Is Christianity about rules, or is it actually about relationships and meaning?
Christianity got hijacked by rule-makers who missed the entire point. Jesus didn't come to give you a checklist. He came to give you life, and not just any life, abundant life. That's John 10:10. The Pharisees had all the rules memorized, followed them perfectly, and Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. Pretty on the outside, dead on the inside.
That's Matthew 23:27. They turned faith into a performance. Jesus turned it into a relationship. Here's what blows my mind. Jesus broke religious rules constantly. He healed on the Sabbath, touched unclean people, ate with the wrong crowd. Why? Because people mattered more than regulations.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus could have listed hundreds of laws. Instead, he said love God, love people. Everything else hangs on those two things. Matthew 22:37 to 40. That's it. Rules create religion. Relationship creates transformation. Religion says do these things and God might accept you. Relationship says God already accepts you, now let that love change you from the inside out. Paul writes in Galatians that if righteousness came through following rules, then Christ died for nothing. Let that sink in.
The entire point of Jesus was showing us that human effort fails. We needed rescue, not a religious system. Christianity isn't about behaving your way into heaven. It's about believing you're already invited and letting that truth reshape everything. Rules modify behaviour temporarily. Relationship transforms your heart permanently. That's the difference nobody talks about.
God Bless