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True Religion and Orphan Care
James 1:19-27
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I want to begin my exposition of this passage by sharing two anecdotes that I think setup the points I want to draw out to you today about this text, true religion, and orphan care. Over the years, I’ve had opportunities with many churches to share about Eagles Wings Children’s Village. A response I’ve heard from several churches is that while orphan care is a good thing, they wish to focus their resources on the gospel. This suggests a concept that the gospel is somehow disconnected entirely from the church’s compassionate response to the needs people have. They may say “that’s nice” but it is not as important as preaching the gospel. On the extreme other side of the spectrum, in my first experience living in Uganda, I met an American man who was in the process of adopting a boy from Uganda. Some years later, I happened to run into the man again in Uganda and he told me that he had written a book about adopting his son which he had titled, “The Gospel Sits At My Breakfast Table.” That description and philosophy would imply that the work of adoption is the gospel itself. But we know that the work of adoption neither saves the parent nor the orphan from their sin, nor even addresses the spiritual need of all people God explains in the gospel. We see there’s imbalance to both these sides, and I want to explain this passage to show you why God says genuine religion is demonstrated in ministering to orphans and widows in their affliction, and a life that is unstained by the world.
Though this passage is incredibly well-known and used in regard to the church’s call to orphan care, that’s really not what James is directly exhorting us about. The context is setup in V26 where James warns us of an empty profession of religion, which flows from V22 where James warns us to be “doers of the Word and not hearers only.” Martin Luther once described James as “an epistle of straw.” I’m sure Luther’s hesitations about the letter of James were due to the battle Luther fought over the correct doctrine of a believer’s justification through faith in the work of Christ alone for salvation. But a correct reading of James will show that while Paul’s treatise on salvation in Romans makes abundantly clear God’s method of salvation, James’ elaboration clearly defines the results of genuine salvation.
James uses a word for worship or religion that is only used in the NT in this passage, and then once by Paul in Colossians 2:18, when Paul is describing the doctrines of false teachers, and again by Paul in Acts 26 where he was describing his life in the Jewish religious system. It has to do with ceremonial piety or worship. There is the form or appearance of belief, but James explains what betrays the external form is not an internal reality. He says that if I don’t have control of my tongue, I’m deceiving myself, and my external form of religion is worthless. No passage in scripture gives a more vivid description of disproving false professions of faith than what James writes in the following chapter – James 2 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. In other words, if what we claim to believe doesn’t produce action in us, how can we say we really believe it? Rather than our actions proving we do believe, they are the very evidence that prove we don’t. That’s the context of V27 where James says “pure and undefiled religion before God is visiting orphans and widows in their affliction.”
So, I next want to ask, what is it about orphan and widow care (along with spiritual purity) that define true religion, and how does that inform the church about why orphan care is an assumed concern for the church?
What is the source of our understanding of our responsibility towards an orphan? We know that God makes especial mention of provision and concern for orphans. There are over 40 references to orphans in the OT, and many of them include God demonstrating concern for how people should relate to them. For example –
Exodus 22 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
Proverbs 23:10-11 Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
We can see God cares for the orphan, but we must still ask “why” if we are to get to the foundation of why I say it is assumed that we will care for the orphan. God tells us this of himself in scripture – 1 John 4:8 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This leads us to a further question – what is love? 1 John 3 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? True love is the essential ethic that informs all genuine Christian practice. The Bible tells us “Let all that you do be done in love.” Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Love is selfless. Love is others-oriented. God says this is how we, his people, can understand love, that Christ Jesus our Lord laid down his life for us, and then he adds, “and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” That is the foundation not only of why we should care for orphans, but why we MUST care for orphans. For how can we say that the love of Christ has been shed abroad in our hearts when it doesn’t overflow into a pouring out of ourselves on behalf of others just as our Lord demonstrated in his love for us? God’s description of the purpose of the Christian life centers around this transformation. He says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. God says the purpose of our salvation was so that we would go from selfishness to selflessness – from considering ourselves first, to considering Christ first. Jesus said in John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Why is this the greatest demonstration of love? Because what personal benefit can an individual derive from the sacrifice of his own life? He will no longer be alive to reap any benefit. Therefore, it is the greatest demonstration of what love truly is. Love gives itself on behalf of others. We see then how fitting a description orphan and widow care are as definitions of true religion. These are people who can’t make a return to you for your assistance. You are not going to benefit from your service. Therefore, it is an example of God’s true love. What I claim to possess has taken over me to the point of giving myself away in true sacrifice.
