Have you ever heard someone say that Christianity is not about religion, but it is about a relationship?; But does James say that?
When Being Religious is A Good Thing
James 1:26-27
Please turn to James 1:26-27. We are going to start in verse 22, so go to James 1:22. As you are turning there, I want to tell you about a time when the people of Old Covenant Israel were very religious. They were religious, but the problem was that their religious piety was not pure. It was defiled. I am talking about the days of Malachi the prophet. These were the generations just before Christ came to eliminate the apostate religious system from the face of the earth and replace it with the kingdom of God in Christ. In that time of Malachi, we see the great grandparents of the religious Pharisees and apostate Jews of the generation that Christ was born in. We see in the religious atmosphere of those Israelite grandparents, that they were complaining about God. They even had the irreverent gaul to ask God how He had shown that He truly loves them, Malachi 1:1-5. God tells them that He loved them in that He elected them in the first place. They were showing what a lot of people demonstrate in impure and defiled religious practice. It is irreverent self government that is painted with the label of religion. God rebuked Israel's Priesthood,
"'6 A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My respect?' says Yahweh of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'" Malachi 1:6
The religious Priests ask in surprise;
What do you mean? How have we despised your name?
We wonder why they would ask such a thing of the very God of the universe that they claim to serve and worship. The answer is, because they are religious. But the problem is that they are resting in repose in the ritual righteousness of religiosity that is wrong. It is there, in this religiousness, that they have been thinking everything is okay. But here is the problem that God sees, and we see from His word--Those religious but wrong Jews are not fulfilling what the whole Law depends upon as the great and foremost commandment. It is the great directive that drives all that is holy. It is as Jesus said to an Israelite, who asked,
"36 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' 37 And He [Christ Jesus] said to him, 'You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, 'You shall love you neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:36-40
Christ is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, with Leviticus 19:18 of the Old Covenant Law. The point is, that to God, doing this love is to be doing pure and undefiled religion. Love is a doing thing, and God defines it. But we continue to think of those people in the time of Malachi. Those Israelites (in their impure religious practices) were sacrificing blind animals to God; and lame animals, and sick animals, Malachi 1:8. In their religious activity, they were even sacrificing animals that have been stolen, Malachi 1:13. They see that what they are doing is very religious. But, God sees that what they are doing is very evil, and He calls it that very thing in Malachi 1:8. It's all very religious, but God says He is not pleased with it, and so God says He will not receive any more offerings from the religious priests, Malachi 1:10. Nevertheless, God wants what God thinks is pure and undefiled religion. God says,
"11 "For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the Gentiles," says Yahweh of hosts." Malachi 1:11
God says what He wants, and God is going to get what he wants. He wants purity in service to Himself. It is a manifestation of love for Him. But Malachi goes on prophesying to religious Israel. He says that because of their impure and defiled religion in rejecting the instructions of God, they are not blessing themselves. Instead, they're bringing a curse upon themselves, which is the opposite of blessing. They are not loving God, and it is demonstrated in their actions. Further, they are not loving each other, as we see in Malachi 2. They are so deceived in their self made religion that they have taken their own religion to the extent of saying,
"Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and He delights in them," Malachi 2:17
This is the sorry state of religious Israel from the time of Malachi, and it continued that way on up to the coming of Messiah. Eventually both John the Baptist and the Messiah come according to the prophecies. Both of them are rejected and executed according to impure and defiled religion. Concurrently, God used apostate men to make His sacrifice, where Jesus establishes the New Covenant in His blood and resurrection. In so doing, He saves those whom He elects to be His church. Those who are saved out of the 12 tribes of Israel are part of this church. Those first Israelite converts are who James is writing to. They are made righteous in Christ. They are saved, and in their salvation, they are urged to practice their faith in pure and undefiled religion. This is the context of our James passage this morning. Let's read it now,
"22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 26 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. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
Let's prepare our hearts to move verse to verse in the sacred preaching of God's word, in this sermon titled,
When Being Religious is A Good Thing
As we approach our text this morning, I think the first thing we need to examine is what the words, religious, and religion mean. At one time, religion among Christians was a term that was typically used to describe living out one's faith as a Christian. Later on, religion became associated with two negative connotations. One is that any belief in a false god, or gods, can be called a religion. All the acts of devotion in systems that revere false gods is called religious activity, or being religious. For Christians, being religious in those kinds of ways is wrong, and sinful. And so what has happened, (I think) is that it has led to a negative connotation of a good Biblical word. The other negative connotation that has emerged is that there are a lot of people who claim that they are Christians, and they say that they are religious. In other words, they say that they are saved, and the demonstration of what they mean is that they are involved in a lot of ritualistic activity. They might pray to a statue named Mary, or they might burn candles, or incense, or they may give a lot of money to their religious organization. They may have been wetted with water in a religious baptism. They may do things like go on food fasts. And so because they do these things, they think they are Christians. The only problem is that though they do some things that truly saved people do, they are not truly saved themselves. Over and over again, people come out of religious environments and practices where they thought they were Christians. They come out because they were convicted by the Holy Spirit through the gospel. Their eyes were opened and they realized that they were being merely religious according to the flesh, and so they repented and got saved according to the Spirit. What they had before was impure and defiled religion in the starkest sense--religion that was not connected to God because they were separated from God. Complicated by these kinds of associations with the words religious, and religion, there has also become a general distaste for these words when applied to Christianity. What I mean is that it has become popular for people to say,
Christianity is not about religion; it is about relationship.
