James 1:26-27 - What Type Of Religion Best Describes You?

Our text is found in James 1:26-27. It says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

You probably noticed a word was repeated three times: religious and religion.

• Verse 26 James highlights what a worthless religion looks like. A worthless religion shrouds itself in all sorts of religious things, religious activities, and religious words; but none of these things in and of themselves draws us closer to God and enable us to receive His blessings.

• Verse 27 shows us that there is a religion that God approves of. God blesses those people who have a personal relationship with Him and the grace of God is evident in their thoughts, their words, their relationships with others, and by how they remain clean from the filthiness in this world.

James, like all Gospel preachers, labors hard to preach Christ so that He is formed in the hearts of the hearers. (Galatians 4:8-20) There must be no greater joy for a minister than to hear it said of those they are teaching then to hear it testified to that those people are ‘like Christ’ or that they are ‘Christians’. (Acts 11:26)

James has faithfully taught those who received this letter that their faith is to be grounded in the promise of God regarding eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (12) He has also taught them that their hope in this promise brings fourth two specific graces: a steadfast faith and an enduring love for God. (12) When a person’s heart is established in these three things it will produce a change in the heart of a Christian that will be seen in every area of their lives.

• James says that a Christian will see that sin is their greatest danger and they will begin to respond appropriately to it. (13-15)

• Seeing sin in this way should make a Christian look to the LORD because only He can save us by giving us a gift by which we become new creatures. (16-18) We begin to live according to God’s Word, our wills are inclined to obey God, and as we do this we have great joy (3-5).

• This is evidenced in the fact that we are quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry with the Word of God. These responses to the Word of God produces a righteous life that is consistent with the Work that God has done on the inside. (18-19)

• As we repent and receive the Word of God it begins to transform us from the inside out. Our souls are made healthy, well and whole. (21)

We have seen that James believes that the Gospel is powerful and that when it is received it transforms a sinner into a new creation. When a Christian expresses their new nature in their speech and conduct they display a religion that is pure and undefiled in God’s eyes (27). However, if a person’s religious expression is merely external and without the transforming grace of God upon the heart their religion is ‘worthless’.

If James looked out into the cultural landscape of his day he would see two things. James saw the Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Messiah and continued to embrace the Law and the teachings of men because they were seeking to by justified by their own righteousness. This is the group that James is writing to in this letter. But James could also look out and see the Gentiles who considered the Gospel to be foolishness so they rejected Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

Many people in James’ day engaged in a lot of religious (Jews) and pagan (Gentile) religious activities. James looked at both of these things and says that they are both ‘worthless’. (26; Galatians 4:8-20)

A Warning To The Jews About Being Religious In A Way That Does Not Please God

Jesus spoke to the Jews during His ministry and warned them about the worthlessness of being merely religious. Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 23:1-3 when He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe what they tell you, but not the works that they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” (James 1:22-25)

The religion that the Pharisees and scribes taught was a burden to the people and it had no power to set a person free. Jesus says, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4) Jesus is the only one who can help remove this burden. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

The religion of the Pharisees and scribes was man-centered and not God-centered (1:26). They practiced their religion to be seen and approved of by men. (1:27) Jesus says, “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (23:5-7; James 2:1-13)

In Matthew 23 Jesus condemned these religious leaders for many things, but one of the first things that Jesus condemned them was how they treated the widows (13). Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”1 You can see why James speaks the way he does in verse 27 helping widows and orphans in their affliction. You can also see why the early church responded so quickly when a complaint arose by the Hellenists, Greek speaking Jews, that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. (Acts 6:1-6)

Even The Gentiles Who Received The Gospel Sometimes Returned To A Worthless Religion

Paul addresses this when he wrote to the churches in Galatia because the Judaizers had come in to put these Gentile Christians under the bondage of the Law.

When Paul preached the Good News to these Gentiles they received Christ by faith and God did great things among them. Because of this they experienced the freedom that comes through faith in Christ Jesus but Paul had to write to them and say, “Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.” (4:9-11)

When the Galatians received the Gospel they displayed great love for Paul as they cared for him while he was sick. Like the Samaritan in the parable the ‘Good Samaritan’ (Luke 10:25-37) they loved Paul and cared for him even when it was a hardship to them. (4:12-16) However, after they went back under the Law they were no longer displayed this type of love. (5:22-24) Instead they displayed the acts and sins of the flesh. (5:19-21)

You would think that these Judaizers would be disturbed that their teaching was producing such sinful fruit but this did not seem to bother them. Instead of being alarmed by this they boasted about the converts they were making for themselves in these churches. (4:17- “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.”)

• Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”

Only Christ Can Set Both Jew And Gentile Free

James is a Gospel preacher who knows two things.

• First, James knows that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who will believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek because in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed. (Romans 1:16-17) Only the Gospel can save us from our enslavement to sin which expresses itself in a religion that is worthless. (Galatians 4:8)

• Second, James knows that when the Gospel frees us from these things it will produce certain things that are pure and undefiled before the LORD. (1:27) James has been teaching how the Gospel transforms a person. This new life will be seen in every area of their lives: how they think, speak, serve others, and walk in holiness.

James instructed us in James 1:22-25 to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. James says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” 6 Characteristics of Disciples

In the LifePlan Discipleship program we are taught the ‘The Big Three Keystone Habits of Discipleship’. (The BIG 3) The very first of the three keystone habits is that every disciple is to systematically read the bible and hold ourselves accountable to practice what we have learned. (p.19-22)

• Do you have a way to do this every day?

• If you don’t have a way to hold yourself accountable how will you obey what James has been telling us?

