Religion is not all about following the doctrines of the church or working in the church. A true religious life is following the ways of God in truth and love, doing all the things God wants us to do and maintaining a good relationship with him. God watches our heart but not our outward ways of life.
James 1:27, the Bible says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
The bible forbids empty religious life, when claims to be religious but you're not following the teachings of Jesus Christ it means you're totally empty in the eyes of God. When your religion doesn't talk about God and his good works in our life, it religion is also referred as a bad and failed religion.
Matthew 15:8, Jesus said, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
