Pure and Faultless Religion—James 1:27

There are so many religious people in the world. Some practice religion only as a social obligation while others practice their faith with complete sincerity and conviction. But sincerity and conviction don’t make one’s religious practice pure or good. Some beliefs and practices are inherently impure and corrupt. Throughout history misguided religion has been the source of much evil in the world. We find strange, questionable, or fruitless practices even among Christians. Is there such a thing as pure religion? The Bible says that there is, and it’s described in James 1:27.

Spiritual fruit

The writer of the book of James is commonly thought to have been a half-brother of Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph. And he was known for his practical and pointed exhortations. In his teachings James cuts out the formalities and niceties and gets right down to the important points. In his one letter to the Christian church, he wrote:

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.        (James 1:26)

A person may be sincere and fully devoted to their religion. But if they have a venomous tongue or violent temper, their religion has no value to themselves or to others. Instead, it’s a source of deception—it leads the person to believe that they are a good person when in fact they’re not.

An overtly religious person with a sharp and critical tongue gives God a bad name. They dishonor God and his reputation among those who are not believers. Many religious people have brought disrepute to God by their mean spirit, offensive speech and evil actions. Impure speech and images are especially common on social media. People feel that they don’t have to be accountable for what they say on social media, believing they can be somewhat anonymous and insulated.

The apostle Paul wrote that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). By reason, complete lack of self-control may be a sign that someone has a dark and unredeemed heart and no true relationship with God. Consider if this might be describing you.

Toxic religion

The opposite of pure religion would be toxic religion. A good example would be the Westboro Baptist Church, a religious group known for its strident denunciation of homosexuals, military servicemen, and churches and individuals who don’t agree with their doctrine. They regularly protest at homosexual gatherings, church services, and funerals of soldiers that died in action. They believe that all natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and wars are God’s judgment on sinful people. As hyper Calvinists in doctrine, they preach that God preselects those who will be saved and who will be damned forever. They have been the source of much derision and ridicule of the Christian faith by the non-believing world.

Another example would be Muslim extremists, who condemn all who oppose their extremist ideology, including other Muslims. In 2009, Asia Bibi, a woman from rural Pakistan, was accused by her Islamic co-workers of defiling the water from the community well with her cup because she was Christian. Because of her response, she was also accused of blasphemy, though her accusers’ claims varied wildly. She was then tried and condemned to death by hanging.  During her imprisonment, the Pakistani officials who defended her were assassinated by enraged Muslim extremists. Even after the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted her, the extremists still demanded her death, protesting in the streets. Enflaming most of Pakistan, they kept Asia from leaving the country for some time. Throughout the ordeal, it’s clear that it was the extremists’ venomous speech that fueled the overwhelming hatred and violence.

Unrepentant and hateful religious people have a pronounced negative effect on others and their understanding of God. According to James, religion has no value at all unless it has a positive effect on both the individual and the people around them.

Pure and faultless religion

James then tells us what true and pure religion actually is:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

Widows and orphans are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment, and they can’t support themselves. So, it’s logical that God would command his followers to help them. But James could’ve just as easily cited helping the elderly, disaster victims, or war refugees. Or even a neighbor down the street that’s hurting. So, this passage is not a formula to follow. And James is not giving commands—these are found elsewhere in the Bible. He’s describing the kind of religion that pleases God: a sincere devotion that produces spiritual fruit, a pure life, and good deeds motivated by love.

The two greatest commands

Although the actions described in James 1:27 aren’t commands, they’re expressions of the two greatest commands: to love our neighbor and to love God.

Loving our neighbor

If we truly love God, we will naturally love our neighbor. It will just be part of who we are. We will value others as God values them, since they were created in his image. And this love will express itself in actions, what the Bible calls good deeds. Believers will love one another with an even greater love.

Jesus taught that the good we do in secret will be rewarded by God:

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4)

People with an untainted sincere faith are unaware of their good deeds and devotion. They don’t keep track of them because to them it’s second nature. And they don’t expect anything back for serving God because they find joy in it. When our giving remains visible only to God, then God rewards us.

