What religion are you?
I once heard a story about a stranger visiting Belfast. Walking around, seeing the sights, he managed to wander into a housing estate. He was approached and asked what religion he was. “I’m Muslim” he said. “Aye but are you a Catholic Muslim or a Protestant one?”
“What religion you are,” is a question often not too far below the surface of conversation when stranger meets stranger in Northern Ireland. It’s a question that James answers in verse 27 of chapter 1. He tells us what religion we ought to be. …He says:
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
The right religion in a life has two aspects - one involving a person’s outer life (what they do), and two involving their inner life, (who they are).
Firstly religion that’s acceptable to God will have good works. Here James points to care for the most vulnerable in his society - distressed widows and orphans. If a person’s faith doesn’t actually do anything, then is it even real. It’s a point he makes elsewhere - faith without deeds is dead, (James 2:25).
Secondly religion that’s acceptable to God is unpolluted by the world. It’s possible to do good works but to live in great sin at the same time. That matters to God. …As ever our model is Jesus. He went about doing good works, remaining perfect in holiness.
So what religion are you? …James 1:27 tells us what religion we ought to be. We’ll pray.
Heavenly Father I thank you for the clear and straightforward message you give us in this verse. And I thank you that pure and faultless religion is perfectly demonstrated through Jesus. He cared for the vulnerable and steered from sin. Heavenly Father help me to follow Him today. May my outer life make a difference to people, and may my inner life be pleasing to you. Amen.