To Encourage You

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Have you heard the term, “church hopper”?  It’s a term that refers to a person that seldom stays very long at one church.  For whatever reason, the grass often looks greener on the other side of the fence regarding the issue of the church in which they choose to worship. And there is a plethora of churches from which to choose, don’t you think? Churches vary according to the denomination, worship style, size of the congregation, preaching style, service format, income levels, racial mix, etc., etc.  It must be bewildering to a new Christian or to someone moving to a new place to choose a church. 

Of course, the Scriptures give us much guidance regarding this issue. Most of the letters of the New Testament are letters to various churches or leaders of churches, and there is much that can be gleaned from them as to what churches should and should not be.  Among them is the epistle of James. It is one of the most down-to-earth books in all the Bible. It’s a book that cuts to the chase and gets to the heart of things with respect to what it truly means to be a follower of Christ.  With this in mind, it is interesting to see what James has to say about the topic of religion, a word which means “ceremonial observance.”  But what he says has nothing to do with ceremony, i.e., those practices within the walls of a church that mark its worship style. Rather, James mentions two things that, in effect, get to the heart of true religion.  Namely, he points to two things that should mark the lives of believers after they exit the church doors. 

The first thing James puts his finger on is the influence of a person on the world around them.  Is their “religion” affecting them in such a way that their lives are a reflection of the teachings they have heard?  Is their religion more about what goes on in the one to two hours per week they spend in a religious service, or by the way they spend their time and effort the vast majority of the time which makes up the rest of their life? Are they visiting those in need, like widows and orphans? Are they those of whom Jesus would say, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matthew 25:35-36)? For you see, the same God Who has told us to “not neglect to meet together” (Hebrews 10:25), is also watching to see how that meeting together is affecting our day to day lives. 

But then the second thing James points to that marks “pure religion” is how the world outside the church walls is affecting us. He says that a believer is to “keep oneself unstained from the world.”  By this he is telling us that the sin that marks the lives of those in the world who oppose Christ should not be a part of the lives of those who say they know and love Him.  Again, he’s pointing to how our lives should be consistent with what we are saying by our religious practices inside the walls of the church and not a dichotomy to those practices. You see, that’s at the heart of any true religious practice in God’s eyes. It’s always been that way.

Listen to how God spoke to the ancient Israelites through his prophets regarding this very thing. From Amos 5:21-24: “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” And this from Isaiah 1:11-17: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

May the Lord help us to have lives marked by “religion” that is truly pure and undefiled in His eyes.