Tom Lowe
2/7/2021
Text: James 1:26-27 (KJV)
26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27Pure 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.
INTRODUCTION
Obedience to God’s Word is never mandated nor vainly beneficial. It is transformational. Following God’s Word changes us. Certain things will follow. Obedience will make a difference, and as James shows us, he gives us examples of some of the changes to come. The presence or absence of these changes indicates whether or not we practice what James calls “true religion.”
COMMENTARY
26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
He begins with the negative -- what true faith is not. “Those who consider themselves religious and yet, do not keep a tight rein or rein-in their tongue, deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26). James has already warned us that if we only listen to God’s Word and do nothing more, we deceive ourselves. Now, he warns us that if we do not keep a tight rein. He adds that if we do not keep a tight rein on our speech, we are similarly duped. This is a stark truth. Not controlling our speech is a sign that we are not following God. If we consider ourselves spiritual (or Christian, or religious) but are not keeping our words in check, we are deluded. If we find ourselves saying things that are destructive, or untrue, or which get us into trouble and which we wish we had never said, it may well be that we are not converted. James expects that Christians will have a measure of control over what they say. And this is quite sobering. It destroys the natural complacency we often fall into. God’s Word teaches us that we should not gossip, lie, or curse others (Col. 3:8-9). It says that there should be no obscenity or coarse joking (Eph. 5:4). If these things are in any way a fixture of our speech, then we are kidding ourselves if we imagine that all is well between God and us.
God’s perfect law should be put into practice in our speech. Knowing how to speak well -- as a great teacher would -- is not nearly as important as having control of our speech; nowing what to say, and where and when to say it. If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself. The way that others will know whether or not our faith is real is by what we choose to talk about, and the way we speak.
27Pure 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.
After dealing with the negative, James now comes to the positive. “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 proof that we truly listen and respond to God’s Word is seen in the presence of specific “determinations” in our life. We will be determined to care for the needy. The orphan and widow in Jame’s day were the most disadvantaged and most vulnerable. There was no state provision for those who were unable to care for themselves. Orphans and widows had no means of their own to make an income. They were emblematic of the neediest in society in first-century Israel. The widows, because they didn’t have access to inheritance in Jewish circles and were not allowed to work, they were destined to starve if friends and family would not supply their needs, but it was more likely that they were left alone and reduced to begging, selling themselves as slaves, or starving. When we give without any hope of receiving in return, we show what it means to serve others.
James says the true Christian will have a concern to help and provide for them. Their distress will matter to us. We will not be calloused to it but responsive. God Himself, after all, expresses His fatherhood by caring for the helpless (Ps. 68:5). By caring for these powerless people the church put God’s Word into practice.
This may well be a challenging verse for those of us from more conservative churches. We are right to care about truth and sound doctrine. That is a necessary outworking of accepting God’s Word. We should make sure we understand it clearly. But there is a danger that we may make such understanding an end in itself, instead of a means to the more excellent end of becoming more like our God in how we look after those in particular need. We can have no assurance that we have received God’s truth until such care is evident in our lives.
Further evidence of our faithful obedience to God is seen in a determination to avoid the world’s moral pollution. We might think of any number of ways in which the world’s culture around us is pushing in the opposite direction than the way to which God has called us to live, but James likely has a particular form of pollution in mind, that is, moral pollution; practicing a form of religion which goes against the Word and will of God.
James explains religion in terms of practical service and personal purity. [1]Rituals done with reverence are not wrong, but if someone still refuses to obey God in daily life, his religion is not accepted by God.
Pure and lasting religion is not perfect observances; instead, it is a spirit that invades our hearts and lives there. Our conduct must be in keeping with our faith (1 Cor. 5:8).
General Notes
[1] James means that the offices -- Offices of Religion (currently operating) -- do not consist so much in outward observations, as in such acts of mercy and humble piety (Mic. 6:7, 8) and as visiting the fatherless etc., and keeping ones’
