Successful Living > Real Life Lessons > Religiousity Vs. Authenticity

The world is full of people from various faiths who express great satisfaction about their relationship with God, yet often do so in an incongruent, smug, condemning and self-righteous manner . Ironically, many of these same people will be the first ones to provide slipshod work or indifferent service, talk behind your back or slight you in some other way. So how come they think they have such great relationships with the Almighty?

Well, no one may really know, but one answer may be their own subjectivity or lack of perspective. This means that their standard of judging their own relationship to God is based solely on their personal (and unexamined) feelings.

Is there an objective standard for determining the quality of our relationships with God? It's certainly not how much we know, how many books we've read or how many times we've gone to church-not even how long we pray or how much money we give when the plate is passed, or how many hours we volunteer for good causes. God's standard is simply this: how we treat each other . That's why Jesus said the sum of God's law is love, and in particular, how we love each other. In fact, the scriptures teach that it's impossible to have a relationship with God if we don't love or follow Christ's Golden Rule-treating others as we would ourselves .

So next time someone talks about how Jesus is their "best friend," or God is their "co-pilot," first check out how they treat their family, friends, co-workers, and of course, yourself.