Religion for show

But if we’re conscious of our good deeds, then they become a source of pride. If we’re overly aware of our righteousness, then it becomes self-righteousness. Our giving and devotion to God are then out of a desire for reward or gain and not love. And if we do our deeds for display or public viewing, we already have our reward: whatever praise we get from people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

“If you do good, you must not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, you must be quite unconscious of it. Otherwise you are simply displaying your own virtue, and not that which has its source in Jesus Christ. Christ’s virtue, the virtue of discipleship, can only be accomplished so long as you are entirely unconscious of what you are doing. The genuine work of love is always a hidden work.”  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Chapter 14)

Our society is full of people who practice virtue signaling, displaying their righteous deeds and political stances with signs, t-shirts, media pronouncements, and public displays. These messages typically consist of what these people approve of, and what they don’t approve of. But this is not a sincere or authentic righteousness and does nothing to help other people. It’s a pretend righteousness motivated by self-glory—a self-righteousness.

Loving God

The other half of pure religion, keeping oneself pure and unpolluted by the world, reflects our love for God. It means sanctifying ourselves—setting ourselves apart for God’s purposes. Keeping pure is not for ourselves or our own self-improvement (although it does have personal benefits). And it’s not to impress other believers. It’s for God. We do this because we love God from the heart.

This pleases God because he then has unobstructed access to our hearts. As Jesus taught in the Beatitudes, those who purify their hearts for God will have intimate fellowship with him:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)

But an unclean heart occupied by impure or worldly desires impedes our relationship with God. Fasting is one way of setting ourselves apart for God. But it only has value if it doesn’t become a source of pride, and we don’t use it to inflate our self-image (Matthew 6:16-18).

If we love God, we won’t embrace the values and practices of the godless world. Followers of Christ will keep the world from unduly influencing them because they are in the world but don’t belong to it (John 17:14-16). As the apostle John wrote:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  (1 John 2:15-16)

Jesus and pure religion

Once when at the house of a prominent Pharisee, Jesus told the host:

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14:12-14)

Jesus stressed ministering to those who have no means of paying us back. When we do, our reward will be from God and not people.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  (Luke 6:34-35)

This is also a good way to test the purity of our motives. If we expect something in return for our service, then we’re not serving God but our own interests, the opposite of pure and faultless religion.

God is so pleased when people are kind and loving toward others like he is. And when we are like him, we truly represent him in this world. Then other people can see what God is really like.

Good works without love for God

Helping others by meeting their physical needs is a good thing. But without devotion to God, good deeds are worthless in the spiritual domain. Even though people may be truly helped, the giver is none the better spiritually if their actions are not motivated by God. And they may even be worse off if they’re motivated by self-glory.

Giving or sacrificing with impure motives may bring glory to ourselves and drive us to take credit for it. It’s common for religious people to receive praise from others for something good they have done, and then not give God any credit, as if they were the source of this blessing. I have done it myself.

I have also seen Christian workers give donated items to the poor, and then accept praise as if they were the source of these blessings. When they do this, they have no reward from God. Their payment is only the earthly praise they get and nothing more.

So, our good deeds apart from a sincere faith do not express the life, love, and truth of God.

Devotion to God without love for others

Conversely, devotion to God mixed with disdain and hatred for others is toxic and not pure and faultless religion. A religious person that is hateful toward others harms God’s name and reputation. People will see God not as good, but as unloving, harsh, and unforgiving. Jesus warned his disciples about religious people who outwardly appeared righteous but were inwardly selfish and hateful.

Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.  (Mark 12:38-40)

Likewise, those believers who live in isolation so that they can stay far away from ungodly people are not living a godly lifestyle. People who do this keep God’s light and truth away from those that need them. This is actually selfish because it’s withholding God’s love from those who need it most.

Pure religion: holding to both 

Religious people are abundant in this world. But religious people who love both God and others are much more difficult to find. We need love for others and love for God for our lives to be pleasing to the Lord. The goal is not to maintain a delicate balance, where one is skillfully balanced by the other. The goal is to have as much as possible of both.

Where are you in this spectrum? Is your religion heavily biased toward good deeds or helping others, but your devotion to God is weak or non-existent? Then turn to the Lord and seek his forgiveness so that you become a true servant of God, pleasing to him.

Or are you strongly devoted to God but without much love for others? Then turn to the Lord and seek his forgiveness so that he can transform you to be more like Christ. Then your life and faith will be more useful to him. You will be surprised that with God’s power you can love even the most unlovely people.

May God help all of us practice a pure and faultless devotion that is pleasing to him.

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