The only correct response to truth received is truth applied. There are those of us who can well pass the “faith exam” if that exam were only a written test. But the Bible’s faith exam is not a theoretical, chalkboard exam. It’s a practical one in the laboratory of real life. The scribe who was able to accurately tell the 3 kings where Messiah would be born showed he had the written knowledge, but betrayed his bankruptcy of faith when he didn’t go himself to see “he who was born King of the Jews.” I hope I have made this point clear to you and you are examining your heart according to this litmus test God gives us. But here, we must turn our attention to James’ last phrase in V27. I have met some people who can quote the first part of V27 about orphan care, but can’t finish the verse – and to keep oneself unstained from the world. The word translated unstained in the ESV is the Greek ἄσπιλος (aspilos). It is used 4 times in the NT and each time it is conveying the idea of perfect obedience. For example, in 1 Timothy 6:14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is that our obedience is completely uncompromised. Without this foundation, the ”sacrifice” of orphan care, or any other sacrificial ministry, is actually corrupted before God and unacceptable to him. Let me give you a couple of statements from Jesus to explain what I mean –
Luke 6:46 Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? And perhaps the scariest passage in scripture – Matthew 7 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ How can what we would describe as good works be described as works of “lawlessness” by Jesus? It is because everything that doesn’t proceed from the obedience of faith is sin. There are many people who do things under the misconception of earning God’s favor, or even of making up for areas in life where they are disobedient. Some of them like to point to the legalist who fails to even lift with his finger the heavy burdens he ties on others as proof that their version of religion is acceptable to God. After all, does God care more about my impurities and failures in some areas, or that I’m generous and kind towards others? James makes clear that one of these is not acceptable to God without the other. True submissive obedience will lead to the right sacrifices of love, and sacrifices of love without true obedience are not given in true love and are, therefore, unacceptable to God. Let me illustrate that to you like this. If you ask a Muslim how he can go to heaven, he will tell you he must observe the 5 pillars of the faith. One of these pillars include giving to the poor. Now, if I believe that I won’t go to heaven unless I give to the poor, who am I actually concerned about when I give to the poor? Am I showing I love the poor person, that I love God, or that I love myself? This undermines every manmade religion, which all invariably rely on a covenant between God and man dependent on what man does. If I must do good to go to heaven, I am ultimately doing good for myself. If I’m ultimately doing good for myself, am I really doing it selflessly or selfishly? The gospel is the only covenant where love between God and mankind is actually possible. We love him because he first loved us. And this qualitative demand of obedience for true acts of love is defined by Jesus this way – John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Many people have asked me over the years about Muslims and others who seem to have a zeal for God but are deceived about what pleases God. Many have asked me; won’t God accept their worship? The question is, who are they truly worshipping if they fail to submit to what pleases God? The Bible answers the question like this in Romans 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. If you have not submitted to approaching God as he demands, even when you adopt an orphan, you are seeking to establish your own way. Ultimately, you are setting up your own god. Your sacrifice is empty. Keith Green wrote about God like this in one song –
“I desire obedience, not sacrifice.
I don’t want your money; I want your life”
How can we say we really love God if we don’t obey his commands? And how can we say we really possess the love of God if when God presents us with a person in need, we have no compassion that moves us to action? Is that true religion? Is that the power of this gospel we affirm? What do my actions tell me about my professed faith?
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By Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN
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James 1:19-27
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I want to begin my exposition of this passage by sharing two anecdotes that I think setup the points I want to draw out to you today about this text, true religion, and orphan care. Over the years, I’ve had opportunities with many churches to share about Eagles Wings Children’s Village. A response I’ve heard from several churches is that while orphan care is a good thing, they wish to focus their resources on the gospel. This suggests a concept that the gospel is somehow disconnected entirely from the church’s compassionate response to the needs people have. They may say “that’s nice” but it is not as important as preaching the gospel. On the extreme other side of the spectrum, in my first experience living in Uganda, I met an American man who was in the process of adopting a boy from Uganda. Some years later, I happened to run into the man again in Uganda and he told me that he had written a book about adopting his son which he had titled, “The Gospel Sits At My Breakfast Table.” That description and philosophy would imply that the work of adoption is the gospel itself. But we know that the work of adoption neither saves the parent nor the orphan from their sin, nor even addresses the spiritual need of all people God explains in the gospel. We see there’s imbalance to both these sides, and I want to explain this passage to show you why God says genuine religion is demonstrated in ministering to orphans and widows in their affliction, and a life that is unstained by the world.
Though this passage is incredibly well-known and used in regard to the church’s call to orphan care, that’s really not what James is directly exhorting us about. The context is setup in V26 where James warns us of an empty profession of religion, which flows from V22 where James warns us to be “doers of the Word and not hearers only.” Martin Luther once described James as “an epistle of straw.” I’m sure Luther’s hesitations about the letter of James were due to the battle Luther fought over the correct doctrine of a believer’s justification through faith in the work of Christ alone for salvation. But a correct reading of James will show that while Paul’s treatise on salvation in Romans makes abundantly clear God’s method of salvation, James’ elaboration clearly defines the results of genuine salvation.
James uses a word for worship or religion that is only used in the NT in this passage, and then once by Paul in Colossians 2:18, when Paul is describing the doctrines of false teachers, and again by Paul in Acts 26 where he was describing his life in the Jewish religious system. It has to do with ceremonial piety or worship. There is the form or appearance of belief, but James explains what betrays the external form is not an internal reality. He says that if I don’t have control of my tongue, I’m deceiving myself, and my external form of religion is worthless. No passage in scripture gives a more vivid description of disproving false professions of faith than what James writes in the following chapter – James 2 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. In other words, if what we claim to believe doesn’t produce action in us, how can we say we really believe it? Rather than our actions proving we do believe, they are the very evidence that prove we don’t. That’s the context of V27 where James says “pure and undefiled religion before God is visiting orphans and widows in their affliction.”
So, I next want to ask, what is it about orphan and widow care (along with spiritual purity) that define true religion, and how does that inform the church about why orphan care is an assumed concern for the church?
What is the source of our understanding of our responsibility towards an orphan? We know that God makes especial mention of provision and concern for orphans. There are over 40 references to orphans in the OT, and many of them include God demonstrating concern for how people should relate to them. For example –
Exodus 22 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
Proverbs 23:10-11 Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
We can see God cares for the orphan, but we must still ask “why” if we are to get to the foundation of why I say it is assumed that we will care for the orphan. God tells us this of himself in scripture – 1 John 4:8 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This leads us to a further question – what is love? 1 John 3 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? True love is the essential ethic that informs all genuine Christian practice. The Bible tells us “Let all that you do be done in love.” Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Love is selfless. Love is others-oriented. God says this is how we, his people, can understand love, that Christ Jesus our Lord laid down his life for us, and then he adds, “and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” That is the foundation not only of why we should care for orphans, but why we MUST care for orphans. For how can we say that the love of Christ has been shed abroad in our hearts when it doesn’t overflow into a pouring out of ourselves on behalf of others just as our Lord demonstrated in his love for us? God’s description of the purpose of the Christian life centers around this transformation. He says in 2 Corinthians 5:15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. God says the purpose of our salvation was so that we would go from selfishness to selflessness – from considering ourselves first, to considering Christ first. Jesus said in John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Why is this the greatest demonstration of love? Because what personal benefit can an individual derive from the sacrifice of his own life? He will no longer be alive to reap any benefit. Therefore, it is the greatest demonstration of what love truly is. Love gives itself on behalf of others. We see then how fitting a description orphan and widow care are as definitions of true religion. These are people who can’t make a return to you for your assistance. You are not going to benefit from your service. Therefore, it is an example of God’s true love. What I claim to possess has taken over me to the point of giving myself away in true sacrifice.
