October 22, 2022

Passage Read: Hebrews 13 - James 1
Meditation Verse: James 1:27

Thought

This is an interesting statement. James makes it sound like the most important thing we can do to be truly religious is to visit orphans and widows in their distress. And that's where most people stop reading, but he goes on to say that we also need to keep ourselves from being unstained by the world. Of course, visiting orphans and widows is relatively easy, so it's easy to understand why most people would only see that in this verse. Keeping oneself unstained by the world, however, is pretty vague and broad, and harder to accept. But if we visit widows and orphans in their distress, yet remain stained by the world, our so-called religion is useless. To truly be Christian, we need to break with the world and be different from it, to love not the things of it, which will then inform us how best to minister to widows and orphans. James is not giving is a choice between two options for religiosity, but requiring both.

Application

If I want truly God-pleasing religion, then I need to make sure I am unstained by the world. I need to break from all its ideas and values, and cling to Christ and His ideals and values, among which is a care for those who are alone and vulnerable. Indeed, if I chase the things this world loves, I have little time for widows and orphans and hospitality and all the other things God values. I need to root out all the influences this world has on me and replace them with the values of Christ, and put those values into action.