I like to say, and I believe it’s true, that our biggest problem is not that we don’t know enough but that we don’t do enough of what we already know. This is how the wool curls on our coats, not how it curls for every sheep in every flock. For us, in the year of our Lord 2015, with English language access to God’s Word and resources, what we know is almost embarrassing. I say “almost” not because we couldn’t know any better but because we will wish we had done much better with what we know God when He calls us to account. That account is almost upon us, so in that sense our knowledge is almost embarrassing. My point is, any weakness we have isn’t from a famine of truth. We’re flabby because we don’t work out.

This is a message about working out the Bible, about being doers of the Word and not hearers only, about having religion that is worth it rather than worthless. Those of you familiar with the Bible’s language know that the apostle James used these terms (James 1:22-25). James was interested in living rather than dead faith, in faith that outworks the demons whose theology proper at least causes them to shudder (James 2:14-26). We should shudder that so many Christians with so much truth can shrug their shoulders so high. “What? I didn’t do anything.” Right.

This one-Sunday break from a Genesis sermon is not really a break from the gist of the Genesis series. The last few weeks we’ve focused on Noah. His generation was so corrupt that God determined to flood the earth and blot out every breathing being. God gave Noah His Word and Noah believed that Word. The question that connects Genesis with James is: Noah believed and did what? He worked, possibly without having ever seen a boat or a building that big, let alone rain. He believed and he did something about it on earth. If you pricked Noah’s arm, he bled obedience.

Imagine if Noah had not obeyed and if James used Noah as an illustration of the problem. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like Noah who created a Pinterest board for his personal Bible-study full of pictures of arks and ideas, and went away and forgot that digital collages aren’t waterproof.”

So, again, much hearing should enable much acting, and much acting, according to James, brings much blessing (James 1:25). It’s why the Great Commission teaches baptized disciples to obey all the Jesus commanded. It’s why Paul couldn’t help but serve “for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness” (Titus 1:1). There isn’t fruit without roots, but if you can’t pick godliness off the branches, then something’s rotten under the soil.

James finishes the first chapter of his letter by describing worthless religion and religion that is pure and undefiled before God (James 1:26-27). It’ll be good to be reminded that Word people are worldly in the way that they live out the Word in the world. Faith in the hands is worth two in the brain.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 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. (James 1:26–27)

We have been taught by almost everyone, the irreligious and maybe most the religious, to despise and distance ourselves from the word “religion.” “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” But it really would be better if we said, “Christianity is a religion where every believer has a relationship with God and with each other.” Religion means “a particular system of faith and worship” or “a strong belief in a supernatural power that controls human destiny.” That’s us. Religion took the blame when what we really needed was to blame bad religion or the bad practice of good religion. The Pharisees were in the right religion but practiced it wrongly; their faith was wrong. It’s possible to be in the wrong religion and have the right faith, maybe some Catholics fall into that category.

All that to say, everyone has a religion, even if their system of faith is claiming that faith is delusional. Such are self-fulfilling prophets. God Himself, the one with whom we relate, is the one who gave us the ways to do it, the “system” of worship. So James uses an adjective and a noun that even The Message paraphrases as “religious” and “religion.” If you want to express devotion to the Triune transcendent being, here’s how not to and to do it.

Worthless Religion (verse 26)

Don’t let your tongue out without a bridle. The first concrete metaphor for hearing and doing the word concerns your talking. James will return to the “fire, (the) world of unrighteousness” that is the mouth muscle in chapter 3. The tongue stains the whole body, it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Watch what you do with it.

The bad-mouthing, back-stabbing, busy-bodying, belly-aching about our brothers (see James 3:10) is bad. It’s not good, either. It doesn’t belong with image-bearers who bless the Lord and curse fellow image-bearers. That man’s, or woman’s, religion is worthless . The Greek word mataios means fruitless, useless, lacking truth, futile. It’s not good, either.

Cartoon characters know that if we can’t say something nice, we shouldn’t say anything at all. We’ve heard that, even if we don’t do that. What’s the opposite of worthless religion? What would we expect in the “here’s what you do” category? I think we’d expect James to say that we should bless the Lord with our tongues and then do the same with one another. The wise use their tongues to restore well-being.

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
(Proverbs 12:18, ESV)

A change of vocabulary, a harness on our verbal organ is not useless, but that’s not what James says.

Worth It Religion (verse 27)

Religion that is pure or clean, ready to be offered in worship, and undefiled or, you know, pure and ready to be offered in worship, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world .

