Spiritual AND Religious - Loving God by serving Him

I believe most, if not all of us, have come across the saying, "I'm spiritual, but not religious." Often, it is connected to having a spiritual life without having a regular Church life.

But this is a hard sell if we understand spirituality as defined by the Christian faith.

First, what do the words mean in this essay? Spiritual is treated as when, in everyday speech, it means a private, inward connection with the divine: meditation, feelings, personal belief. Religious means that this connection is active in loving God. It does not mean being performative, giving displays of faith that don't match the Word. It is not climbing a ladder of religiosity that puts one above others. And it is not defined by being a member of a Christian Church, though church attendance is an important part of it.

Being spiritual in the Christian faith is the same as being religious: living actively by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit does not lead people into isolation. To be spiritual in the Christian sense is already to be bound to God, to neighbour, and to the Church. So "spiritual but not religious" asks Christianity to be something it has never been. 

Being "spiritual but not religious" may work if that spirituality is based on meditation, knowledge, or looking inward only. That is not the case for Christianity. "Spiritual but not religious" doesn't work well in the Christian realm because love is not merely a feeling. Christians can't love God by just "having feelings" toward him, as if it were just a  sentiment or an idea dwelling somewhere in the heart and mind. To love is an action verb. To love is to act. To love is to show faith at work, which becomes a religious expressions of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Being a religious person in the Biblical sense means being a person whose faith is active in service of love.

When Jesus summarized the Law and the Prophets, he uttered two commandments that shape religious Christian life: Love God above everything, and love your neighbour as yourself. The first of them is the foundation of being a religious person: "Love God above all things."

Christians cannot reasonably appeal to spirituality as a reason to dismiss the concrete expressions of devotion to which God calls us. This does not mean that affection is unimportant or that religious routines automatically prove devotion. We can attend church without turning our hearts toward God, just as we can speak warmly about Him while continually neglecting Him. The point is that genuine love will be expressed in acts of service. Love listens, makes time, responds, and remains faithful even if the feeling is absent.

Christianity is structurally not private-only, nor Spiritual only. Faith comes from outside you. Romans 10:14–17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing requires a preacher. You can't preach the Word to yourself in the same way, so a purely inward faith has no source. Sacraments can't be self-administered. Baptism and the Supper are given by the church to the believer. A faith without them is missing what Christ himself instituted. The Incarnation. God didn't save the world by staying inward. He became flesh, so embodied, visible faith follows the pattern of the gospel itself. Confession is public. Romans 10:9–10 and Matthew 10:32 treat acknowledging Christ before others as part of faith, not an optional extra.  Scripture does not present a Christianity that is purely private and inward. Someone who would dismiss gathered life as a part of the Christian faith has a very hard case to make.

Here the objection may come: "I'm spiritual but not religious because I love God not by going to Church but by loving my neighbour." However, Scripture treats the two commandments as inseparable, (1 John 4:20) so love of neighbour doesn't substitute for love of God, and it can't be used as replacement either.

Loving God means...loving Him. Religious Christianity prays, reads His Word, praises and adores Him. Christian religiosity listens to His command to get together with those who share the same faith—the Church. They don't abandon the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments, which He Himself gave and called His Church to receive. Together.  If we say that God comes above all things, that love will show visibly also in the the way we value his precious gift - His Church.

"But why is gathering part of loving God, rather than a human add-on? Didn't Jesus tell us to pray "in private" in Matthew 6?" No, Jesus is not condemning community. He is condemning displays of religiosity. Private devotion is good, but it was never the whole. Hebrews 10:24-25, Acts 2:42, and Paul's body-of-Christ passages directly answer that, showing that gathering together is part of God's will for the Church's spiritual AND religious life. 

 This is not aimed at those who are absent from church for reasons other than dismissal. Some are homebound by illness or age. Some have been wounded by a church, by a pastor, or by people who claimed to speak for Christ, and the hurt is real. Others are between congregations, living far from a faithful one, or in places where gathering is dangerous. These believers are not rejecting the Church; many long for it. The argument here is against something different: the claim that gathered worship can be dismissed, or that faith can be complete when it stays private. The Church is called to be a place where the wounded are welcomed, and the lonely are sought out. Those who are absent from it in sorrow deserve patience and care, not condemnation. But the longing to return is itself underscores the biblical truth that Christianity was never meant to be lived alone. 

We can't dismiss the religious side of Christian life and still claim to be spiritual in the Christian sense. We can't say we love God without actually showing love for Him as His own Word invites, points to, and even requests. This is what it means to be religious: it means to love God in action and deeds that are the fruit of the Faith that is connected to Him. Acts that don't deserve His Grace, but that reflect His Grace concretely in our weekly life.

Being spiritual and being religious cannot be set against each other in Christian faith. Spirituality that stays inside the heart is not too much for Christianity, but too little. Love is service. Service to God. Service to others. The faith that began with God entering the world ends with a people gathered, a Word preached, and a love that enters into action.

Religiously.