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.”
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father.”
We need to be honest to ourselves about what we call religion today. Man corrupts religion. Man has defiled religion before God, perverting it to serve self. We can learn much about what religion is not as we study the history of man.
Religion is not words. Even Christians get caught up sometimes in saying what sounds devout but is just words with no action. James 1 deals with being a “hearer of the word, and not a doer.” Man has become a master of speaking pious words and giving compelling arguments, but man has also well demonstrated that words alone mean nothing.
Religion is not wealth. Man’s religion throughout history has often shown itself to be a thinly veiled get-rich scheme for its leaders. Mainline religious establishments have decked their temples with wealth built off the backs of the people they claim to serve as those followers suffer in poverty. Man’s religion even resorted to claiming to be able to sell the forgiveness of sin and the grace of God. Today still we see greed underlying so much of what passes in the world as religion. Some wealthy so-called preachers seek after every dollar they can from followers who often have very little.
Religion is not works. By this I mean that religion is not the works that we would consider our own righteousness. The Pharisees in Scripture thought themselves very religious because they did great works of the law in their own eyes. When Ephesians 2:8-9 speaks of salvation by grace through faith, verse 9 concludes, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The Pharisees thought themselves great workers which did indeed lead them to boast of themselves. Man’s religion still tries to teach that you can save your soul by doing good deeds. These false teachers lead people away from God by telling them that doing good will bridge the gap to God. But the Bible rightly refers to our righteousness as “filthy rags.” Romans 3:10 further states, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” You don’t get to God by good deeds.
Religion is not a weapon. Perhaps one of the greatest abuses against mankind is the weaponization of religion. Wars have been fought in the name of man’s religion. People have been oppressed by way of man’s religion. True Christians have been persecuted and even martyred by the command of these false religions. Masses of people have been subjugated to serve the whims of the leaders of these manmade religions. Some have even used the name of religion to kill their own followers for a greater, evil purpose.
Satan has abused the idea of religion. Even the word itself now tends to carry a connotation that Christians would rather avoid. Satan seems to get special pleasure from taking the beautiful things God has created and perverted them among unregenerated man.
But there is such a thing as pure and undefiled religion. There is religion that man cannot corrupt and Satan cannot touch. It is religion that we can live before God our Father unashamedly. Would to God that our religion be labeled pure and undefiled!
“To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
You might be thinking, but aren’t these works? In fact, they are works, but the work itself is not the emphasis. We cannot take this verse out of the context of the previous verses about being doers of the word and not hearers only. We must also have an understanding of passages such a James 2:18, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” If we plug the thoughts of James 1:27 into James 2:18, it might read, “I will shew thee my faith as I visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and as I keep myself unspotted from the world.”
You see, pure religion is not focused on self but places others first. Remember Matthew 25:40, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Pure religion to God is expressed in our outpouring of love into action toward others. Undefiled religion seeks to lift those in need, but man’s religion exploits the lowly. Pure religion before God visits the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. False religion perpetuates the affliction of others to its own advantage. Pure and undefiled religion before our Heavenly Father is practiced with a heart to be a blessing to those who need it most.
One who practices pure religion also sees the necessity of remaining unspotted from the world. He does not seek material gain. He is not worried about his status in society. He does not feel the need to entangle himself in the affairs of this life. Man’s religion is all about materialism and earthly power, but those who practice pure and undefiled religion have eternal goals in mind. They know that the filth of this world hinders the practice of pure religion, and so they endeavor to remain unspotted. They are not perfect, but they know what is truly important. They have a heart after God to remain separated for His good use.
What does pure and undefiled religion before God look like? It looks like people who love the needy, the outcast, and the forgotten so much that they want to show the love of God through their actions. And it looks like people who love God so much that they do not want the filth of this world to cast a shadow on the testimony of God in their lives.