"What is Your Religion?" (James 1:26-27)
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading:
Introduction: Is religion good or bad?
Introduction: Is religion good or bad?
“We don’t have a religion, we have a relationship.”
But genuine believers all over the world are involved in religion.
Transition: What is religion?
Transition: What is religion?
Religion - noun - used 4 times, 2 here, also Ac 26:5, Col 2:18
They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.
Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
Definition - worship, liturgy, ritual, ceremony, observance
Basically - the outward expression of inward/professed belief
False religion is bad, true religion is good.
How can we know the difference?
I. Perceived Religion (v. 26)
I. Perceived Religion (v. 26)
2 Questions about Perceived Religion:
I. A. Why would someone think they are religious?
I. A. Why would someone think they are religious?
Because they do what is perceived to be religious.
Includes primarily public gathering, giving, praying, singing, praising, preaching, etc.
This is perceived because of what it portrays publically.
I think we can call this formal religion.
It is planned and practiced. It is regular and reoccurring.
So therefore, it is also done around other religious people.
James does not say this sort of religion is wrong. He says it could be worthless.
I. B. What makes a person’s religion worthless?
I. B. What makes a person’s religion worthless?
Not controlling their words.
Tongue - words, bridle - control
Implied here is that what we say should be careful to use our words for good.
Remember James 1:19. We will consider more on this in James 3:1-12.
Examples: Psalm 34:13, Psalm 39:1, Psalm 141:3, Ephesians 4:29, Colossians 4:6, 1 Peter 3:10
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
Controlling is in both what not to say as well as what to say.
This includes in-formal living. Everyday, not just the public gathering.
How do words that are not good and right and appropriate make a person’s religious participation worthless?
They are deceiving their heart.
Deceives - cheat, delude, trick, think the wrong thing about yourself.
Their words are not in tune with their religious participation.
Informal words can more accurately display the heart.
So the religious activity is
Worthless - futile, useless, vain, empty, pointless, without impact
It seems that James is trying to change his reader’s perception about themselves.
So that they will change their words, not their religious activity.
James wants is readers to see that their formal religious participation should have an impart on their informal speaking.
The heart is the problem and the solution.
II. Pure Religion (v. 27)
II. Pure Religion (v. 27)
2 Questions about Pure Religion:
II. A. What does pure religion mean?
II. A. What does pure religion mean?
Definition
Clean, clear, free of impurities.
Further, undefiled - unsoiled, unstained, unblemished
Before God - He is the judge. He sees the heart. Not other people.
Opposite of worthless in verse 26.
Worthless - futile, useless, vain, empty, pointless, without impact
Pure religion then is religion that is true, genuine, and meaningful.
It is so true, genuine, and meaningful that is goes beyond the formal.
II. B. What does pure religion include?
II. B. What does pure religion include?
I use the word “include” because...
James is not reducing religion to just this.
But, he is expanding religion to include living beyond the formal.
He is expanding it in ways that might not be so obvious.
So, then what is included?
Religion extends to what you do for others.
Orphans and widows represent the most needy and helpless in society.
Visit - to inspect, carefully select, look after, care for
Affliction - distress, burden, trouble - this is what you see that moves you.
This is having compassion for others and giving as you can.
Psalm 68:5, Matthew 22:37–39, Galatians 6:10
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Religion extends to how you personally resist worldliness.
This is resisting and repelling the unrighteous influence and impact that the anti-God system all around will have on us.
Proverbs 4:23-27, 1 John 2:15-17, Titus 2:11–12, James 4:4
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Be like Christ, not like the world.
There’s so much that could be included in this, reading scripture, prayer, the influence of Godly believers, etc....
But just simply ask yourself if you are being proactive in this.
Application: Don’t give up, change!
Application: Don’t give up, change!
James doesn’t want his readers to give up, but to change.
James doesn’t want his readers to stop religious activity, but to have words, and ultimately a heart in tune/sync with their religious activity.
He’s not saying stop doing, he’s saying start being.
Which will then expand the doing beyond the formal to the informal, beyond the public to the not so public.
Where the work needs to be done, where the change can happen, is in the heart.
Benediction: