{"id":5770,"date":"2014-11-03T02:07:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T02:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5770"},"modified":"2014-11-04T04:48:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T04:48:48","slug":"james-127-pure-and-undefiled-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5770","title":{"rendered":"James 1:27\u2014Pure and undefiled religion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.\u00a0 <\/em>James 1:27<\/p>\n<p>James wrote in verse 25 that if you think you&#8217;re religious but don\u2019t bridle your tongue, your religion is worthless.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, he wrote that your relationship with God is pure and undefiled if two qualities are present in your life: 1.) You visit orphans and widows in their distress; 2.) You keep yourself unstained by the world.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\u2026visit orphans and widows in their distress\u2026<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The most helpless souls of James\u2019 time were those who had lost the breadwinner of the household\u2014orphans and widows. They are among the most helpless of our day, as well. James declares that your motives before God are demonstrated as pure and undefiled when you visit such as these in their time of distress, making yourself available to them when they are most devastated.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus extends the list in Matthew 25. He said, \u201c<em>For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.<\/em>\u201d The righteous asked, \u201c<em>When did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?<\/em>\u201d His response was, \u201c<em>To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me<\/em>\u201d (see Matthew 25:35-40).<\/p>\n<p>Your active kindness is to extend to widows and orphans, the hungry and thirsty, strangers, the homeless and those without adequate clothing, the sick and those in prison, your pastors (see 1 Timothy 5:17), those who share your faith (see Galatians 6:10), the wicked and those who hate you (see Matthew 5:44 and Romans 12:20), and everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>You are called to walk in love with <em>all<\/em> people and are to make particular effort to be available to others when they are distressed and suffering loss. As you seek God about how to follow through, know that you are engaged in the pure and undefiled demonstration of your religion.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\u2026keep oneself unstained by the world.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Stains happen when an object comes in contact with something that soils or discolors it. You are cleansed by the blood of Jesus and are righteous in His sight, but you come into contact with the outside world and the ups and downs of normal life every day. As a result, you run the risk of your soul being impacted and soiled by whatever you encounter.<\/p>\n<p>A situation that occurred in the life of Jesus illustrates this. When Jesus washed His disciples\u2019 feet, Peter tried to stop Him, alarmed that the Lord would stoop to such a lowly endeavor. Jesus responded, \u201c<em>If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me<\/em>,\u201d indicating the necessity of submitting to the Lord\u2019s washing.<\/p>\n<p>Then Peter, always full of passion, demanded that Jesus wash not only his feet, but his head and hands, as well.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus replied, \u201c<em>He who has bathed needs <strong>only to wash his feet<\/strong><\/em> [representing that which is in regular contact with the world]<em>, but is completely clean; and you are clean<\/em>\u201d (see John 13:5-10). You, also, are clean due to your faith in Christ; but to assume that you won\u2019t be affected by the world you touch every day is naive.<\/p>\n<p>The way you keep yourself unstained by the world is to recognize that daily life brings you into contact with the various staining elements of the world, and therefore you need to\u00a0take regular \u201cbaths\u201d. You keep yourself clean by confessing sin to the Lord when you become aware of it, by receiving the forgiveness already purchased for you by His blood, by the washing of the water of the Word (see Ephesians 5:26), and by letting the rivers of God within you flow out in worship and praise.<\/p>\n<p>A pure and undefiled walk with the Lord is relatively basic. It involves visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping yourself unstained by the world<em>. <\/em>As you integrate the love walk and humble consecration into your life, you&#8217;ll become an effectual doer of the Word and will be blessed in what you do.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.\u00a0 James 1:27 James wrote in verse 25 that if you think you&#8217;re religious but don\u2019t bridle your tongue, your religion is worthless. On the other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5775,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5770\/revisions\/5775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}