What is pure religion? Some may think it relates to doctrinal purity and keeping separate from those who do not share their beliefs. Others may consider pure religion has more to do with serving God by living pure lives and not indulging in immorality. The Biblical definition can be found in the book of James, “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.”
Notice there are two parts to pure religion; action and avoidance. The action is not the purging out of false beliefs, or the study and teaching that we might expect. Although we know doctrine is important and we need to obey our Lord and “Go out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” James shows us that more is required of us. The definition of pure religion tells us that our service to God includes caring for the weak and needy. A good example is the apostle Paul, who not only dedicated himself to preaching to the Gentiles, but also worked diligently to collect money to support the poor believers in Jerusalem. We learn from Jesus’ parable of the Judgment Day that those on his right hand have looked after those who need food or visits. If we want to have pure religion, James’ words make it clear that we need to go to the aid of the unfortunate such as widows and orphans.
It may sound like a simple thing to do, to visit those in need, but it is very difficult to put into practice in our lives. Visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction is not done regularly by many of us who call ourselves Christ’s brother and sisters — at least not as we ought to do. We are busy with work, caring for our families and possessions, there are so many distractions such as television or the Internet, and little time may be left for anything else.
Every day each of us should ask ourselves, “Who can I visit today and cheer up? Who might need help in their affliction?” There is no shortage of those who need our attention. What we do does not need to be spectacular — Jesus tells us that just a cup of cold water given for Christ’s sake will be remembered. We should ask ourselves, are we spending our time doing something to help those in need, and if not, why not? We need to make visiting and helping others a priority, not an afterthought.
The second part of pure religion many feel is the hardest, and that is keeping ourselves unspotted from the world: it is avoidance.
Just imagine walking through a muddy field and all around us are people who are throwing mud balls at each other. Even if we are not participating in throwing the mud, we are still likely to be spotted by those who are. We live in a world that is fascinated by dirt, and we cannot help that. However much we work at keeping separate from the world, evil surrounds us, and we are not immune to its touch.
We want to avoid sin. We try to fill our mind with God’s words rather than the thinking of the world around us. In spite of our best efforts, however, we will sin, because we are fleshly, prone to sin. We will sin again and again. Paul’s cry rings in our ears, “The good that I would I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do. Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”
Thankfully, because the Lord is merciful and forgiving, we can go to bed each night with all our sins forgiven. John tells us, “if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”, which makes it possible for us to go to sleep unspotted from the world.
We have a high calling in Christ and we look forward to the kingdom age when the troubles in our world will be over, and the righteous rule of Christ will begin. Until that time, we who desire to serve our God need to do more for His children, caring for those in need, such as widows, and spending time and resources to help others. Those very actions will help us with keeping separate from the world because we will be so busy helping others that we will not be so tempted by the frivolous pursuits of those in the world.
Let us resolve to practice more pure religion in our lives. We need to ask ourselves, “What kind of religion do we have?” James warns us in his letter that our religion can be vain and we can deceive ourselves. Let us encourage one another to good works, to seek out those in need and help them and to live our lives prayerfully striving to keep unspotted from the world and asking for forgiveness when we fail. May we hear those welcome words, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One