The only correct response to truth received is truth applied. There are those of us who can well pass the “faith exam” if that exam were only a written test. But the Bible’s faith exam is not a theoretical, chalkboard exam. It’s a practical one in the laboratory of real life. The scribe who was able to accurately tell the 3 kings where Messiah would be born showed he had the written knowledge, but betrayed his bankruptcy of faith when he didn’t go himself to see “he who was born King of the Jews.” I hope I have made this point clear to you and you are examining your heart according to this litmus test God gives us. But here, we must turn our attention to James’ last phrase in V27. I have met some people who can quote the first part of V27 about orphan care, but can’t finish the verse – and to keep oneself unstained from the world. The word translated unstained in the ESV is the Greek ἄσπιλος (aspilos). It is used 4 times in the NT and each time it is conveying the idea of perfect obedience. For example, in 1 Timothy 6:14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is that our obedience is completely uncompromised. Without this foundation, the ”sacrifice” of orphan care, or any other sacrificial ministry, is actually corrupted before God and unacceptable to him. Let me give you a couple of statements from Jesus to explain what I mean –
Luke 6:46 Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? And perhaps the scariest passage in scripture – Matthew 7 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ How can what we would describe as good works be described as works of “lawlessness” by Jesus? It is because everything that doesn’t proceed from the obedience of faith is sin. There are many people who do things under the misconception of earning God’s favor, or even of making up for areas in life where they are disobedient. Some of them like to point to the legalist who fails to even lift with his finger the heavy burdens he ties on others as proof that their version of religion is acceptable to God. After all, does God care more about my impurities and failures in some areas, or that I’m generous and kind towards others? James makes clear that one of these is not acceptable to God without the other. True submissive obedience will lead to the right sacrifices of love, and sacrifices of love without true obedience are not given in true love and are, therefore, unacceptable to God. Let me illustrate that to you like this. If you ask a Muslim how he can go to heaven, he will tell you he must observe the 5 pillars of the faith. One of these pillars include giving to the poor. Now, if I believe that I won’t go to heaven unless I give to the poor, who am I actually concerned about when I give to the poor? Am I showing I love the poor person, that I love God, or that I love myself? This undermines every manmade religion, which all invariably rely on a covenant between God and man dependent on what man does. If I must do good to go to heaven, I am ultimately doing good for myself. If I’m ultimately doing good for myself, am I really doing it selflessly or selfishly? The gospel is the only covenant where love between God and mankind is actually possible. We love him because he first loved us. And this qualitative demand of obedience for true acts of love is defined by Jesus this way – John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Many people have asked me over the years about Muslims and others who seem to have a zeal for God but are deceived about what pleases God. Many have asked me; won’t God accept their worship? The question is, who are they truly worshipping if they fail to submit to what pleases God? The Bible answers the question like this in Romans 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. If you have not submitted to approaching God as he demands, even when you adopt an orphan, you are seeking to establish your own way. Ultimately, you are setting up your own god. Your sacrifice is empty. Keith Green wrote about God like this in one song –
“I desire obedience, not sacrifice.
I don’t want your money; I want your life”
How can we say we really love God if we don’t obey his commands? And how can we say we really possess the love of God if when God presents us with a person in need, we have no compassion that moves us to action? Is that true religion? Is that the power of this gospel we affirm? What do my actions tell me about my professed faith?