“Religion Undefiled” James 1:17-27
“Religion Undefiled” James 1:17-27
Introduction
The story is told of an evangelist overseer of an African Church, was talking about following the “pure” path, and the “pure” path only. It was night, and a crowd of natives sat around the campfire. A native dog passed between the fire and the listeners. “Look at that dog! How many legs has it?”’ asked the preacher. “Four,” came the reply. “Yes, four indeed,” retorted t, “but ha evangelist, have you ever seen the four legs of a dog trying to follow more than one path at a time? No, no! The four all go together; yet people with only two legs try to follow two paths: Christ and the world, God and mammon.”
This morning we will begin a series of sermons as we travel through the book of James. This little book which Martin Luther wanted removed from the cannon of Scripture, is packed with truth regarding to the manner of religion which is fitting and pleasing to God. Luther’s problem with the book was that in it are contained many sayings with regard to what religion “does.”
Luther’s great contention and the contention of all of the reformers of his era was that it is faith alone which saves. While the Roman Church contented that men were saved by faith and works, and to this day have many traces of this very same doctrine present in their doctrines, the reformers argued directly from the Scriptures and the life of Christ found in them that faith alone in the grace of God alone was the pathway, the road, to salvation and reconciliation with God.
In today’s Church I am convinced that the very same concern exists. Indeed, it has been at the core of religion from the beginning of creation, through the fall, through to the tower of Babel, right up to the present day. How do I relate to God? Do I work to please Him out of fear? If I am covered by grace then what positive effect, if any should that have in my life? What is the nature and manner of pure religion which is pleasing to God?
We will seek to answer these questions by looking at what the book of James has to say on the subject. I am convinced, unlike Martin Luther, that there is no dichotomy with the teaching of the book of James and the great truth that we are saved by faith alone according to grace alone. The point of James is that pure religion is faith lived, empowered by grace, expressed in the purity of love.
Transition
In desiring to give definition to anything that performs an action, that is, anything that “does,” he who seeks to arrive at a definition must look beyond that which the thing does, unto that which motivates its doing. In other words, when we look at the actions taken by an individual in his or her life, in order to understand those actions we must understand the driving force behind those actions.
He who shows compassion does so either for pure or impure motives. One person shows compassion so that others will consider him a good person. He shows compassion outwardly, hoping to receive the outward reward of praise and high consideration of himself by other people. This is the Pharisee which Jesus spoke about who prays loudly and in public so that other people will take notice.
There is another person who shows compassion outwardly, driven by inward motives, and seeking only an inward reward; that of participating in the inward life of the love of God. One is motivated by outward accolades, while the other is motivated by the inward love of Christ which has arrested their soul. The one motive is pure. The other motive is impure. The one is pleasing to God because it flows directly from the very love of God. The other is not pleasing to God because it neither asserts God in its aims, nor does it rely on God for its strength!
Let us examine what the first chapter of James has to say with regard to what it means to live out undefiled religion.
Exposition
Surely there are few areas in life where people have differing views on how best to define a thing, than the “thing” of religion. Time and again we hear people describe themselves as religious. To be sure some of them probably are but how can we know what it means to be religious in any sense of the word without some kind of definition? Some people believe themselves to be religious as synonymous with merely believing in some vague conception of an indistinct and utterly unknowable god.
For many of these people religion as an enterprise is unnecessary because they cannot fathom the necessity of something so monstrous as a brick and motor establishment designated for the worship of a sovereign divine because their notion of God is far more well suited to vagary and indistinct undefined moralism.
Modern notions of god need no place of worship because find their expression not in any practical manner of “religion.” The modern concept of god is the fleeting notion of a passing deity who is powerless and cannot save; even from the plight of the physical world around us.
And yet, in desperation, mankind searches to fill the void he has created within by availing himself of any specific concept or attention or affection for God. Modern humanity has further disregarded the validity of even the notion of the purity of religion spoken of in the book of James.
So, here in this vacuum of meaning, we find ourselves, unsure of what it means to worship God, uncertain with regard to what our religion ought to be comprised of. Indeed, if we look only to the mainstream sources of our culture for meaning we will find that the material items we worship rust, the culture of beauty and self-elation fades with just a little time, and that the constant questioning of meaning without no practical means of finding it takes us to the same destination as that of the 18th Century Skeptic Philosopher, David Hume, who said, “All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be skeptical, or at least cautious; and not to admit of any hypothesis, whatsoever; much less, of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.”
How do we arrive at a place of undefiled religion in an age of empirical skepticism which demands empirical, physical, scientific evidence to support any notion or claim, and even when confronted with the very viable and sound evidence for the pure religion of Christ, is skeptical on the grounds that all is relative, nothing is completely knowable, and that all things absolute should be rejected.
David Hume further asserted that never is a man more likely to be wrong than when he is certain that he is right. (thinkexist.com, Sproul: Consequences of Ideas) Hume’s skepticism paints the portrait of much mainstream thought in our day. Anyone who asserts anything as absolute truth is decried as a fool.
So where do we turn? What road are we to travel to arrive as a place of pure religion, undefiled, and how is that properly defined? Let us turn to the bedrock of our faith; the Holy Scriptures and examine the plain statements it makes with regard to this very thing. Who among us does not seek to travel the road which leads to peace? Who does not desire empowerment for the sojourn of this life?
