Monday, 21 December 2020

Pure religion

 

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. – James 1.27

 

What is ‘pure religion?’

 

That’s a fair question. If we want to test our religion how do we do it? While James’ words are not exclusive they are a pretty apt description.

 

What does James say?

 

Care for the needy

Keep unspotted from the world

 

That really does a good job of describing the two aspects of our faith. Our faith shows in our care for others and our faith shows itself in holy living. The test is how we treat others and how we live our lives. These are two great tests of being doers of the word. They show how our faith is seen in our works. If these things are not there we need to examine our hearts to see if we are genuinely in the faith.

 

We prove our faith pure as we meet the needs of the needy. We also prove our faith pure as we live differently from the world.

 

How are we doing in this test of pure religion?

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