A good friend told me, “When you believe in Christ, you can do anything you want.”  Wow!  A pretty amazing statement, isn’t it?  Do ANYTHING???  Really???

Unpacking this quote helps us to understand the difference between Christianity and other religions.  The original quote comes from St. Augustine who said,  “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

Such a simple statement with such amazing depth.  How we love speaks volumes about our relationship to someone.  When we truly love someone, we want to please them, do special things for them, and be with them.  We don’t want to do anything that will disappoint them or hurt them.  When we truly believe in Jesus and love Him, then we will want to obey His commands,  love as He does, and do things that are pleasing to Him.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).  When He said this, He was not talking about starting a new religion.  He was talking about starting a new relationship.

While some may disagree, Christianity is not a religion.  There are no set of rules to follow, no list of accomplishments to achieve, no religious tenets to hold (Ephesians 2:8-10).  Christianity is a WAY…. a following… a relationship with Jesus.  In fact, early Christians called themselves followers of the Way (Acts 9:2).

God wants a relationship with us.  Our sin broke that relationship, so Jesus came to pay the penalty by dying on a cross so that our Loving God could call us His children.  The Bible teaches us that we become adopted children of God when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior (Galatians 3:26-29).

That’s why we can call God our Papa.  That’s why we can love Him and do anything we want.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us,

that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)