How many of you have heard this statement before? How many of you have said this statement before?;
Christianity is not religion, it's a relationship.
The sentence sounds pious and almost very profound. I actually used this phrase on the first Hindu I shared the gospel with when I arrived in India. I wasn't off the plane for an hour yet when I arrived in Mumbai. As we were waiting for a shuttle, I spoke with a young man who wanted to talk to me about my trip. The conversation went to Christianity. I explained that Christianity is not about being religious; it is about a relationship with God through Christ. He looked at me and said that he had a relationship with god too--a Hindu god named Ganesh. He said that any Hindu will tell you that he has a relationship with a god or with gods, and that for me to say that Christianity is not my religion, but rather is a relationship, makes no sense to him. I had never heard anyone respond this way to that cliche' that I had heard for years and repeated like it was a verse in the Bible somewhere. I decided to go straight to sharing the gospel, which I was able to do with much better ease than mouthing off a self assured trite expression I learned from my feel good culture back home. In the few moments we had left, I explained that all men are sinners on their way to hell. All men are in need of a Savior. We can not save ourselves. God sent Christ to be the Savior who paid the penalty for the sins of those whom he saves. We must turn to Him, (repent), in faith, receive His free gift of salvation and then, and only then will we be saved. I said a few more things, and then finished by explaining that God is the one who makes this relationship with us. You see--I ended the conversation by referring to the relationship again. Undaunted, as we parted, the young Hindu said to me,
Thank you for sharing your religion with me.
The point is that in our contemporary culture, we Christians can be uptight about being religious, or of practicing religion. But, we cannot be uptight about the word of God where we find that God thinks those terms belong to Him and His church. So, we need to know what James means by using the terms, religious and religion. Dr. Burdick, in the expositor's commentary, explains concerning this word in James 1:26,
The word threskos (religious) occurs only here in the NT; and the corresponding noun threskeia (religion) appears but four times in the NT, two of which are in James 1:26-27. The adjective threskos describes a person who performs the external acts of religion, such as public worship, fasting, or giving to the needy.
When we are practicing our faith according to God's truth--(in other words, when we are manifesting acts, and disciplines, that reflect our Christianity according to the Bible's mandates) then our religion is a good thing. In fact, according to God's word, true religion is a manifestation of our relationship with Him. In the context, being an effectual doer of the word, and especially as identified as doing the perfect law of liberty, is to be religious the way God wants us to be religious. This is why we really need to understand the fact that to love God with our whole heart, and to love our neighbor as our selves is the summation of the Law, and that it is our New Covenant rule for living that manifests pure and undefiled religion. This is the way it was for those who lived in Malachi's time. We already know that it is the greatest commandment according to Christ who referred to Deuteronomy 6:5, and Leviticus 19:18, but we find that God pressed it into so many of His commands. It is the simple ingredient base:
A) Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
B) Love your neighbor as yourself.
