PURE RELIGION

 

Friday, October 24, 2025

 

PURE RELIGION

 

James 1:22-27  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

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: 

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

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. 

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. 

James 1:27  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. 

 

          Verse 27 is a summary of verses 22-26. Verse 26 offers a clue as to the point James constantly presses home. Religion and true faith are two different things. “Seem to be. —Imagine himself to be religious; a difficult term, because its meanings have been subject to change. “The Greek adjective is one which expresses the outward, ritual side of religion, answering to ‘godliness’ as the inward.” [Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary]

 

          In the contest of denominations and doctrines, nothing beats pure religion as described by James. It has two focuses. One is outward because it ministers where there can be no profit, gain, or hope of reimbursement. It is costly and is done in obscurity. It produces no applause or reward. The other is inward and very difficult to perform. “Unspotted” is the Greek aspilos (as-pee-los) and means “morally unblemished.” This part of pure religion will prohibit the throwing of stones! (See John 8:7).

 

          Pure religion is not PRODUCED it is RECEIVED. “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? Rev 7:13 

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev 7:14 

 

Dear Lord, let me not be self-deceived regarding my faith. Thank you for the rich and pure gift of salvation. AMEN