Beware of Developing a Religious SPIRIT OF FAMILIARITY

A religious “spirit of familiarity” is when a believer develops a go-through-the-motions manner concerning God and the things of God, including things related to church & ministry.

Take, for instance, a pastor who has a “go through the motions” manner. How does a minister of God fall into such a rut? It’s something that slowly develops over the years as the pastor moves away from relationship with the LORD to working for the LORD. A spirit of familiarity settles in concerning the Almighty, the church, God’s Word, pastoring, and the things of God in general.

We see this “spirit of familiarity” with Uzzah in the Old Testament. Uzzah was involved in moving the Ark of the Covenant to a different location during the reign of King David. If you’re familiar with the Ark, you know that it was a sacred chest filled with holy articles and that the LORD’s very presence dwelled on its lid—the Mercy Seat—between two gold-sculptured angels (Psalm 99:1). Observe what happens on this unfortunate occasion:

6When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

2 Samuel 6:6-7

As you can see, the oxen stumbled whereupon Uzzah reached out to grab the Ark and the LORD struck him down in righteous anger.

Why was God mad and why did He take Uzzah’s life when the man was only trying to help? Because only the Kohathites, a clan of the Levites, were permitted to carry the Ark and even they weren’t allowed to touch it at the penalty of death (Numbers 4:15). There were some 30,000 men involved with moving the Ark on this occasion and they were all ripe for judgment because they were moving the sacred chest in a manner contrary to God’s instructions. We see the LORD’s great mercy in that He only struck down one individual in the fiasco, the person who came closest to disrespecting his holiness, Uzzah.

We know Uzzah grew up in the house where the Ark was stored for many years, the house of Abinadab (1 Samuel 7:1). It’s conceivable that he became so familiar with the holy object that he no longer had a healthy reverence for it. This was a mistake that cost him his life.

Just the same, it’s possible for believers in the New Testament era who grew up in church or have pastored for many years to become so familiar with the things of God that they take them for granted. It’s easy for such people to cop a “go through the motions” attitude, especially if they’ve moved away from relationship with God to focus on performing tasks for him, which can be observed in the insightful story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). God may not kill them, as with Uzzah, but they’ll experience death nevertheless in the form of this strain of legalism, which you can read more about here.

How does one get set free of a religious spirit of familiarity? Simple: The Basics of Christianity.

This article was edited from chapter 5 of…