By Staff
The New Testament epistle of James, chapter 1, verse 27, states, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted [unstained] from the world."
There is a lot of religion around. Most of us have our history of church in some form, and we either embrace it or steer clear. The most basic definition of religion is "a belief in the divine."
Religion by definition must be centered on a belief in a creator God. The following will be about the God of the Bible.
Most of us know widows; some churches abound with them. But when was the last time we visited a widow for any reason, especially one in trouble. Our lives are busy, and our schedules are full. We do not have time to be involved in all the things going on at the church, much less be active in helping a widow in trouble.
A widow in trouble could be someone who is having difficulty with her health, financial distress or has some basic need around her home. Most of us are quick to speak the most uncaring statement possible, that is, "If you need me, just call me," but few of us are preemptive enough to go visit a widow and jump in and care for her needs. How pure is our religion?
How many orphans do we know? Is there an orphans home in our area? Seems like pure religion would demand we seek out some orphans. Some people commendably travel halfway around the earth to visit orphans in far-off lands. We see them, help them temporarily, and walk away.
Pure religion could be messy, getting our hands dirty and costing us more than we budgeted to drop in the church offering. Jesus set a pattern for us in ministering to people. He saw them, saw their need and acted on their behalf.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 5, verses 12-13, Jesus was confronted by a man "full of leprosy." The man begged Jesus for cleansing from the disease. Jesus could have done a lot of things, but He reached out and touched the leper. Most likely, the touch was an embrace of this man who carried a deadly, contagious disease.
Jesus was known as a rabbi, a teacher. Touching a leper was forbidden in the pharisaical religious system. (How far from God were the Pharisees?) Jesus disregarded the system and best practice, and met the leper's need by first touching him and then cleansing him of his leprosy.
Helping widows and orphans is risky. Their needs and troubles will be ongoing. It could be we do not seek them out and visit them, as James pointed out, because once we begin helping them, we cannot easily disengage.
Widows and orphans are typically poor. Giving to the poor is the best investment possible, if you are fiscally minded. The Old Testament book of Proverbs declares in chapter 19, verse 17, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and He will pay back what he has given." How could we go wrong lending money to God?
James had a dual message in verse 27 of James, chapter 1: minister to widows and orphans in their trouble and keep yourself unspotted or unstained by the world. The exhortations in verse 27 can be comprehensive. The best way to counter the world's way of accumulation and self-indulgence is to give away our time and money. Giving to those in need according to the commands of scripture will force us to seek first God's kingdom and ways.
A purity test of our religion would be to audit the list of people we regularly minister to. Are there widows and orphans on the list? The next question on the test is, "To whom and how much of our time and money are we giving away?"
The greatest tragedy would be for us to seek to be religiously acceptable to those who lead us and miss God's plan completely. Not every church leader has God's agenda.