Orphans are tender to Gods heart. The evidence for this abounds in God’s directives to Israel about them. Here James picks up that same familiar song. Perfect religion, true religion, the crowning or height of true spiritual love is taking care of the fatherless. By estimate, between 143 million  and 210 million orphans exist worldwide. These numbers do not include abandonment, as well as sold or trafficked children ¹. The numbers are staggering but the clarion call is clear.

Epistle of James: Chapter One

PARAGRAPH SUMMARY: James 1:19-27

Pastor James urges the Scattered with four mandates centered on putting the Word of God into daily use. Failure to act is deception and leads to shallow Christianity according to Jesus. This post, covers instruction four, doing the Word specifically in the area of widows and orphans.

James 1:26–27 (KJV ) – 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 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.

DEFINITIONS:

• religious/θρησκός/thrēskos
  • Religious.
• seem/δοκέω/dokeō
  • Think; believe as probable; imagine.
• bridleth/χαλιναγωγέω/chalinagōgeō
  • Bridle; hold in check; exercise self-control.
• deceiveth/ἀπατάω/apataō
  • Deceive; mislead. Two other occurrences of this word are in Ephesians 5:26, and 1Timothy 2:14.
• vain/μάταιος/mataios
  • Idle; vain; empty; futile; and so powerless and without results.
• pure/καθαρός/katharos
  • Clean or pure.
• fatherless/ὀρφανός/orphanos
  • Orphans or orphaned; without parents.
• visit/ἐπισκέπτομαι/episkeptomai
  • To go to see a person with helpful intent, visit ²;  to care for or look after, with the implication of continuous responsibility. ³.
• affliction/θλῖψις/thlipsis
  • Oppression; affliction; heavy pressure; tribulation; trouble that inflicts distress. ⁴.
• undefiled/ἀμίαντος/amiantos
  • Unsoiled; free from stain; undefiled.
• world/κόσμος/kosmos
  • World system in this context and bearing a negative connotation as in Gal. 4:3, Eph. 2:2, Col. 2:20, 2Pet. 1:4, 2Pet. 2:20, 1Jn. 2:15-16, 1Jn. 5:19. In some places in scripture the word is neutral 1Cor. 3:22, 2Cor. 5:19, Eph. 1:4.
• unspotted/ἄσπιλος/aspilos
  • Spotless; unblemished; without fault, flawless.

BACKGROUND:

• Widows and Orphans
  • Widows and orphans often equate with destitution. At times in Israelite society, widows and orphans experienced neglect and exploitation because of their state. The mistreatment may have been from a mistaken spiritual view that those experiencing ‘aloneness’ were in fact experiencing God’s judgment. Naomi thought this as the book of Ruth points out (Ruth 1:13,20).

QUESTIONS:

• In what way does this person ‘seem religious?’
  • The word ‘seems’ points to religion that has appearance with no reality. This person ‘believes’ that they walk in true spirituality though they define it differently than God does. Wearing a religious costume put on with words instead of deeds, cannot get it done.  Talking religion instead of acting on one’s religion leads to dead end living. James corrects the common conception by offering three areas where ‘real’ spirituality shines; controlling the tongue, walking in love and living in holiness.  Doing the Word in these areas blesses men and protects against basement living.
• Is it just widows and orphans that are recipients of this love?
  • No, this group gives a sampling or representation of how thoughtful and delicate the Lord is to the needs of His people. We should display the same care towards each other. The helpless, the hopeless, and the vulnerable have God’s eye on them as do all of His children. Works of charity displays charity (Titus 3:8).

