We just started reading through James, and while I've been through it I don't know how many times already, I always catch things that I've never seen before. This time it was James 1.26-27.
If you've been keeping up with my blogs through the years (or heard me rant a time or twelve), you'll know that I despise religion. The man-made institution of religion that provides rules and regulations for how to be a child of God makes me so angry - children of God are considered His "prized possessions" because "He chose to give birth to us by giving us His true word" (1.18), so why are we as fellow prized possessions (a.k.a. fallen human beings) setting up these stipulations to become something that God has already made us? (Does that make sense?) I don't necessarily support the "feely-good" gospel (as my dad says) that says "you're completely exempt from condemnation and suffering strictly because you're a child of God" as a replacement for religion - to me that sounds like exempting God's children from responsibility, like the stereotypical rich kids who don't need to follow the rules because of their father's name or position. But I don't think that religion, according to man's standards, is the answer either. That puts too much emphasis on what you do as a means of "making you holy" rather than focusing on your identity as God's child. There needs to be a happy medium between the two unhealthy extremes.
That's why I don't have a problem reading vs. 26 with a little bit of sarcasm: "If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your 'religion' (the profession of a belief that you really don't have or live) is worthless." The next verse puts to the fire the feet of those religious figures during James' day, the Pharisees who got under Christ's skin with their religious proverbs and condemnation of other (a.k.a. fellow) sinners: "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." It means getting your hands dirty in the act of helping this world, not running away from it and sitting on your bed with your Bible and highlighters, praying for God to fix the suffering outside your walls. And I don't necessarily thing that being corrupted by the world means going along with the sinful things that are held in favor of society; I think it could mean going to the other end of the spectrum and looking at the world with prejudice and judgment. That, my friends, is also a means of letting the world - and your extreme aversion to the beliefs of that world - corrupt you.
Religion bothers me because it takes the focus off what it truly means to be a child of God. It's not based on how much you bring to the winter potluck or how much you put in an offering plate or whether you have hymns or a full rock band in your worship time. None of those things are a proper, God-professed measure of your faith. But it surely must be based on something more than your "identity." Yes, praise Him who claimed us as His prized possession. Yes, rejoice that, if you have made the decision to become one of His followers, you are destined for an eternity of worship of and fellowship with our God. But you can't forget to put that faith and that blessed identity into practice. "Don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourself" (James 1.22). I'm not saying that those actions are what make you "saved". But if somebody gives you a shirt for Christmas, you wear it out in public and show people your new shirt; you don't leave it in a drawer and tell people, "Hey, I have this great shirt at home."
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