This Is Our Church Service

"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 1:27)

“Pure” free from any and all admixture of what is sinful and false.

“Religion” is a reference to an external religion or ceremony. According to the theologian Richard Trench, “The writer (James) purposely uses the word (religion) to set in contrast that which is unreal and deceptive”.

“Pure religion” is speaking on the deeds and practices of the Christian religion that are true and Godly.

The Greek word for “fatherless” is “orphanos”, and is where we get the word “orphan”.

“To visit”-means to check up on and to look out for, to assure one's welfare, condition, and status.

“In their affliction”. In a literal sense, affliction means pressure and spiritual burdens. Affliction can be both spiritual and physical, it’s anything dealing with anguish, tribulation, troubles, and distress.

Let’s step back for a moment and look at what James is saying. The true Christian religion is to take care of the orphaned and widowed. This is the true “ceremony” of our religion. Forget your smoke, chimes, watering your forehead, genuflecting, etc. Our religion demands that we enter the world and help the orphans and widows. And of course all the while we are out and about in the world practicing our religion we are to keep our self, “unspotted from the world”.

How wonderful. We are to bring our religion out from the four walls of the church and practice it out in the world and, “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. But this is true and pure Christianity. This is how we can be Christ-like. This is our church service and our, “religious ceremony”.

Maybe if we practiced what we preached we wouldn’t have states like New York instituting abortion laws that are nothing but a license to kill children.

Bill Hitchcock