Practical Christianity
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27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
I.Pure religion
A. Isaiah 1:11–17
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When ye come to appear before me,
Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;
It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
They are a trouble unto me;
I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you:
Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear:
Your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well;
Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
II.Undefiled
A. Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
III. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction
A. The Apostle John put this truth in unforgettable words: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:17, 18). James is telling us that our care for the needy must not just be by supporting social programs or through the hands of others—but personally. We are to be involved in their “distress”—the pressures which squeeze them in their circumstances—pressures due to illness or fractured relationships or unemployment or family tensions. James insists that acceptable religion reaches out to people in their needs.
B. James would have agreed with D. L. Moody who when he encountered a man who said, “I have been on the Mount of Transfiguration for five years” shot back, “How many souls have you led to Christ?” “Well, I don’t know,” was the reply. “Have you led any?” persisted Mr. Moody. “I don’t know that I have,” answered the man. “Well,” said Moody, “sit down, we don’t want that kind of mountaintop experience. When a man gets so high that he can’t reach down and save others there is something wrong.”
IV. and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
A. Early in his ministry Dr. Maltbie Babcock, who was the distinguished pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, was approached by a physician who was a member of his congregation.
The physician, a good friend of Dr. Babcock, was concerned about the health of his pastor, who had been working very hard and clearly needed relaxation. Handing Dr. Babcock some theatre tickets, he said: “Take these, you need the recreation of going to this play.”
His pastor looked at them, and seeing that they were tickets to a play of a kind he could not conscientiously attend, said kindly: “Thank you, but I can’t take them. I can’t go.”
“Why not?” the physician asked. “You’re tired and need the entertainment.”
Then Dr. Babcock replied somewhat in this way: “Yes, I am tired, and I do need recreation. But, doctor, it’s this way. You are a physician, a surgeon, in fact. When you operate you scrub your hands meticulously until you are antiseptically clean. You wouldn’t dare operate with dirty hands. Well, I am a servant of Christ; I deal with precious human souls. And I wouldn’t dare do my work with a dirty life.”
B. John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
C. Jude 24-25
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.