Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:26-27
My first thought when it came to posting on these verses was that this would be a very easy post… and then I started thinking about it. The “catch” here is the part about keeping a “tight rein” on the tongue. My first thought was to go off on people within the church who abuse their positions of authority to say hurtful and ugly things to people from a position of self-righteousness. Of course it occurred to me that having a tight rein on the tongue probably applies to the keyboard as well. OK, I’ve heard the more traditional approach to this many times: watch your language! Somehow however, that always has struck me as being just a bit shallow. Yes, we shouldn’t be tossing foul language around, but do you really need me to tell you that? I have the impression that James had considerably more in mind, particularly in this context.
Great. Now what?
The truth is that I think we often make a mistake in passages such as these by taking them too literally. I doubt that James wrote this to give us the perfect verse to enable an annual sermon on cussing, nor do I think that he wrote verse 27 to give us the perfect verse to justify our annual message on helping the needy or raise money for an orphanage. After all, the context is love in action, and that is far broader than either of these two applications. Of course followers of Jesus shouldn’t be using the filthy language of this wicked world, of course followers of Jesus should actively aid and protect widows and orphans; these are but examples of a larger truth!
In the larger context, it seems to me that James is giving instruction about the sanctity and sacredness of each one of God’s children. He wants us to recognize the fact that every single person is valued by God, that we must make every effort to respect, love and cherish every single one. We mustn’t be in the habit of denigrating anybody, for they are loved and cherished by our Lord, so much so that He willingly gave Himself up for them. Most of all, the little children who are innocent and helpless must be a high priority for us to love, nurture and protect from harm, as well as the widows who have been left alone and vulnerable… and anybody else who is unable to protect themselves from this harsh world.
This is what it means to love, to put that love into action, and to serve God. This is what Jesus did, and this is what His followers are to do.
Life Project Blog 
I agree.
Reblogged this on Tiffany Box Blue and commented:
Amen.
Sweet message from God’s heart. We like to micromanage truth. Put everything into nice concise boxes of categories to provide a sense of mastery and competence. Feels good, right, safe, sensible. Then God throws in the zinger to care for the vul
nerable, needy, hopeless. Messy,
disordered, emotional. He is
not untouched by our infirmities. He call us not to figure things out or even to understand. He calls us to come as we are and to partner with Him in His mission of love.
A,em!
“After all, the context is love in action…”
I love that.
Often, when I write about stirring our pure minds remembering the commandments of the apostles of our Lord and Savior, someone reminds me that the Lord gave us just one commandment- that we love one another. I respond by saying that all those other commandments (like “Lend hoping for nothing again”) were to let us know what love looks like.
Because we are such poor lovers, we need all the help we can get.
LOL, true enough!
Like you said in your post, it is not about cussing. It is more about how we speak to various individuals. Does our words give positive enforcement or negative downing? I could not come up with a better word at the time of this writing. Are we busy lifting ourselves and putting others down? This is something that we, as Christians, are doing to others? You are right…it is more than that. Much more. Sometimes it is more than words–it is a smile when someone is down. You bring out some very good points on this seemingly overused verse. It is about keeping the verse within its context, and not stretching the truth to fit our beliefs.
Yep, that pesky context just keeps popping up doesn’t it! 🙂
The word “religion” passed me by, and then my brain got stuck on it after a few minutes. Like “church” this word carries a pile of baggage in current times. Seeing it here has stirred my curiosity. Any thoughts ?
I also have negative associations with that word, and you might notice i don’t use it very much. James, way back in the day might have had some of the same concerns when he drops it in here I doubt he meant it in the way you and I read it… and the Greek is really more like “a worshiper of God” than any Institution we might identify it with. It’s G2357 if you want to look it up, btw…
Very well said!
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Reblogged this on kdramaostersheet.