PURE RELIGION?

PURE RELIGION?

James 1:27

27 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.

           According to an internet report, there are more than 20,000 Christian, protestant denominations. That is mind boggling! Surely someone has gotten religion right! James is the no nonsense apostle. The brother of our Lord had seen so much phony faith that he defined pure religion in a single verse. Let’s pick this verse apart and see what it means.

           Pure religion is what we are after and the word pure is translated from a Greek word that means clean or clear. Later in the verse James uses another word, undefiled, to shed even more light. The idea is that our religion should not be sullied by impure and selfish motives. Religion is the word threskeia and refers to the ceremonial observances of worship. So, having identified religion, we need to discover the means to achieve it.

           James says that the religion that is sincere and pure is “to visit” the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” The idea here is to go to see these people with the goal of bringing relief of their suffering. Ah! Pure religion is making a real difference in the lives of people. This is the man-ward portion of religion.

           The God-ward portion of religion is also, according to James, very practical. We are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. No religion can be thought of as functional if it does not cleanse the worshipper. The result is not an “other-worldly” person but a non-worldly one. We are to be different but not strange.

           Perhaps it would be helpful to back up a few verses to catch the context which James shows to be irreligion within religion. Here are those verses.

James 1:22-26

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

Dear Lord, let not my religion be vain today. Help me to make a difference in those who are suffering by providing comfort and relief. Help me to keep myself clean while in a defiled world. AMEN