Pure Religion
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. James 1:27
The word “religion” is defined as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” It can also refer to a particular system of faith and worship or to the pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
This is not religion based on the biblical definition. In fact, the word that jumps out at me when I read man’s definition of religion is IDOLATRY. Man’s definition emphasizes what is important to man. The biblical definition emphasizes what is important to God.
The word “religion” does indeed have something to do with “service,” or “religious service.” Serving God is a form of worship. If our worship fails to go beyond a Sunday morning “worship” service, there is something drastically wrong with both our worship and our religion. It is worse when you consider that many churches do not any longer practice genuine worship.
Context is always very important. It is so easy to stray far from the real meaning of any text without the context. The emphasis of the passage is being doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22). Without the “doing” there is no genuine worship. In other words, “HEARING” does not constitute worship. Whether or not genuine worship exists will greatly depend on what you do with the “hearing.”
What do you do with the Word of God after hearing it? Does it change anything in your life? Does it draw your life closer to God? Does it draw you into SERVING God? There are so many people who claim to be Christians whose faith never goes beyond “hearing.” The context of this passage emphasizes our PRACTICE of the Word of God. If upon hearing the word we do nothing more than glance at ourselves (James 1:23-25) without allowing the Holy Spirit of God to adjust our lives accordingly, we have not worshipped. If we only hear the Word, we will quickly forget what we have heard (24). That is easy to do when we fail to allow the Word of God to cut deep into our lives. If we quickly forget what we have heard, we definitely will not be obeying it and GENUINE WORSHIP TAKES PLACE WHEN WE OBEY THE WORD.
The Word of God is like a mirror revealing the flaws. It is when we see the flaws on the outside that we properly comb our hair, shave, etc. But when we look into the Word of God, which reveals the flaws on the inside, and quickly go our way without doing anything about them, we have disobeyed God, choosing not to practice His Word.
Dr. H. A. Ironside would preach out on the streets of Chicago. Someone shouted at him, “There are thousands of religions in the world. How are we supposed to know which one is true?”
He responded, “I am only familiar with two! While there are many shades of opinions within these two schools, there are actually only two religions. One involves all those who expect salvation by DOING, and the other sums up those who are saved by something DONE! There are just two religions: can you save yourself, or must you be saved by the work of another? If you can be your own savior, you do not need the Bible message, if you cannot, you had better listen to it!”
We ought to examine our lives to determine if our religion is genuine or whether or not is just another one of man’s opinions. The opinions of mankind, even our own, will never please God or bring His blessing in our lives. Is your religion “pure?”
George Stiekes held successful pastorates in churches in Michigan and Washington among other places. He currently resides in North Carolina and blogs at Reverent Reflections. We recommend his ministry and republish his material by permission.