Pure Religion:  Do You have it?

© 2022 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.  If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.  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.” (James 1:21-27)

As we read this statement from the Bible, we discover that most religions are not pure.  Sadly, the majority of humanity is pursuing one of these.

First, most religions don’t even believe in the one true God revealed in the Bible.  In fact, many believe in a plurality of false gods.  This disqualifies each of those religions from being a “pure religion.”

Even many religious organizations, which claim to embrace the one true God, are not “pure.”  Some set up a “pay as you go” system for obtaining forgiveness without true repentance.  Such systems can be very lucrative for the religious organizations involved.  These practices encourage a person to disobey the Word he or she has heard, intending to subsequently pay for the infraction.  Thus, the person becomes “a hearer of the word, and not a doer.”

Still others have no concern about the nature of words emanating from a person’s mouth.  Have you ever allowed profanity to escape your lips even after just leaving the church meeting?  This would be just one example of a person who “bridleth not his tongue.”  The passage above indicates that such a person’s “religion is vain.”

In the coming day of judgment, many “religious” people shall proudly present their past religious activities to the Lord.  His answer shall be devastating.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)

Has God changed your heart on the inside and caused you to be His true follower?  If not, God says your “religion is vain” like that of so many others. (see Matthew 7:13-14)

 

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