James 1:26,27 – “Like Jesus - 1”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁶If someone seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one [is] useless. ²⁷Religion pure and uncontaminated before God and the Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

These two little verses are absolute bombshells. I feel I should take off my shoes and read them on my knees before God. In a sense it doesn’t say anything the rest of the Bible doesn’t say; it’s just that it says it so succinctly, so pointedly.

The two things which I think should awe our hearts are 1) we have here in a nutshell the question of whether or not our “religion” is real, and 2) the question is considered “before God and the Father.” It matters not one iota what we or anyone else thinks. What does God think?

In a sense, we have before us an opportunity to stand in judgment before God right now, here and now, and not have to wait for the Great Day. As v26 warns and I pondered in my last post, we are capable of self-deception on this very point. These two simple verses could have saved the people who said, “Lord, Lord” and were told “I never knew you.”  If only they had stopped to honestly ponder these two simple verses (or the many others like them throughout the Bible) and asked the simple question, “What does God think of my ‘religion,’ there and then they could have realized there was something seriously deficient and saved their very eternal souls.

But that was them and we are us. “How then shall we live?”

Verse 26, in a sense, states the case negatively. Someone may “seem” to be religious but if they do not bridle their tongue, God says that “religion” is worthless. Wow. A serious consideration of that one little verse would this week put entire churches on their knees. “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.”

The two great commands are “Love God/Love people.” I think it safe to say one of the main ways we impact the people around us is by talking. Certainly there are others ways we either do or do not express love – whether or not we do the things for which they depend on us, whether or not our touches are affectionate or hurtful, and so on. But, once again, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Someone said, “He who delights to injure his neighbor in vain pretends to love God” and that certainly applies to our words.

James will go on in chapter 3 to highlight the potential evil of the tongue (“It is set on fire by hell!”). What verse 26 here would have us know is that, if our religion doesn’t significantly conquer that evil, it will in the end prove to have been useless. We learn elsewhere that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44) and that he is “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev 12:10). Apart from real grace, we are his children and “the lusts of our father we will do.” No wonder so many people, both in churches and out, are so unbelievably dishonest and mean-mouthed! They’re simply being like their father the devil!

But “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:3). The grace of Jesus, when it truly enters the heart, very specifically is intended to transform our mouths. His lips were anointed with grace and truth (John 1:14; Psalm 45:2), not accusations and lies! If we would be like the Lamb of God, grace must conquer our mouths and wipe away our natural likeness to the devil. The question is, has it or not?

Verse 27 then in a sense proposes the interrogation positively. If our religion is real, if in fact grace has claimed our hearts, what will it look like? James picks two particular evidences for us to once again ponder. I would like to consider the first in this post and then come back to look at the second.

At this point, before looking at verse 27, it would probably be well for each of us to stop and ask, “What do I think ‘proves’ my relationship with God? What is it in my life that I think should convince everyone around me that I am really a born-again Christian? What positive evidence can I present to say I am a committed Christian?”

“Visiting orphans and widows in their distress.”  Hmmmm. That probably wouldn’t be at the top of any of our lists. But it just hit the top of God’s list! Once again, “if we would judge ourselves…” What is He saying? He’s very pointedly asking the question of whether we really love people. In their culture, two things were true of orphans and widows: 1) they really were absolutely destitute, and 2) they would likely never be able to repay us in any way. They could literally starve to death and, in all likelihood, they will never rise to any kind of place where one could expect to be recompensed in any way.

I’m not so sure in our culture things are quite the same. With all the government aid available, it is probably not quite as true that such people are destitute in a financial sense. They’re not likely to starve. But it is still true that they are bereaved of supports which the rest of us take for granted. And what is key here, I think, is to realize we are surrounded by people lacking for “supports” without which life becomes painful to them. The question to ask myself is, “Am I caring enough to see those things and can I honestly say I’ve done anything to help?”

I would suggest too that “visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction” is intended as simply a sampling of the whole matter of caring about others. What James is saying in a nutshell is simply that real “religion” evidences itself by a genuine and active love for the people around us. Being obligate legalists, humans automatically think “religion” is a matter of regular rituals. “I go to church four times a week, carry my Bible, have my devotions, give my tithes, etc.” There may be a time and place for those things, but any unregenerate person can attend to such rituals. What is at issue before us is true religion. What will set apart a person genuinely changed by grace? And the answer before us is that such a person will care about the people around them in very real and practical ways.

Isaiah said the same thing in 58:5-7:  

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Likewise, Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-36:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For 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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Jesus was “a man ordained of God who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). It is said in Psalm 84:6 of true believers that “passing through the Valley of Bacah, they make it a place of springs.” Everywhere true Christians go, it should be true they leave things “better.”

I would suggest what is supposed to be different is that, for a true believer, someone who has personally received and known and embraced the grace and love and forgiveness of Jesus, love itself has become an act of worship. I certainly enjoy attending church services, reading my Bible, taking communion, giving my tithes, and all of that. But my heart could never be content to stop there. “The love of Christ compels us.” We were created to love and a born-again heart finds its greatest joy in the sharing of love – and again, not just because it is pleasant – for us way down deep in our hearts we know it is an act of worship. Loving others is somehow all wrapped up in our love for God.

The writer of Hebrews says the same thing in 13:15,16:

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Clearly, the measure of “true” religion is whether we care about the people around us. One last thing I’d like to add is that I think, even if we “get” this, we too easily reduce it to “church” activities. I’ve heard entire messages on exactly these truths where the final application was “Which of our church ministries should you volunteer for?” As I have often lamented, the busiest of church members probably spends no more than ten hours a week doing “church.” But there are 168 hours in a week! What about the other 158??? We need to see this love as something we wake up with, carry to work with us, to the grocery store and our doctor appointments, to our kids’ soccer games, to mowing our grass – to every minute of our lives. Manton said, “This is the difference between a Christian and others, he can make commerce worship.” Love can make commerce worship.

What it all comes down to, of course, is simply being like Jesus. He wasn’t very good at “keeping the rules” but He sure loved people. He “went about doing good.”

Real religion is simply being like Him!

Next post I want to consider James’ other positive evidence, “Keeping oneself unspotted by the world” – what that means and what it doesn’t.