A LETTER FROM
JAMES
Chapter 1
– part 4
By David Woodbury
26 If
you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling
yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 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 1:26-27 – NLT)
James
has already touched on the use of the tongue in verse 19 and he will go on
later in his letter to explore the subject in more detail. However, here he is
making the point that unrestrained use of the tongue demonstrates a religious
profession that is of no value. We fool ourselves if we think that careless use
of words will not give us away.
What
James is focussing on here is not so much religion in itself, but rather how
the image of faith is perceived by those outside. Perhaps no other age in
history has been as obsessed with image as the era in which we live, and whole
industries have grown up around us with no other purpose than to enable people
to project a good image. The reality is that many parts of the church have been
caught up in this obsession with whole sections of the church dedicated to
presenting a good appearance to the outside world.
James
is more concerned with what the church does, rather than what the church may
look like. There needs to be for every church and religious organisation a
continual and intentional refocusing on that which Jesus told us was the
greatest commandment: Jesus replied, “The
most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the
one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally
important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater
than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 - NLT)
Down
through the centuries, Christians have striven to build great cathedrals and
impressive building, written great liturgies and composed great music. No doubt
all this has been helpful in enabling Christians to worship. It may well be
that at times Christianity has endeavoured to make buildings, ritual and
liturgy a substitute for sacrifice and service. The reality is that Jesus never
uttered a word about buildings, ritual and liturgy. His focus on the purpose of
the church was to sincerely love God and your neighbour, and James sums it up
in the closing verse of this chapter: genuine
religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in
their distress.
The
final phrase of this verse (refusing to
let the world corrupt you.) may seem unrelated to the previous, but perhaps
it is not. It may well be that Christianity has allowed itself to be corrupted
in this age of image projection and word-spin, with an over-emphasis on image,
buildings, ritual, programs and liturgy;
on the tools, rather than its primary call to save an serve lost humanity.
Prayer
Father, help us to be
genuine and authentic, both in our faith and our actions. Keep us from the
temptation of this age to project a correct but unauthentic image. May we more
than mere hearers of the Word and in reality, be doers of the Word. We pray
that we may reject the artificial values of the society that surrounds us and
base our lives and our Christian community on Jesus and his Word.
Help us to be aware and
sensitive to the needs of others, especially those to whom life seems unfair
and harsh. May we, in a very real sense, be aware and feel their pain and
suffering.
Hear our prayer in Jesus
name – Amen.
Meditation
video: Rescue the perishing
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