Pure Religion
James 1:19-27
What is religion? Isn’t it amazing how we can use a word every day of our life and have no idea what it means? “Religion” is one of those words. It’s like the ad in the newspaper “Dog for sale.” When we read that ad, what kind of dog comes to our mind? Chances are it is a dog that we are familiar with or have had some experience with. It is different for everyone of us. When the word “religion” is used, we each have our own concept, depending on our personal knowledge and experience.
Theologians are no different. There is only one class of person that can best a politician in talking more and saying less; theologians. Here is an example of a theologian’s definition of religion; “Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.” (I don’t remember where I got this quote. I have tried to find it again without success. You may want to substitute your own.) WHAAAT? What did he say? I have no idea!
Let me see if I can make it a little simpler. Religion starts when we realize that there is a Power in this world that is greater than us and we begin to determine a way or ways through which we can establish and maintain a right relationship with that Power. We are motivated by the desire to have some meaning to and control of our life in this world and some assurance of a continuing relationship with that Power in an afterlife.
Very simply put...so that I can understand it...religion is everything we do to please God in this life so that we can live with him in the life hereafter. Religion encompasses our worship practices, our relationship to other believers and to the community at large, as well as our private lives.
How our religion is practiced depends on our understanding of who God is and what He wants us to do to be pleasing to Him. The wide variation of religious practices in the world today illustrates the diversity in man’s understanding of God. Our understanding of God comes from — or at least should come from — the Bible. We believe the Bible is God’s divinely inspired word and it contains God’s instructions to us on what He wants us to do to be pleasing to Him. In other words, the Bible tells us how to be religious.
Now, before you start running for the door, we are not going to try to cover all aspects of our religion this morning. Instead we want to focus on one passage in the book of James in which James gives us his definition of Pure Religion.
In James 1:19-27, James discusses how pure religion is manifested in the life of the Christian. Throughout his book, James focuses on the behavior of belief. At one point he says that “Faith without works is dead.” Our claim to have faith is empty if our actions do not reflect that claim.
James must have been from Missouri because time and time again he says, “Show me.” You claim to have faith, “Show me.” You claim to be religious, “Show me.” What does pure religion look like? According to James, how does a religious person behave concerning his relationship with other people? Let’s see.
Pure religion is going to be reflected in two ways, our speech and our deeds.
James 1:19-20 discusses how our speech reveals the purity of our religion.
I. A religious person practices self control
A. Of our communication. A religious person is”
1. Quick to hear.
We must be EAGER to hear and LISTEN to what other people are saying.
We have two ears and one mouth. Why do we not listen? We are basically self centered. Me...My...Mine.
The effects of not listening...Ignorance...mis-understanding...poor relationships with other people.
The benefits of listening...Knowledge...understanding...good relationships with other people.
2. Slow to speak.
Speaking too quickly.
a. Reveals our lack of interest in what someone else is saying. “I don’t care what you have to say because I have something to say.”
b. Could reveal our ignorance. In Proverbs 17:28 we are told, “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is counted prudent.” Someone else put it this way, “Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
c. We run the risk of saying something we did not intend to say or something we will later regret. We need to “Engage our minds before putting our mouth in motion.”
ILLUS: The community gossip goes to the preacher for advice. She is instructed to put a feather in front of the door of everyone she offended and to return to the preacher the next day. The next day the preacher instructs the gossip to go back and pick them all up. Words can be easily spoken but can never be un-spoken.
A. Of our anger.
1. “The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
Righteousness = Fairness to men and conformity to the will of God, the righteous one. When we are uncontrollably angry, we violate the will of God by inflicting harm on one whom God loves and for whom Christ died.
Remember anger is only one letter short of Danger. Anger causes:
a. Loss of control so that our words and actions do things and go places that they would not under calmer circumstances. It’s like trying to drive down I-35 in our car without a steering wheel. A short temper is disaster waiting to happen.
b. Great harm. How many times have we hurt people in a fit of anger and damaged or ruined a relationship, that could have been saved if we had just been a little slower on the trigger.
c. The Danger of sinning. Paul in Eph. 4:26 admonishes us, “Be angry and yet do not sin...” The right kind of anger can be a good thing if it is controlled. Jesus was angry but he never lost control.
How do we reach the point in our life so that we are listening more, talking less and controlling our anger?
II. We must remove/put away/throw aside:
A. All filthiness...A filthy garment that has been soiled from diarrhea or menstrual flow. Who would want to continue to wear such a thing. Moral corruption of the heart. We must strive to rid ourselves not of just some of it, or most of it, but ALL of it.
B. All that remains of wickedness. Lit: overflowing or superabundance of malice. Before we can clean up our speech, we must clean out our heart.
Matt. 12:34, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
Matt. 15:18, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.”
III. We must receive God’s word.
A. In humility.
Humility is that temper of spirit in which we accept God’s dealings with us as good without disputing or resisting. Only the humble person will profit from reading or hearing God’s word.
B. Implanted.
This is the only time this particular word is used in the New Testament. It pictures a seed being planted in fertile ground that begins to germinate. Only when we allow the word to be implanted in our souls, will the word be able to save our souls.
IV. We must DO God’s word, not just hear it.
A. We must not be hearers only.
Have you ever audited a class? No involvement, just attendance. Sounds a little like church doesn’t it? In a hearer, the word is not implanted and therefore has no impact on his life. A hearer:
1. Deludes himself. Deceives by false reasoning — rationalize.
Until the word changes me, it remains only words on a page.
2. Is forgetful. Like looking into a mirror. Who can pass one without looking? But then we have to look into the next mirror because we forgot what we looked like.
“I hear and forget...I see and hear and I remember...However, when I see, hear and do, I understand and succeed.”
B. We must become doers of the word. How?
1. We must look intently into the word.
Using the mirror analogy, we closely examine the word to see our sins, filth, and corruption. But more than just seeing our faults, we see the things that need to be done to correct those faults. “God does not reveal the deep things to the casual Christian who drops in for a chat.”
2. We must look intently at the perfect law of liberty.
What is this law of liberty? Essentially it is the Law of Christ which frees from us from the enslavement of sin.
3. We must abide by that word. Live with...marriage.
Once the examination has been made and the solution found, the doer lives with the word and makes it a part of himself.
C. As a result:
1. We will become a “doer of the work.” -- Performer —
We will no longer be a bystander but a performer of the word of God, changing our heart, and our speech and our behavior. We become a doer of God’s work
2. We will be blessed in what we do.
We will enter into a state of well-being that is produced by a right relationship with God. We will bear fruits of righteousness that will bring glory to God. We will become RELIGIOUS! One final reminder from James in vss. 26-27...
V. If we look at ourselves as being religious, (doing that which pleases God) we will
A. Bridle our tongue. Control — bit in a horse’s mouth.
“If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”
Having no useful purpose: ineffectual, unusable, useless, lacking all worth and value, dross, good-for-nothing, no-good, valueless. As my daddy would say, “It’s not worth a plug nickel.” It is worthless....
B. Help those in distress.
Widows and orphans = anyone who is in need, anyone who is in distress and in need of help.
C. Keep ourselves unspotted by the world.
We will continue to purge the sin and filth from our lives.
“This is pure and undefiled religion.” You and I may say we are religious but James says, “Show me” your religion by your words and your deeds.
Are we quick to hear?
Are we slow to speak?
Do we control our temper?
Are we doers of the word of God?
Do we help those around us who are in distress?
Are we really religious or do we just think so? We must strive to know what God wants, and then do what God wants, so we can live with him for eternity. We must become religious.
