True Religion that God Requires

"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." 

- James 1:27

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It's amazing how this verse is able to sum up so concisely and neatly what our Christian walk is to look like, and what God requires of us. We are given many instructions throughout scripture, on how we are to love The LORD our God will all of our heart (Luke 10:27), and to love others as ourselves (Mark 12:31). 

But beyond that, the church is pretty split on what our Christian walk is to look like. Some churched preach works, and that we prove our faith by working hard to do good deeds in The Name of Jesus. Other churches preach that we are saved by grace alone, and works are not required. Some churches teach both, that works without faith is meaningless, but faith without good works is also broken. 

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But this verse in James is pretty cut and dry: God requires that we live in this ugly world, untainted, and that while we're here, we should be looking out for those who otherwise would have no one to take care of them. Orphans and widows are people who have been outcast by our society, there is no one to look after them, and so in a lot of cases, they become burdens of the system, shuffled from one home to the next, one nursing home to the next. They are often left alone, forgotten, stripped of their worth, and left to die, as the world passes them by. God is telling us here, this should not be! 

As Christians, we are not allowed to turn a blind eye to the poor, needy and outcasts of our society. We are to draw them into the flock, care for them, love them, give of ourselves to them, and make sure they have what they need. We are called to care about these people, and to love them with the love that Christ first loved us with. 

This is the pure religion that God accepts. This is what He requires. 

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There are many in church who want to sit comfortably in their nice suits and dresses, go home to their plush houses and Sunday pot roast, shut the world out, and live in their neat little box that they've created for themselves. Many Christians look to the fallen world around them and say: "They did that to themselves, now they can live with the consequences!" I've even heard people in church say: "Don't waste our good money on those people, and don't buy them choice cut meats and fresh vegetables! They have food stamps, let them get by on those!" 

This attitude is not only shameful, but think how it must grieve God's heart. Those 'discarded' people are His too, He created them too, and it's not our place to abuse them, they are His. And we cast them aside as if they're nothing. 

God created all of us, put us in the families He chose for us, set in the towns He chose for us, and working at the jobs He chose for us. It is by His grace alone, that we are not all homeless poor outcasts. It is His grace alone that has set our feet on a solid foundation, nothing we ourselves have done, so who are we to judge? Yes, we all make choices, but ultimately, God is The One in charge. 

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It is not our place to condemn. It is not our place to cast out. 

We are called to love, and look out for those who are alone in this world. 

We are to draw the broken in, and love them with a love that is not tainted by this world. 

This is pure religion that God accepts, this is what He requires.