The ingredients are there for everything that God desires in pure and undefiled religion. Look in Deuteronomy 14. There, we find an enlightening directive in the Old Covenant Mosaic Law of providing for others as a matter of demonstrating love for others. What is interesting to note is that God wants love, and so God doesn't just sit back and watch for love to spontaneously come out of the hearts of Old Covenant Israelites in some sort of man made religion like that which evolved in the time of Malachi on into the first century when Christ Jesus arrived on the scene. Such love that God commands does not spring up naturally. God wants love that He defines, so in supernatural revelation God commands how love is to be manifested. In other words, it wasn't something that naturally came out of the hearts of sinful men who are born in the image of Adam, and so we read one way God commands love's accomplishment in the Mosaic Law;
"When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." Deuteronomy 14:29
Gentiles, who were not of the Abrahamic promise, were shown love in this command by being granted the blessing of gleaning from the fields of the Israelites. Orphans and widows were blessed with food. This was a blessing of love for others which also brought blessing to those who obeyed it, but it was something that was commanded from the heart of God. It is not something that was generated out of the heart of men. Later, as Isaiah prophesied concerning apostate Israelites, he said of the leaders,
"17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:17
This is true love on God's terms. Justice and righteousness was manifest in such things as punishing people who do not have mercy, and correcting people who are oppressive. This shows love for God and His righteousness. But notice the orphan and widow connection. It was also there in Deuteronomy 14. It is there in Isaiah 1:17, where God says to defend the orphan and plead for the widow. This is a manifestation of love for others--especially of those who are the most needy of the needy; who are the most helpless of the helpless.
Now at this point, I want to bring our minds back to remembering Malachi once again. Malachi haunts us with the tendency of human nature that slowly creeps away from God's truth and then tries to bend it, or redefine it to be what we want Gods' truth to be. When we turn our heads back toward Malachi again, we recognize that there is a kind of theme that is woven into all of this pure and undefiled religion that is found all through history with God's people. When we truly get it, we will truly get the grand sense of our duty as Christians. Remember again, Malachi prophecies the coming of John the Baptist in Malachi 3:1-4. He also prophecies the coming of Christ. Malachi's prophecy was both quoted and confirmed by both John the Baptist, and Jesus, to be about themselves. Malachi said that Christ is coming to change everything. We know that He did. He ushered in the better covenant--the New Covenant in His sacrifice and resurrection. He wiped away the Old system, and He is the very embodiment of the New Covenant system (cf. Isaiah 42, and 49). He not only brought pure and undefiled religion, but Christ is pure and undefiled religion incarnate. So, keeping this at the forefront of our minds, we notice the next words of Malachi, where God says concerning religious, yet apostate Israel in that age, which had turned its back on the great law of love that God had so desired in pure and undefiled religion,
"5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, ..."
God was looking to the future. He's talking about apostate Israel to which the Messiah came. They had become relentless transgressors of love for God and love for their neighbor at every turn. Their religion existed, but it was impure and very, very defiled. There was adultery--both spiritually and physically. There was oppression. There was oppression of the wage earner in his wages, but there was something else. We need to notice something of great importance in God's mind concerning the law of love. We have seen it over and over again. James is preaching about it. God goes on with how oppression is expressed in lack of love for Him, and for one's neighbor. God says of those who are practicing impure and defiled religion; that in lack of love, instead of visiting and helping widows and orphans, they oppress,
"... the widow and the orphan, ... 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. ..." Malachi 3:5-7
This is a chilling example of religious activity, where people actually think they are justified in the evil that they are doing. It is pure hardened selfishness, where religious activity is not defined by Gods' word, but it is religious activity that is defined by pure selfishness. We need to sit up and take notice folks, because multitudes of Christians in our day have been sliding down a slippery slope of redefining what God wants as pure and undefiled religion in respect to these same benchmarks. James brings the hatchet down on this very same problem that was beginning to emerge very quickly in the emergent church of the first century. The benchmark is easy to understand. Widows and orphans in the ancient world of that area were some of the most pitiful and destitute people. Even though wage earners were being oppressed by apostate Israel, it was nearly impossible for widows and orphans to even become wage earners. To be a widow or an orphan that is neglected by your people is the worst of the worst kind of oppression. Many of them, who had no family to help them out, were ignored by others in blatant lack of love.
In our text, James says that the manifestation of being an effectual doer of the word, is demonstrated in a short list of ways that represent the benchmark of love for God and love for one's neighbor. James gives a special emphasis upon one's care for widows and orphans as the ultimate example of those who are selfishly neglected even though they are in such desperate need of love. Let's examine these important items that help us to test our own religiousness with what God wants in pure and undefiled religion. Looking at the first items in the list, James says,
"26 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."
Like I said, there is a list of things, and this is just the beginning in verse 26. You know, when you ask the typical Christian what pure and undefiled religion is for someone who thinks himself to be religious according to James 1:26-27, what is the typical answer you will get? I'll tell you the typical answer I get. People who are vaguely familiar with this passage will usually say,
To help out orphans and widows.
