Not sure how much time you've spent asking yourself this question, but as I grow older and Iencounter more and more followers of Christ around the US and the world I have to ask myself if I embody the characteristics I believe are indicative of a devoted follower of Christ. In my Friday morning men's Bible study group today we began studying the book of James, perhaps the most practical book in the NT as far as how Christians should live/behave. Since one of the more meaningful verses in James 1 is the last verse, our time was running short when we got to it and we didn't spend as much time on it as I would have liked to. The truth and impact of this verse has been on my heart/mind since I read and studied it yesterday and throughout the morning and I'd just like to share my thoughts, maybe work my understanding of this verse out in front of anyone who cares to read it, haha.
"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." James 1:27 (ESV) The phrase pure and undefiled religion basically means a Christianity that is able to stand before the all-knowing/all-seeing eyes of God and be found faultless. Pretty high standard huh? Well, do we really have the liberty to dumb this down or take away some of the clarity of this verse with our "yeah, buts"? I really do not think so. We sing "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe..." If we really believe these words then we should at least strive toward this high calling we've been given.
What is this high calling? what does it mean to "visit orphans and widows in their affliction?" Briefly, orphans and widows is both a literal/symbolical reference to people who are often at the bottom of the societal ladder. Who are the most helpless and/or neglected in our culture? What if we are judged by how we treat the most needy individuals in our culture? Our world? As an individual follower of Christ, as a member of the worldwide body of Christ and as a leader in a local faith family, I'm often extremely convicted that we do not take this command as seriously as we should.
What about keeping oneself unstained from the world? In Scripture, the "world" is most often a reference to the unredeemed, ungodly dynamic in our society that surrounds each of us. We are constantly being threatened to give ourselves, our time, our money, our lives to the things of this world that are in opposition to Christ and His passion to redeem those that are a part of the world who stand in opposition to God. The difficulty of being a Christian in a world in which the majority are living in opposition to Christ is that there will always be a force in our world that desires to "stain" or "defile" us and do damage to the body and cause of Christ on this earth.
When I think about the expectations this verse places on us, I am overwhelmed with my inability to measure up and often find myself frustrated/agonizing over the ways I've failed to measure up to "pure and undefiled religion." How do we keep from depressing ourselves with our inability to completely follow the expectation Christ has for us? I believe that the steps toward meeting the expectations of Christ can be met by living my life with a desire to follow this extremely high expectation and to refuse to let the "woulda, coulda, shouldas" to lower the bar so I can justify my failures in achieving that which Christ's death earned Him the right to demand from me.
I can also be encouraged in how I see God transforming me through the sanctifying work of His Spirit/His Word in my life and how I see Him working in the lives of others. It's encouraging to hear/see ungodliness in our culture and indignation well up within me moreso now than it has in the past. Although it overwhelms and saddens me that I do not come close to having the ability/resources to make much of a dent among those who are truly the "least of these", I do thank God for both the burden on my heart for them and the opportuniites I've had and those who I've been able to serve with in loving the ones unable to do absolutely nothing for me in return.
Whether it was the Indian Christian I witnessed reaching out to a young man in the unmerciful, karma consumed culture of that nation that shuns the disabled, or the young kids in the inner city of Jackson, MS who had grown up immersed in a sinful culture and desired something different, I see God working in the lives of those racially/culturally different than myself and it gives me hope/satisfaction that God is at work in each of our lives. I guess what I'd like to communicate to any who will read this is that we are a work in progress, often painfully being transformed into the image of our Savior. The other side of this is a question, "Are you/am I content with how our lives measure up to James 1:27? " If not, I pray that we will all desire to have/demonstrate pure and undefiled religion .
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