COMMENTS:

•  ‘If any man among you seem to be religious’,
  • Pastoral Imperative Four: James 1:26-27
  • Translation: ‘among you’
    • The words ‘among you’ are only found in the King James version. Other versions drop these two words.
  • Divinely Spiritual
    • ‘Divinely spiritual’ is a  better way to express the word ‘religious’ in modern conversation. The word ‘religious’ today carries a wide and, in some places, negative connotation.
• ‘and bridleth not his tongue,’
  • An Uncontrolled Tongue Leads to Many Sins
    • An uncontrolled tongue leads one into many excesses and sin. Controlling ones words cuts across the whole scale of personality. Saying whatever is on one’s mind, giving a ‘piece of one’s mind’, because ‘that’s the way I am’ obviously does not fit the standard here. Filtering ones words through the sieve of the Word of God, that is speech in line with God’s Word and spoken in the spirit of love, takes compassion. The wisdom books are full of references on controlled speech; see Psalms 34:13, 39:1, Proverbs 10:19, 13:3, 21:23, and Ecclesiastes 10:20. James further enlarges there importance in chapter 3.
• ‘but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.’
  • A Life Without Results
    • Vain religion is a life with no results. How sad and wasteful to have one’s life’s epitaph  read, ‘Here lies a life lived in futility.’ ‘Here lies a life without power.’
    • Lives of emptiness was a result (Romans 8:20) of the fall of man. Through the finished work of Jesus, we have experienced redemption from a life of futility and vanity. Believers in Jesus own ‘purpose’. It belongs to them. The world experiences and knows nothing about this. Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 details what some have called the great American dream. These verses also show the futility found apart from God; their wisdom (1Corinthians 3:20), their pursuit of wealth (Psalms 39:6), their wish for pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:1), and every single state man may find themselves in (Psalm 62:9).
    • The great separator between purpose and vanity is a man’s words. Your words connect you to fruitfulness or futility. They tie you to faith or fear. They attach you to God’s plan or they connect you to empty shadows of what could be. Words are everything to the Spirit life.
• ‘Pure religion’
  • The Only Acceptable Religion
    • The only worthy religion is the pure kind. Spirituality that is not clean and not pure is not spiritual.
• ‘and undefiled before God and the Father is this,’
  • God’s Definition of ‘Spiritual’ Is What Counts
    • God’s definition of ‘spiritual’ should be of utmost importance to us; that definition continues in this verse.
• ‘To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,’
  • What The Word ‘Visit’ Does Not Mean
    • The word ‘visit’ does not mean a casual ‘going to see a person’. It means a visit with matching compassionate action. In Hebrews 2:6the same word describes God’s caring intent towards man.
• ‘the fatherless and widows in their affliction,’
  • A Special Place in God’s Heart
    • The widows and fatherless have a special place in the heart of God. Many scripture references prove this: Psalms 68:5, 146:9; Proverbs 15:25; Jeremiah 7:6-7; Exodus 22:22-24; and Deuteronomy 10:18, 14:28-29, 24:17-21, 27:19. Jesus denounced the religious leaders for the abuse of widows (Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47). See how the disciples handled the issue (Acts 6:1).
• ‘to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction’,
  • The Royal Law and The Fatherless
    • James 1:25 speaks of the perfect law; James 2:8 speaks of the royal law; James 2:12 speaks of the law of liberty. Perfect, royal, and freeing, three different descriptions for the same law of God. Ask yourself this question. Do you need to have such flow of words to know that love considers widows and orphans?
• ‘and to keep himself unspotted from the world.’
  • The Three Components of Pure Religion.
    • Pure religion, according to James,  involves three parts. First, the uninterrupted responsibility of looking after widows and orphans in their hardships. Second, walking in holiness. And last, in chapter three, controlling the tongue.
  • Separation from Contamination: What Pure Religion Should Do
    • James calls each Scattered member to purity and progressive sanctification. ‘Pure religion’ should keep you ‘pure’. Clean religion should keep you clean. Holy religion should keep you holy. The theology is weeding out polluted living. The verse gives the source of the contaminate, the world or rather the world’s thinking patterns. The world includes the strong pull of the flesh, the strong longing of the eyes and pride with all its friends (1John 2:16.) These pieces are bad, negative, satanic, and crossways to God’s purpose and plan. They are to be overcome by faith (1John 5:4-5), by the knowledge of Jesus Christ (2Pet. 2:20), by diligence (2Pet. 3:14), by listening to the Holy Spirit in you (1John 4:4-6) and by doing the will of God (1John 2:17).
    • Our calling requires ‘unspotted’ lives (2Pet. 3:14), and to keep the love command in that vein (1Tim. 6:14). 2Peter 2:20 and Jude 23 give similar thoughts.

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