Okay, that's part of the list. Notice that those things actually represent loving the destitute among us. But what about this first part that sandwiches helping widows and orphans in with a last part that we will get to in a moment? This first thing is not so readily recognized because it indicts just about everyone in our gossipy, acidic, smug, spiteful, foul mouthed age. But notice it. It is based on love, and it has to do with controlling your mouth. Bridling a tongue is like putting reigns and constraints on a horse to control what the horse is going to do. Or, I should say, it is like controlling what the horse is supposed to do. Immediately, when I think about myself and my Christian walk, and I think about what God is saying here, I realize that I think that I am a religious guy. But, James is saying something that prompts me to question whether my religion is of value, or whether it is worthless. Right here we all need to sit up and take notice. We all need to question ourselves. Ask yourself; do you think you are religious? James says,
"26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, ..."
Well do you? If we are Christians who are living out the Lordship of Christ, we should always answer "Yes." But there is something deeper going on with contemplating this question. If we are Christians, then the answer is always yes, but, the point is whether our religion is pure and undefiled. This is the heart of the matter. Are we effectual doers of the word?; or like the people of Malachi, are we just effectual doers of whatever we want Christianity to be? Okay, now considering the fact that your answer is yes, and so you should be thinking yourself to be religious, then ask yourself whether you control your tongue. The answer to this will reveal something about you that is much more than something that people might call a quirky personality trait. The answer is more than a simple observation. The answer, according to God's word, will identify whether you are a liar who is lying to yourself. Listen my dear brothers and sisters, the answer to whether you control your tongue identifies not just whether you are religious, but it identifies whether your religion is worthless. This is serious isn't it? The reason why this is so serious is because James is talking about the love things. In other words, James is talking about things like saying God's name in vain, which is to not love the Lord. He is talking about calling your brothers and sisters names, which is to not love your neighbor. If you make fun of another Christian's words, looks, or passion for Christ, then you are not bridling your tongue. What you call making fun, is what God calls making hate. If you are putting another Christian down, then you are not bridling your tongue. If you are argumentative, in a nasty fault finding manner, then you are not bridling your tongue. If you are gossiping about someone else--you're definitely not bridling your tongue. When we do not bridle our tongue as pure religion, then we will do the wisdom that is of the world, which is earthly, natural, and demonic as James says in 3:15. It is to be speaking hate, which is stained religion that is abhorrent to God. According to 3:9, whenever we use the tongues that God gave us for righteousness, we find that
"9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, ...
But then in hatred that absolutely has nothing to do with pure and undefiled religion,
... and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; James 3:9
All of these things are things that reflect things that do not show love for God and love for others, and so you may be religious my dear friend, but listen to me, your religion has been made impure by your very own lips--Your religion has been made worthless, valueless, and void of the virtuous substance of Christian living and it is all because of your mouth. It is a shame and a blemish, and God is saying the whole time that the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed, blessed, blessed in what he does! 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, worthless, worthless, which is nothing but a curse! God tells us in a few verses that we should speak and we should so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty in 2:12. So then, what words are we speaking in the work world?--I'm talking about out in what you do to make money in the business realm. How are we speaking to our family members? How are we acting, and talking around employees; around students; around teachers; around anyone when we are not here among the fellowship of the saints on Sunday morning? Speaking and acting is what pure and undefiled religion is all about. It's belief backed by believer's behavior. So we believers need to analyze our actions, especially our speech action. This behavior spotlights what type of religion we are really practicing. So this leads us to the huge question concerning this first point.
If my behavior in not bridling my mouth makes my religion worthless, then how do I make my religion valuable again?
