James 1:27 is a powerful verse that we sometimes overlook because we are so familiar with it. In this verse, pure religion is defined using two distinctive and seemingly unconnected concepts: serving the less fortunate, and staying pure from the world. Initial reaction is that these are two separate issues. But it strikes me that there is more connection to the two than we realize.
Perhaps our soul is “polluted” if we aren’t serving the less fortunate. Perhaps we can’t serve the less fortunate without our soul being touched. One is our outward appearance with a tangible impact, one is an inner character issue.
But what if both are considered as tangible – that is to say, what if resisting the pollution of the world is not a spiritual exercise, but a tangible one? This would fit nicely into the idea of “fleeing from temptation.” Literally, run away from that which is sinful.
And what if you thought of both as merely spiritual – that is to say, what if serving the widow/orphan was an exercise in spiritual purification? That then becomes a much ignored spiritual discipline.
Either way, James is calling us to both a tangible effort in our faith and a mystical spiritual development of our faith. You cannot separate the two. We are called to be both tangible and spiritual when we pursue our faith.
I began wondering…what is it that keeps us from serving the widows and orphans? What is in our heart — the spiritual bankruptcy — that keeps us from caring for the least of these? I think there are at least three things.
- Greed. We are selfish with our money and our time. We don’t want to part with these things, which are overly valuable to us.
- Fear. We fear the future, so we don’t want to do anything that jeopardizes our current financial status. We fear the poor. We fear the heartbreak of coming close to those who are in need. We fear the risk of hanging around poor neighborhoods. We fear making a fool of ourselves around people we do not understand. We fear the cross-cultural and multi-cultural implications of faithfully serving those who are different from us.
- Pride. We think the poor brought it on themselves somehow. They are somehow unworthy. We don’t want to slow down our busy “important” lives to serve people who have dug their own hole. We don’t want to get down in the muck to serve those who live in poverty. We think of ourselves as better.
How clearly James understood these three points is in the very next verse (2:1) where he says, “Don’t show favoritism.” We do show favoritism when we are too stingy with our money, when we fear the poor because they represent a threat to us, and when we disdain the poor because of our inflated ego.
I’m also struck that the same three things – greed, fear, pride – are often the main stumbling blocks to a pure spiritual heart. Thus the challenges we face in a tangible expression of our faith are much the same challenges we face in a spiritual development of our faith.
The linkage between caring for the poor and having a fully devoted heart for God is unmistakable.