August 11

We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. — Gal 5:5

One of the dangers of religious life is dependence on forms. People think that when they are keeping up certain rounds of service, certain ceremonies, they are meeting all the requirements of religion.

Thus, in our Lord’s Day, there were those who were punctilious in their observance of the rites of their church, yet whom Jesus condemned unsparingly because their hearts were wrong.

Paul makes it plain that not forms, but life; make one a Christian. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un–circumcision; but faith working through love.” The question was not whether a man had conformed to the requirements of the Jewish law, or had not, but whether he believed on Jesus Christ, and whether his life was according to the law of love.

We need to remember this in the testing of our own lives. It is not the particular church we belong to, and the religious ceremonies we observe, by which our spiritual state is determined, but our inner and outer life.