The answer is simple. Now is the time to start looking at God's word as our instruction to start bridling our tongues. Let me make it more contextual for us; We need to take hold of our steering wheels and turn our tongues to God's word in the law of love. Christ has taken the first step and has already enabled us to do it. Christ has taken the next step and has told us that we need to do it. Now we need to do it. What this means is that we simply start saying love things. That is all there is to it folks. Bridling our tongue in our speech is to practice the royal law of liberty by intentionally building up, instead of tearing down. Instead of saying God's name in vain, we make our mouths say that God is sovereign and whatever He does in our life is good. Instead of getting mad at the Lord, you praise Him. Instead of making fun of the way another Christian talks, or looks, or acts, we complement them for being our brother or sister in Christ. Instead of putting another Christian down, we bridle our tongues by purposefully building them up with our words. You either tell them something that builds them up, or you tell others something about them that builds them up in other people's eyes. This is true love language. Instead of being argumentative in a fault finding manner, bridle your tongue, and listen in an edifying fact finding manner, by being slow to speak, and quick to hear. Instead of gossiping about someone else, practice pure and undefiled religion by saying nice things about them. It's a standard. It's a practice, and James goes on to add more, where he says next,
"27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, ..." James 1:27
This is what God commanded in the Old Covenant Law as an example requirement for demonstrating pure love in action. This is the premiere demonstration of seeking justice and reproving ruthlessness in Isaiah 1:17. This folks, is one of the big places that the religious Israelites of Malachi failed, thus adding to the impurity and defilement of their religion. And yet when we practice this kind of love, we simply can not go wrong in practicing devotion to our Lord in respect to His commandments when it comes to the religion He likes.
Now, we need to notice some more things about this: When James says to visit orphans and widows, James is not talking about coming around to say howdy. He is not talking about a social call. What James is saying is that pure and undefiled religion is to go further than saying, "be filled, go in peace." It is the working aspect of bringing what it takes to be filled with you to help there be peace in the lives of people such as widows and orphans. James is talking about love where it becomes real. Love becomes real when we actually do something that is love. Actually this is the other thing I want us to understand about this, because many of us here are probably thinking, "I don't even know any orphans or widows." That is fine, but you know people, and the people aspect, when it comes to real love lived out in real actions, is what James is getting at. Orphans and widows are simply the premiere sermon illustration from God's historic examples of manifesting this real love. In other words, even though orphans and widows were the most destitute people, the people around them who lack love would still fail to see the necessity to bear those burdens that were right there under their noses. And so the point is that love is an action, which means it is more than a concept that you piously say you have because you go to church. Visiting orphans and widows means to love them by actually doing something to help them. It is where you care for their needs, and really, for the needs of anyone in the body of Christ beyond your own perceived needs. Jesus confronted very religious leaders of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus explained concerning those who inherit the kingdom what visiting Him and practicing the real kind of love that He has always wanted and commanded looks like. Christ was explaining what it means to visit Him,
"35 I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'" Matthew 25:35-36
This is the kind of visitation that James is talking about. Listen as Jesus goes on,
"37 Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" Matthew 25:37-40
Jesus is talking about pure and undefiled religion through pure and undefiled love, where visiting your brothers and sisters means doing something for them--even the least of them. But, let's take a moment to contemplate the rest of what Jesus says in His sermon,
"41 Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' 44 "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' 45 "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:41-46
Notice that Christ is speaking of people who are religious. In the context, he just got into a big confrontation with the children of the impure religionizers that Malachi had prophesied to. Christ is explaining that there are those lost sheep of the house of Israel who He had found and rescued in salvation. He is also describing the lost goats of the house of Israel that He passed over to perish in their impurity and defilement as apostate Jews. Their religion is not only worthless, it is condemning because to the extent that they did to the least, they did to Christ Himself. Did you also notice something else? Jesus is expounding upon loving God and loving one's neighbor--all in respect to Him. Folks, we are in Christ. He is our all in all. He is our righteousness, our love, or religion. Our duty now is to manifest Christ to the world. Our duty is to practice this love as the body of Christ, to the body of Christ. This is pure and undefiled religion. Finally James says that pure and undefiled religion is
"... to keep oneself unstained by the world." v. 27
Isn't this an amazing definition of the Christian life in a day when whenever you try to exhort Christians to keep themselves unstained by the world, they accuse you of being legalistic?! The question is why would they say such a thing? Why would they say that to quote God's pure and undefiled word to them so that they can be effectual doers rather than impotent hearers is legalism? The answer is that they are religious, but their religion is empty. Not only is it empty. It is tainted, impure, and defiled. They are supposed to be bright linens that reflect the light of Christ to the world in all of His shining glory, but instead they are stained by that very same world. In fact they are so dingy, they fit right on in with the world like they are supposed to be there. The stain eclipses the light of the glory of the Father of all of his lights, because the stain is dark, because the stain is the darkness of sin and the futility of the Gentile mind. James says,
"14 What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself." James 2:14-17
In other words, merely claimed faith, being by itself, is dead religion. Saints, we have an epidemic in our midst today where there are multitudes upon multitudes of God's children who are saved, and satisfied. They are filled and fat. They are comfortable, and content in their Christianity as they live in soured, spoiled religious endeavors that manifests very little love for God and one's neighbor. It is religion that wallows in, and hides itself in, the darkness of the stains of the world. Think of so many places we can see this. Whenever someone seeks to be entertained by worldliness, then that person, no matter how old, or how religious, is seeking to be entertained by the stain. What happens is that the entertainment, in some sense, becomes part of them. It has marred them, and marked them. Why? Because in seeking ungodly entertainment, the person is manifesting the stain of the entertainment out from their lives, in that they have sought it and have wallowed in it as their own possession of the moment. And so the entertainment, as the stain, is part of them in the stain of their empty religious activity. This is the whole irony of fellowship with the world in this way. Christians will defend the sin of being entertained by the sinfulness of the world all the time by saying,
Well, I'm not going to do those same things.
