christian grows in knowledge, faith, understanding and love, further equipping him for his ministry. And since all such personal study and association with others take time, he must heed the counsel to be “buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked,” always putting first things first.—Heb. 10:24, 25; Eph. 5:16.
NEW PERSONALITY
Clergymen may speak about the Christian religion as being a matter of doing the divine will, of being a vocation and based on deep conviction, but from the facts it is apparent that they have failed to get across to their flocks that being a Christian means making a career of preaching the gospel, even as Jesus Christ did. And the fact that conscienceless profiteers, corrupt politicians, fornicators, adulterers, and even vicious gangsters can be church members in good standing shows how pitifully short the clergy come of appreciating the role that religion should play as regards the principles of truth and righteousness.
That is why the apostle Paul warns: “Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, . . . nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, . . . nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.” Those who would be Christians must ‘quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making their mind over, that they may prove to themselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God.’ And among Christians “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all things and in all.” Christians must be guided by principle, not by outside influence or selfish inclinations; God’s will, not their own, nor that of others opposed to God, must determine their conduct. No unloving racial, national or social prejudices may mar their unity.—1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:11.
Religion’s dominating role affects all our relations, as Paul goes on to say: “Whatever it is that you do in word or in work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, . . . You wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as it is becoming in the Lord. You husbands, keep on loving your wives and do not be bitterly angry with them. You children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. You fathers, do not be exasperating your children, so that they do not become downhearted. You slaves, be obedient . . . You masters, keep dealing out what is righteous.” And whatever other human relation there may be it is to be governed by the ‘royal rule of loving our neighbor as ourselves,’ and by the “Golden Rule” of ‘doing to others as we would have them do to us.’—Col. 3:17 to 4:1; Matt. 22:39; 7:12.
What will aid us to realize religion’s role in our lives? In particular, faith, hope and love. Faith that God rewards those who serve him. Love for him with all our heart, mind and strength. And hope in his new world of righteousness in which there will be no more death, sorrow nor crying, and when the truth regarding Jehovah will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.—Isa. 11:9; Matt. 22:37; 1 Cor. 13:13; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:4.
So, according to God’s Word, the true religion should play the dominating role in our lives. It should be the motivating force; it should give our lives purpose and direction, making them fuller, richer and truly happy. It should enable us to serve God and our fellow man best. Doing so we can be assured of everlasting life in God’s new world. That the foregoing is not only logical and Scriptural but also practical was notably proved by the example set by the Christian witnesses of Jehovah at their Divine Will International Assembly this past summer at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York city.