The wake of destruction and agony that such sewer rats leave behind is filled with cries for help. Orphans and widows especially come to mind, but there are poor people of all kinds throughout the world: Victims of war and disease, victims of white-collar crime by thieves, grifters, those who commit fraud, internet scammers, those who prey on the elderly and the confused, and other predators who take what is not theirs because they worship a god far removed from the true paradise. One of the blessings God gives to us is the opportunity and ability to help people who do not have the means to help themselves. The Master will say to him, “I don’t know you or where you come from” (Luke 13:25).Ģ7 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. His religion is worthless his pretense of going to church won’t do him any good in the Judgment. Pray for the people he cares nothing about. If he is a leader with a military or a political position of importance, he is a serious danger to people’s health and to their lives.
If he is a husband and a father, he is a burden to his family. If he is a single man with no family, he is a nuisance.
Even if what he says runs contrary to every bit of common sense everyone else has in abundance, he doesn’t care. He runs off at the mouth, letting his words and opinions fly all over the place like an unbridled horse. He makes sure his wife has something nice to wear to worship in all seasons of the year. He goes to church, he gives an offering, he sends his children to Sunday school or to Catechism class. The man he describes (or woman) thinks that he is really religious. I would like to think that James the coach is saying this only to encourage his people, and that his words are not about a real, particular sin out among the scattered Jewish Christians, but it’s more likely that he is thinking about something that really has been taking place. 26 If anyone considers himself to be religious but deceives his own heart because he does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, his religion is worthless.