James 1:27 - Faith In Action

I'm sorry this post is late.  I know my regular readers were looking for it earlier in the week.  I'm travelling for work again and encountered internet difficulties ie. lack of internet where I thought I'd have access.

Here's the memory verse post for the week - it's a short one.  Again my apologies for being late.

MEMORY VERSE:

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  James 1:27  NLT

James talks about followers of Christ being “doers” of the word, not just “hearers”.  He’s telling us to live out our faith through action, to “put our money where our mouth is” so to speak.

The Bible encourages the spiritual practices of reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and being in a community with other believers.  These are all great things to do.  They help us grow spiritually and bring us into closer relationship with God.

The problem I have is determining where spiritual disciplines end and living my faith through action starts.  I love to read, learn, and absorb knowledge.  You could say I’m a veritable sponge when it comes to learning. 

I’m quite happy reading about God, learning about who Jesus was, the culture He lived in, the history of the times, and how it all works together in the way scripture is interpreted.  But I sometimes get so caught up in the learning process that I fail to take action.

James tells us we have to do more than just learn about Jesus.  If we don’t put our faith into action we’ve missed an essential part to following Christ.

The widows and orphans were among the poorest, most marginalized people of Jesus’ time.  Widows and orphans had no one to provide for them.  They would be forced to sell themselves into slavery or face inevitable death.  They were the least of the least.

A lot of times we fail to live out our faith because we feel superior to the marginalized (even when we’re not).  God loves us all equally.  We all come broken to the foot of the cross, but society would have us believe in our superiority. 

We’re conformed to a system of classes or categories.  I’m not missing the irony that even by writing this I too am conforming to this type of system.  Simply by applying the labels “poor” and “marginalized” I’m implying a difference between myself and these groups. 

We all live in the same world.  We need to fight against our natural inclination to go along with “herd” mentality.  Our faith challenges us to think differently, to change our views on the people around us, to get past “us” and “them” and instead see people created in God’s image.

Don’t bend to popular thought patterns or belief systems.  Stay strong in your faith and put it into action by caring for those around you.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  James 1:27  NLT