“John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them, the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”” Mark 2:18-22 NASB2020
https://bible.com/bible/2692/mrk.2.18-22.NASB2020
It is far easier to do religion than to be righteous. God is not interested in our religion but is completely concerned with our righteousness before Him and our relationship with Him. Jesus, God in a human body, did not come demanding religious activity from us nor even to establish a new religion when He established the New Covenant. Under this covenant all people throughout the world who turn to Him in faith, love and obedience are His people. All of His people are automatically christened priests, responsible for making Him known in the world by teaching His ways and living sacrificial lives for the benefit of others before Him Who also sacrificed His life for all of humanity. It is far easier to fast and tithe than to love unconditionally and serve sacrificially. Jesus never commanded the former but commanded the latter. We can fake before men our tithing and fasting but we cannot fake before God our love and service toward others. Certainly we fast and tithe today, we have made our relationship with God quite religious, just as He said we would, now that He left, but is it because He has left us or because we have left Him and so returned to the easier way of religious activities rather than holy living and loving sacrifice for our neighbor? We must be born again into this new way of living with God and before men. It is not a religious practice that God is after but a righteous relationship with Him and men that leads to all people everywhere loving Him first and most and loving each other as we love ourselves.
