"Pure religion"
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:27 NLT)
What is pure religion? What can we reduce the purest form of religion down to? An action? A cause? A verse? A saying?
James gives us insight into this. The purest form of religion has to do with two basic truths or actions: love God & love people. James is not saying anything new here. He is simply restating what Jesus has already said. Do you see it here?
"Refusing to let the world corrupt us" is loving God. We love him above anything else in this world. We are not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is simply a restatement of what Jesus called the greatest commandment.
We also see James say that pure religion is, "Caring for orphans and widows in their distress" or loving people. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is not merely talking about those that can love us back. Widows & orphans are those that can't help themselves or provide for themselves & especially can't pay us back. They have no voice, no defender, no provider. They have experienced loss at some point or another.
And just as we would see loving God as a command we must see loving others as a command as well. Caring for widows & orphans (and others marginalized by the world) is not an option but a command. This is not a calling for the few but a mark of those that really know & love Jesus. This is a mark of those that are not just hearers of the Word but doers (James 1).
So the question is not IF God is calling us to be involved in widow & orphan care but rather HOW? If we don't view Christianity this way, we may just find ourselves with an impure form of religion that is not Christianity at all!
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