There is a fair amount of confusion about religion and Christianity. Some of it is the result of our own laziness, some is the result of the enemy and some is the result of our fallen mind to grasp what God’s mission really is. First, remember that there is true religion and false religion. James defined true religion in James 1:27. False religion is defined by the Pharisees. False religion adds unhealthy paradigms to the gospel. False religion takes on many of the same forms as true religion but false religion is without heart change and without sincerity. Second, Jesus is not opposed to true religion, in fact, He came to fulfill the Law. That is, He, among other things, clarified what the intent of the Law really was. There are a number of well meaning evangelicals who write and often act as if the slogan of the church should be borrowed from a restaurant ad a few years ago. To hear them talk you would think that Jesus had no standard, no moral high ground, no list of do’s and don’ts. What Jesus opposed was the making up of rules and calling them God’s. He opposed the twisting and perverting of God’s Law to personal advantage. If we look to Jesus to find permission based upon the absence of what He talked about, just about anything in this culture is permissible. However, if we look to Jesus to understand God’s intent, we will grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth. In our text on Sunday (Matthew 12), Jesus was not anti-rules; He was for man’s good. The Pharisees took their Sabbath regulations to one extreme; today, we take it to the other. To our own peril we miss God’s intent, scrap a so-called rule and miss the gift of God. There are important lessons for us in all this. “Open the eyes of our heart Lord.”