Here are three primary principals, exposited directly from today’s text, which tell us what it means to have a pure religion in biblical terms. The book of James focus is not on a religion that works to please God. It is a book about what religion does, what faith does upon receiving the overwhelming superabundant grace of God in Christ. Some of what we will look at in this series of sermons on the book of James may challenge some of your assumptions of what pure religion is. Welcome this. Pray, “Lord, mess up my paradigms if they are not in keeping with yours.” Which of us does is not in desperate need of renewal of the mind?
(1) In verse twenty six James writes, “If anyone thinks he is religious.” Here is the first principal for those who practice pure undefiled religion. They avoid self-deception. In an age of seemingly endless ways to amuse and numb the mind away from the difficult task of relating one’s mind to reality, those who which to practice a purity of religion will avoid self-deception.
William Shakespeare once wrote, “O what may a man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!” Self-Deception is a natural consequence of the fall of humanity into sin. We all, to varying extents I would argue, have been programmed by culture, sin, selfishness, toward inner-deceit. What is it that most often, if not always, gets in the way of our relationships? What is it that so often impedes our progress in the spiritual life? It is self-deception, fear’s fruit.
When Christina and I lived in Florida I had a little bitty lime tree which never produced good fruit. It was amazing. No matter what I did the tree never produced any fruit which I could use. The limes were always covered in black kind of mold or fungus or something. I would wash them off but it would remain. One afternoon I took to inspecting the lime tree closely and discovered that this blight which covered the fruit was also covering the branches and the trunk of the small tree. I brushed aside some of the sandy soil around the base of the tree only to discover that the black coloration when right into the roots. I broke off one of the branches of the tree and further discovered that the black substance stained even the inside of the tree. The tree was sick from within. From a distance the tree looked finding, up close the tree looked like something had merely settled upon its fruit and branches, upon closer inspection it became clear that the disease emanated from within.
So it is, the text says, with the man who thinks that he is religious but is deceived. “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” (James 1:26 ESV) If anyone thinks himself to be religious must not examine outward standards of appearance but must examine his heart. This is the difference between knowing something is true and residing in truth of something. This is the great difference between knowing that God is merciful and loving and dwelling, abiding, in the radical, unmistakable, overwhelming, soul-crushing-immensity of God’s grace!
(2) The second mark of pure religion, defined in biblical terms, is that we be not only hearers but doers of God’s word. O, how the depth of difficulty in this plain and simple statement is underscored by our own knowledge of self. It is one thing to say that we will be doers of God’s word but quite another to do it. It is one thing to know what we should do and another altogether to live it out.
This is what the Apostle Paul was alluding to when he wrote, “So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:17-24 ESV)
What bold honesty the Apostle displays in this passage! Indeed, what genuine disciple of Jesus Christ cannot relate to these words? How can we be doers and not merely hearers of God’s Word when sin dwells in us? In the life of faith, through the journey of ups and downs, joys and terrible failures that comprise the story of my life, I have found one thing to be true and lasting; the deep and abiding presence of God to the extent that I have learned to trust Him.
Abiding in the presence of God is not a onetime event. Knowing the presence of God in our lives is an ongoing journey of discovering the divine presence of the Holy Spirit within us, at work transforming us into vessels of compassion who completely rely upon God and gain our strength, self-worth, love, and all other things from a direct connection with God, Abba, Daddy.
This is the great cost of discipleship and it is the greatest bargain ever known to mankind. And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25 ESV) So important is this teaching of Jesus that it is found in all four Gospels.
While the human heart cries out, “God give me a little bit more so that I will have enough to share with others.” The Sovereign God of creation, our Heavenly Father, responds, lay down your life, let go of the illusionary control that you think you have over your life, your family, your possessions, your career, your very existence, and in letting go you will find the freedom that comes in allowing me to fill you so full of my love, my grace, my mercy, that you become, like my Son, the physical embodiment of the compassion of God; reflections of mercy.
Conclusion
(3) This brings us to the third and final principal from this text that we will deal with today. “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.” (James 1:27 ESV) What is pure religion? It is you and I honestly (free from self-deceit) moving past outward appearance and into the sincere searching for a life of knowing God. It is learning to be doers of God’s Word and not merely hearers as we turn our lives over to God so that we can be empowered by His love to do His will. No man or woman who ever lived a life pleasing to God did so under his or her own power; it is God’s live working in us that empowers us to please Him.
Pure religion, as here described as the visitation of orphans and widows, is the reality of Christ dwelling in us. I am reminded of the words of the pop song form the 1990’s “’Losing My Religion.” If we are to live at the center of God’s will for us we must lose our man-made concepts of religion as outward enterprise, shows of holiness, and in allowing our hearts to be captured by grace, will find that true and pure religion is that which finds its source in Christ love and finds its only and valid expression in the visitation of orphans and widows, unstained by the ugliness of the world; that is, pure religion is to reflect the grace of God that is found in Jesus Christ. Pure religion is not religion at all. It is compassion incarnated in our lives just as it was in the life of Christ! Amen.