Our response to verses 22-25 will reveal something about the ‘religion we profess’ and the ‘religion we express’. James teaches us that a pure and undefiled religion before God will will give evidence that the grace of God has affected our thinking, our conversation, how we serve others in need, and how we live in this world but are not stained by it.

Quick Overview Of James 1:26-27

James says in verse 26, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.” James knows that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. (Matthew 12:33-37) A person whose heart has been transformed will speak differently. A person who is putting aside sin and receives the implanted Word will use their speech in a godly manner. (James 1:18; Titus 3:1-11).

Where this grace are not present a person may have deceived themselves by thinking they are religious but they are devoid of the internal work of grace. The type of person that is described in verse 26 appears to be religious but their religion is devoid of any real saving power. They have a form of godliness but they lack the evidence of any real divine power that is sanctifying them and making them more Christlike.

In verse 27 James describes some things which should characterize the people of God because of the inner workings of the new life that that they have in Christ. James says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

A Christian will begin to speak differently, think differently, serve others in their affliction, and keep themselves from being stained in this world. All of the Gospel truths that James has spoken about in James 1 were meant to cultivate in our hearts new life which expresses itself increasingly in these ways. As James considers the ‘religious Jews’ and the ‘pagan Gentiles’ of his day he knew that only the Gospel can save both Jew and Gentile and unite them together in Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-22) Therefore, in chapter 1 James has given us profound truths regarding sin, salvation, sanctification and our hope of glorification. Our faith in these truths are the only things that can save a sinner from worthless religion and worldly paganism.

How Are We To Apply What We Have Learned Today:

In one sense the obvious answer to how our text should apply to you and I is that we should watch what we speak, love widows and orphans in their affliction, and keep ourselves from being stained in the world. And yet, all of these things should be the result of the outworking of a heart that is established in the Gospel. These are the fruits of a healthy soul, a saved soul, a soul that is being made well. So, our application should be to respond in faith and obedience to all that James has taught us and as we do this expressions of Christ-likeness will inevitably follow.

Question:

• What is the state of the Christian religion in our day? (In our home, in our church, in our community, in our nation, in the world)

• Is it best described by verse 26 or by verse 27?

• What can we do to improve upon the state of the christian religion in our day?

I often quote from the Baptist Confession in my sermons. This confession, like other confessions, are intended to provide solid biblical and scriptural truths that ground the heart in the grace of God so that the transformation of the soul will be expressed in every area of life.

If you were to read Baptist Confession you will discover that our Baptist forefathers created this confession as they lamented the state of the christian religion in their day. They were grieved by the state of the christian faith and how it was being neglected by so many. Listen to what they say and ask yourself if this is true in our day, “There is one...cause of the decay of religion in our day which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly urge a redress of (remedy), and that is the neglect of the worship of God in families by those to whom the charge and conduct of them is committed.”

Is this a problem in our day for the same reasons? 2017 Barna Survey

The authors of this confession go on to give a strong warning against those who are neglecting this stewardship in the family, in the churches, and in the larger community. They write, “May not the gross ignorance and instability of many, with the profaneness of others, be justly charged upon their parents and masters, who have not trained them up in the way wherein they ought to walk when they were young, but have neglected those frequent and solemn commands which the Lord hath laid upon them, so to catechize and instruct them that their tender years might be seasoned with the knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures; and also by their own omission of prayer and other duties of religion of their families, together with the ill example of their loose conversation, having, inured (to make someone accustomed to) them first to a neglect and the contempt of all piety and religion?”

As I read the words, ‘the ill example of their loose conversation’, I think about what James says in James 1:26-27, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless...and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

When our Baptist forefathers spoke of a ‘loose conversation’ they are referring to a persons words and actions. This type of ‘loose conversation’ with the mouth and life leads the next generation ‘to neglect and to display contempt and irreverence for God’. So sad. No doubt, James also has this broader sense in mind as well since he will say in James 2:12, “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under tha law of liberty.”

They confession continues, “We know this will not excuse the blindness and wickedness of any, but certainly it will fall heavy upon those that have been thus the occasion thereof; they indeed die in their sins, but will not their blood be required of those under whose care they were, who yet permitted them to go on without warning- yea, led them into the paths of destruction? And will not the diligence of Christians with respect to the discharge of these duties in ages past rise up in judgment against and condemn many of those who would be esteemed such now?”

These are sobering words. The authors of this Confession admit that each man is ultimately responsible for their faithlessness and godlessness, but woe to those whose responsibility it was to teach, instruct, guide, and warn the next generation in the truths of scripture. (Matthew 23 and the Woe’s that Jesus speaks of the Pharisees and Scribes!) Those who neglected this stewardship will be held accountable for this failure.

The authors of this confession end with these words, “We shall conclude with our earnest prayer that the God of all grace will pour out those measures of his Holy Spirit upon us, that the profession of truth may be accompanied with the sound belief and diligent practice of it by us, that his name may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Baptist Confession

Our baptist forefathers lamented the decay of the christian religion in their day. Let me ask:

• Should we lament any less than they?

• Should we not examine ourselves to see if we are devoting ourselves to prayer and the other duties of religion?

• Should we not examine our lives to see if we are given to loose conversation in word and in deed which influences others to neglect and show contempt for the christian religion?

James has been a faithful servant of the LORD who has taught us the Gospel so that it will produce good fruit. Our baptist forefathers were faithful to respond in their generation by writing this Baptist confession so that parents and teachers could catechize their kids better. Now it is our turn to contemplate these same things and then determine how we will respond. Will we pass on to the next generation what is described in verse 26 or in verse 27?

1(This is in the KJV. The ESV and NASV do not have this verse in the manuscripts that they used.)