Factcheck: I Love Jesus, but Hate Religion

By Janina Leone

“I love Jesus, but hate religion.” If you are a Catholic in 2022, you have heard these words by many people outside of the Catholic body. These people believe Jesus condemned religion and that all He wanted is a relationship with us. This is a grand error, since religion and relationship are directly intertwined with each other. In this essay, we will examine the fundamental flaws of this statement, and assess why religion is necessary to know and love Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Firstly, Jesus founded a Church, in which Paul describes in Ephesians 4:416 as being one body with one faith. Christ reigns and rules through the Church and that Jesus Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord and head over the Church, which is his Body. To this Church, Jesus Christ gave us everything we need in order to be saved and stay in a state of grace. To Catholics, these are called Sacraments, but to many, these are considered mere man-made rituals. The Bible does not ever say that we do not need religion, and unfortunately in the modern world, people believe that all you have to do is believe in Jesus without any action involved. James 2:19 contradicts this by saying, “You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder.” Most people misunderstand what religion is. If we believe in Him, we have to be united with His Church. This is what Christ says in regards to the Church He founded: “Whoever hears you hears me and whoever rejects you rejects me,” (Luke 10:16) and “If he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican.”  In John 10:14-16, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” To someone who rejects religion, they may privately interpret this to mean that all you need is to know Jesus personally, but we see our Lord state here that there is one fold with one shepherd when He declares that the sheep in other sheepfolds must be in His specifically. Outside of this one sheepfold, we become our own shepherd, or we give man the authority to become our shepherd like Pastor Bob or Pastor Rick, shepherds who all teach something different than each other. Jesus founded only one Church in which we see He commands we listen to. Since Jesus is Truth personified, He cannot teach error, which means that it is important to be in the one church He gave us, and not rely on ourselves. Without a proper religion and doctrine, we cannot know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Jesus did not create different churches with different doctrines, just as the apostles did not teach different doctrines. Paul didn’t teach a different doctrine than Peter on baptism, and James and Peter didn’t split off and found their own denominations or say things such as, “It’s not about religion, it's about relationship.” Everything the apostles and their successors did was by and through the Church: the one body of believers united in one faith. This is the specific model we see used in the New Testament. Jesus in John 17 even prays to His Father that we would all remain one so the world would know Him.

Next, Jesus gave us the sacraments. These sacraments are things many modern-day professors of Christ reject as religion. They say things like, “I don’t need a Church.” “The sacraments are rituals.” “I worship God when I go hiking, or in my living room with my coffee and my Bible.” “Religion is man-made.” Jesus Himself said otherwise, when He instituted the sacraments in order for us to be united with Him and have a relationship with Him. In John 6:54-5, Jesus tells us that we must receive Him in the Eucharist to have eternal life and know Him, “Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.” In John 3:5, Jesus mandates Baptism as a way to enter Heaven, “Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In John 20:21-23, Jesus gives His Church the power to forgive sins in the Sacrament of Penance: “He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” These sacraments are given to Christ’s Church out of love. To believe in and love Jesus, we must obey these requests which are only accessible through the one Church and in the one faith as Paul described the one body as. Jesus gave us these sacraments because He loves us, and wants an intimate relationship with us.

Lastly, religion and relationship are deeply intertwined. To say “I love Jesus, but hate religion” is to reject Jesus Christ, who died for us and meant every word He said. If we love Jesus, we must cling to every word He said, and obey it. God wants a covenantal relationship with His people. Take for example a husband and a wife. Let’s call them Mike and Sarah. Imagine that Mike says he loves his wife Sarah, and has a great relationship with her, but fails to keep his covenantal and marital duties. Mike professes His love for Sarah, but neglects to pay the bills on time, take out the trash, mow the lawn, or be united with her in thought, mind, and heart. When Mike hurts or offends Sarah, he does not seek to reconcile their relationship by making amends in the way Sarah needs, because he believes that all that is needed is to profess his love for her, and that nothing else is needed. Mike rejects Sarah’s requests, and eventually, their marriage collapses. This is the same principle when it comes to Christ, who is the groom and we the Church are the bride. By rejecting His commandments to listen to the Church, abide in the sacraments, and be in the one sheepfold, we scorn Christ, and do not love Him as He has instructed us to. Since Christ is the head of His Church, just as the man is head of his wife, we are called to a union as one flesh. We are to obey Christ, who is the head of the body in all things. If Jesus is Lord of our hearts, He must be Lord over our lives.

In conclusion, without religion, we have no true relationship with Christ, because religion is our bond to Christ and His promises. This is why in Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." What we also fail to realize is that even without the true Catholic religion, we become arbiters of our own religions without knowing it. This is a selfish way to “love” Christ, where our relationship with Him becomes tailored to our own preferences instead of His commands. God calls every man to know Him, love Him, and serve Him. We can only do these things if we follow the correct religion. This is why it says in Galatians 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” If we love Jesus, we have to adhere to every commandment He gave us, not just the ones that are appealing.