Why are people who want a personal relationship with Jesus against religion?

Answer:

"Relationship" is a broad, vague word. I have relationships with coworkers, relationships with family members, relationships with friends, and even relationships with pets. A person can treat Jesus in just about any way they want and claim to have a relationship with Jesus. But typically when a person says he has a personal relationship with Jesus, he means that he decides how he is going to relate to Jesus and no one else is going to tell him what to do. Hence, the dislike of religion which defines how a person approaches and worships God.

The problem with the whole approach is that it tries to bring Christ down to the human level. When I deal with peers, I have a say in how we interact. But if I am dealing with a superior, such as the head of a country, my say becomes far less significant. It is the superior who defines the terms of the relationship.

Jesus is my Lord -- that is a relationship between Christ and myself. I have a love for my Lord, which is also an expression of a relationship. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). The relationship is shown in my desire to do what my Lord and Savior commands me to do. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (I John 5:1-3). But this means I can't decide what commands I will follow. I don't control this relationship.

The word "religion" comes from the Latin, meaning to re-align; that is, to change your beliefs to align them with another. Therefore, religion is a set of beliefs, observances, and moral code that for the Christian aligns his thoughts and actions with God. "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:26-27). Religion isn't a bad thing. Christians acknowledge that men left on their own go from bad to worse. They need God's guidance to change and become better people.

The person claiming a personal relationship with Jesus doesn't want others telling him what he needs to do.

"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great" (Luke 6:46-49).