The true scriptural (“Christian”) belief is all about proper relationships, not outward religion. First and foremost is the importance of our relationship with God, through and in Messiah. Secondly, we are to love others as ourselves. Outward rituals of religion and legal observances in themselves have no power to right relationships. That is, no man will be made right with God by outward religion, and no man can fully love others simply by performing outward religion. The commandments of God do point us to the truth which leads us in love for God and other people, but outward observance of those commandments in itself will not be sufficient.
There must be an inward change, a new creation, in Messiah. Then we are able to have a right relationship with God and other people.
Joh 3:3-8 AMP Jesus answered him, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born again (anew, from above), he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with, and experience) the kingdom of God. (4) Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb again and be born? (5) Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and [even] the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God. [Ezek. 36:25-27.] (6) What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Marvel not [do not be surprised, astonished] at My telling you, You must all be born anew (from above). (8) The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Joh 17:3 AMP And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.
See, what Christ brought us is the invitation to eternal experience of the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand, seated with Christ. He invites us to come and eat and drink at his heavenly table.
Sadly, traditional Christianity in all of its many forms, and no doubt will further mutate into other forms that become traditional, being man-made but claiming the divine revelation found in Scripture, has put believers that follow them into bondage to a system that is very much like the Old Covenant.
It becomes about formulas leading to rituals and the outward appearance and form is what everything is judged on. Just like the Old Testament religious people, Christians can be white-washed tombs. They learn to look real Christian on the outside, according to that group’s particular style/tradition, to be accepted by men.
Also, they have been deceived by the empire mentality, such as earthly empires have, and have not taken on the Kingdom of heaven mindset, through being transformed by the renewing of their minds. Even some of the leaders now are certainly well-meaning, and they do not realize they are deceived. They think they are doing God’s will and building his church. In reality, most are doing a lot of religious work done by the power of the flesh to build religious organizations that will all pass away, because they are not really the work of the eternal Kingdom of heaven. They will be shaken, and they will fall, and only God’s Kingdom will remain.
Many religious Christians are going to be sorely disappointed in the future. Time will prove many of their most cherished sacred cows to be impotent idols. Heaven will not be as they have supposed. God will not be as they supposed, when they meet him face to face. I wonder if some Christians who die with their current mindsets will not be resurrected to see the Lord face to face just to rebuke him as the deceiver. Maybe it will go something like this: “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, for I never knew you.” With the response, “Get thee behind me, Satan! The devil is a liar!! I did all kinds of works in the name of Jesus and know him well!”
After all, so many call the work of the Holy Spirit, “The devil,” and vice versa these days.
What about, “You’ll know them by their fruits?” We believe all of the teachings of Jesus are spot on the Word come in the flesh! So we of course believe what he said there. However, we have to properly define things.
Religious Christians who use that to criticize, rebuke, condemn, and even slander others usually don’t get the definition of “fruit” correct. To them, which is to be expected based on their religious old testament mindsets, fruit is looking Christian (and of course that means looking Christian based on their opinion of which tradition/branch of Christianity is right). It is about religious works and opinions that can be seen with the flesh and processed by the carnal mind.
But, spiritual fruit has nothing to do with such things, and cannot be seen by the natural eyes, nor understood by the carnal mind. No matter how much one dresses up the outer appearance of the flesh, and program the carnal mind to be religious, that carnal mind and flesh is still an enemy of the true God, even if it says differently and goes to church! 
Fruit comes by intimacy between the bride and bridegroom. Or, when speaking of the type and shadow used of the vine or tree (plants), fruit comes from pollination. No intimacy with Christ means you’ll have no real eternal fruit to speak of. You have to be pollinated by the glory of God! If the Holy Spirit does not overshadow you, like Mary’s womb, you will not be bringing forth any fruit for the Kingdom. It is that simple! You can do a lifetime of religious works just to hear at the end of it all, “I never knew you.”
True Christianity is about being, not doing. It is about what HE makes us into, not what we do on the outside to be pleasing to other religious people. It is about intimate relationship and spiritual exploration, leading to spiritual maturity, not outward forms and customs.
The purpose of the instruction of the Word found in Scripture is to point us to the God we are to have a relationship with, and how that relationship becomes possible for us (the Way, Truth, and Life that Jesus the Christ declared HE IS). What the Word teaches is to be experienced. It works like this. If the Word comes to our hearing, and we receive it by faith, the Holy Spirit moves to bring it to pass in our experience. We then EXPERIENCE THE WORD ourselves. We experience God and get to know him. If the Word comes to us and we reject it, doubt it, refusing to believe it, we will not experience it. The Holy Spirit is grieved and he moves on to someone who will believe.
This is why it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6).
If you do not experience the Word for yourself in your own life now, you don’t know him. It is that simple. You can attend church every day of the week and still not know the one everyone attending there claims to worship.
When I read Scripture describing something about God or speaking of something he wants to give or has given, I just ask, “Father, I want to experience that!” For example, if I had not yet experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire leading to supernatural empowerment as a bold witness, then I’d ask for it. Whatever I read/hear from Scripture that I have not experienced about/with God, I want it. Did someone in Scripture know God that way? Then I want to! I want to know all of God! I want to know God more than I know my wife, my children, my parents, or any one else!!
Ask and it will be given to you, Jesus said. Seek and you will find it, he said. Knock and the door will be opened, he taught. Do you believe him? Or do you want to keep playing that dead religion and warming a pew in your local church so you can feel like you are acceptable to God and going to heaven when you die? There is no heaven besides knowing God. That is the only heaven anyone is ever going to experience.
Joh 17:3 MSG And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
