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26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~ James 1:26-27
Today, we come to our eleventh and final blog and podcast on James 1. As you know, James wrote this book to Christians who were going through some of the most difficult times anyone could go through. They had lost their homes and all of their belongings. They had been scattered from all the comforts of their world and they were scared.
In v.26 of today's text we read, "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless."
Back in James 1:22, James had addressed the topic of self-deception. He reminded us to not only be hearers of God's Word but also doers of God's Word. If, when we have heard the Word of God, all we do is hear it and it never has an impact on our lives, then we are self-deceived. What is the point of enduring the trials and the temptations, if we are not being defined by the Word of God?
In James 1:26, James turns our attention to a slightly different issue when it comes to our faith in the God of the Bible. James takes us to the arena of religion. There are those who think that the doing of religious activities is the goal of our faith in the God of the Bible. Thinking they are not just hearers of the word, they do religious things, like rituals and other religious activities.
So, James addresses this posture of the man who thinks he earns God's favor by doing certain things. James essentially says here, "If anyone has the opinion that he is religious, yet controls not his tongue, he does not get it."
Even though the ritual might be biblical, it is useless if we perform the religious activity and our hearts are not engaged in it. It is a deception to think that we earn God's favor when read our Bibles, or attend church services, or to pray, or to give money, or to sing songs. The goal in doing these things is not to earn God's favor, but to realize God's blessings in our lives.
The word "religious" in James 1:26 is used in the Bible to describe outward ceremony. It delivers the idea of external trappings, religious rituals, routines, liturgy, rites, external forms. So, James is saying, "if somebody thinks himself to be religious in the sense that he’s carrying out all these outward formalities of religion while not controlling his words, deceives his own heart. This kind of religion is absolutely useless."
We can spend our whole lives in a religion that is absolutely useless, accomplishing nothing. Religion that doesn’t transform the heart accomplishes absolutely nothing. A proper reaction to the Word of God is to receive it without deception. James directs us to the heart of the matter which is the matter of the heart. When we have entered into a personal relationship with God, He will increasingly gives to us His heart for others. And, it is out of the overflow of our hearts that our hearts speak.
In v.27 of today's text we read, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
The genuineness of our religion is determined by the opinion of God. And, God says we are religious when our lives are marked by our love for the needy. Martin Luther, as I am sure you know, had a problem with the book of James being included in the Bible. But, when we approach our study of this book from the standpoint that he is writing to believers, we do not have the issue of the scenario that if a person does not act in a certain way that he is not saved.
Here, James is saying that if we do not respond to God through our trials and temptations in dependence upon God, we will lack His wisdom. And, when we lack His wisdom, we will miss the heart of what it is all about. The heart of it all is not that we earn God's favor. No, we can't earn God's favor. But, once we have God's favor through believing in the finished word of the Lord Jesus on the cross, we are set in the right direction to get what this life is really all about. And, if our heart is not involved, we will have been derailed from the point of the faith.
The words, "look after" in James 1:27 carries the idea of bringing love and compassion to someone who has been abandoned. The orphans and the widows have nothing to give us. And, when we give to them, our hearts motive will be revealed. This word is used by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 25 when He said, "When I was sick and you visited." It means "you came and you cared enough to help me in my need." It means our hearts will be engaged in the process of helping the needy. It means helping those who can not return the favor.
Now, God places a huge premium in His Word upon the orphans and the widows. As the tongue is not comprehensively indicative of Christianity, so widows and orphans are not comprehensively indicative of Christianity. But they are as representative of love as the tongue is representative of a pure heart. God has always been concerned with the fatherless and widows. Replete is His word for the helpless. And, when we have His heart, we will have a heart for them.
Our acquisition of God's word and wisdom is made manifest by how we love people who are in need and can not repay us. In addition, as James writes at the end of v.27, true religion is "to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." That is to say, "the culture of this world is not defining us, God is."
The believer in Jesus Christ will be, to some degree, defined by God. And, he will increasingly, not be defined by this world. As believers, we have been set apart by God. We have the good news that has set us free from the false in this world. And, once we have come into a personal relationship with God, we will want others to know what we have come to know. And, in order to be effective at sharing this good news, we must not be defined by this world, we must be defined by God.
Finally, it is not our perfection that proves our personal relationship with God through His Son. No, it is our reaction to our imperfection that proves that we have a personal relationship with God. It is our authenticity in our personal relationship with Him. The pattern of our lives changed the day we entered into this personal relationship that we enjoy with God. That day, He began the process of transforming our hearts and subsequently our lives. We now care about people in need. We now care about what God cares about. We now are increasingly being defined by God and not this world.