But it doesn't matter if you do them, because what matters is what has been done. What has been done is fellowship with the world (James 4:4) in the form of the entertainment that you partook in. This is the whole irony of fellowship with the world. Thinking that it is okay to lie to people and tell them that you will be somewhere but you aren't going to be there is a stain on your religion. Being immoral in sexual practices is a stain of the world. But it is really much more comprehensive than empty religion thinks. In other words, instead of a teaching that is merely a warning against going out and doing things like being immoral, this whole teaching is about avoiding that stain, plus going the extra step to minister to people who are lost in sin by sharing the gospel with them. The stains of the world come in many shades. For example, there is a kind of bigot spirit where people in defiled religiosity will hate homosexuals. What I mean is that in the bigot spirit, even lost people will hate certain sinners because of certain sins. Because of the subject, it is easy for Christians to get caught up in that spirit of hatred, and so they begin to hate the sinner too. But such people, though enemies of God as sinners, are really ministry opportunities for us to practice pure and undefiled religion. In that respect, we manifest the love of Christ that He commands, we wipe away the stain of bigoted impure religion and, of course, we say that homosexuals, adulterers, molesters, liars, and thieves are living in sin, but we also say,
"You are human, and you need to hear the gospel of the Law of liberty. You need to know that Christ is the great all in all, and that you need to turn to Him and be saved. If not, then you will perish in your sins."
But, if you are stained, then you will avoid such people as ministry opportunities because you hate them. You will be content to scoff, and sneer, and be snide, instead of praying, and pleading, and pouring out the love of Christ to a lost and dying world that God says is ripe for the harvest. Is not part of the huge creeping away into empty religion, the fact that we we aren't about God's business of sharing Christ with this lost world anymore? So, what we see is that there are so many ways to be tainted. Another way is to always think that someone else is going to do it. In other words, in our country it is so easy to think,
Isn't it the job of the entitlement brokers of government to visit widows, orphans, and others who are in need?
This stained thinking has stopped the church from being religious the way God wants it to be religious, and so we would rather quibble about the negative connotations of using the word "religion" anymore, than simply being obedient to God's word, by getting ourselves sweaty, and spending our own money, and using up our own time to actually practice the religion of love. What we need to become is what Jesus wants us to become. He wants us to become Jericho Road Christians of the school of the good Samaritan who practiced pure and undefiled religion. First of all it means that we love what many people consider to be the unlovable. It also means that when we come across someone who has been beaten down, and robbed, and is left naked in the dark stain of this world, we don't turn and go the other way. We put real religion to a real world and we do our part as God's children to practice the law of love. When we love the destitute--(when we love our neighbor), we need to love like we are the destitute. We need to love them like they are us. You need to love the widow like you are the widow. You need to love the orphan like you are the orphan. In fact, we need to start loving like our own self doesn't really matter as much as others. I'm not preaching anything novel. It is the pure and undefiled religion of 1 John 3,
"16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." 1 John 3:16-18
I urge you this morning--before you think yourself to be religious, first check yourself, but check yourself to action. Are you controlling your words? Are you speaking love words. If you don't have anything to say according to love, then say nothing at all. Are you visiting the destitute? Are you visiting the widows and orphans of our age--no matter what package they come in? If you are selfish; if you are turning your back on those who are in need, then you need to change. You need to start loving them with your hands, your feet, and your pocket book. Finally, are you keeping yourself unstained by the world? Are you being entertained by the stain? Make it your ambition to separate yourself from the defilements of the flesh and of the mind. Do these things, my dear brothers and sisters, and you will be known by God as someone who practices pure and undefiled religion according to His word. amen?