I’ve brought us to this passage today because it is Orphan Sunday, which provides a seasonable opportunity to talk about orphans rather than require a full endorsement of what everyone does to promote the Orphan Sunday initiative. For now, let’s observe that acceptable worship requires distancing ourselves from the world in one way and diving into the world in another way.

Good religious people guard against even trace amounts of contamination coming from the current characteristics of false religion in the culture. Some contaminants are obvious; you can see the sewage spots on the idealogical meat, the blood is dripping from the lusts. The unbelieving world around us is full of such gross and palpable pulp. Other contaminants hide behind lies or laugh-tracks. Don’t let any of that get on you.

But distancing ourselves from the world is mostly figurative distance, rejecting every invisible “lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). A monastery isn’t the answer, neither is Montana, per se. We must not let the ways of the world taint us, but we absolutely must let the weak of the world touch us.

Religion that is worth it doesn’t withdraw from the neediest, the ones who can’t take care of themselves. Good religious people do something with all the strength the truth has taught them. Arguing that taking care of orphans and widows is a dangerous social gospel is like James saying that hearing the word is enough: it’s just not true.

We are talking about living/obeying before God , and James provides two motivations in two identifications. Our religion is before God, the Father . God means that He has the authority to tell us what to do, Father means that He gives us an example of how to do it. God requires submission. Father requires imitation.

Our God and Father loves the weak. The Desert-rider (as Chris Martin pointed out from Psalm 68:4), scatters enemies, deserves songs, and more.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
God settles the solitary in a home;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
(Psalm 68:5–6)

Those who worship Him, learning His loves and learning what He values and how He gives generously of Himself, will find themselves in more uncomfortable spots of giving themselves, their budgets, their hours, their efforts to those who need help.

Jesus says that we must visit orphans and widows in their affliction . The word visit translates a form of episkoptomai. An episkopos is an overseer, one who gets close enough to make a careful inspection. It’s an examination in order to exercise oversight in behalf of. It’s not only looking into, it’s looking after. In this sense, every believer is a bishop (the old English version of episkopos is biscop which was softened into modern English). Caring like this isn’t a gift for some, it is the calling for all. It isn’t social gospel, it’s Trinitarian gospel.

As a church we give money to and pray publicly for two orphan care ministries: Andrew Schneidler and his Children’s Law Center of Washington as well as Saji and Jancy of the Good Shepherd’s Children Home in India. One is near, one is far, both are caring for those who don’t have resources to take care of themselves. There is also more that could be done.

I’ve been attending a quarterly lunch called Harvest Hands Alliance, started by Andrew and his wife Michele, for over four years. From prevention to transition to permanence to respite care, there is a spectrum of need. Adopting is great, so is fostering, so is folding clothes for a shelter or putting together “comfort” bags/backpacks for displaced kids who are juggled between the police stations and social offices and foster homes.

Washington State has lost over 1200 foster families in the last few years. I went to a meeting at the offices of the Division of Children and Family Services (part of the DSHS: Department of Social and Health Services) in Smokey Point two Tuesdays ago and heard some of the reasons why. The system is a mess. Kids are a mess. Finances are a mess. At the end of the meeting they asked me what I thought and that’s what I said: It’s a mess. And I added that if Jesus would have seen our mess, our afflictions, and refused to “visit” us, we could not be saved. For Christians, we have it too good to hide from the bad.

It’s tempting to respond that the problems are too big and complex for us to do anything about. The church stopped helping, the government doesn’t know what it’s doing, so why bother trying?

First, we should bother because the verse says: in their affliction . It doesn’t say to care when circumstances are favorable. Loss of parents is an affliction, or abuse by or abandonment of parents an affliction. So is bureaucracy. Many current regulations by the government are part of these kids’ afflictions. There’s a part in The Dropbox documentary (worth the effort to read the subtitles) about a pastor in Seoul who’s been rescuing unwanted babies concerning the grief of the administrative congestion keeping kids away from families. As in Washington, it’s the same system that would have been happier murdering those kids if they could have got them in womb. Why do we think that the State loves them now?

Second, we should bother because the verse says to. James isn’t promising that we can make everything better, he’s describing what’s right. When Christians do what’s right, they win even if they lose.

If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?
(Proverbs 24:10–12)

If you feel like you just have too many problems of your own, which you might really have, also remember that verses 26-27 are part of the same chapter that begins with the joyful perspective on God sending us trials. You probably don’t have as many trials as many of the kids in the State foster care system, or kids in foreign countries/orphanages. We’re supposed to ask God for wisdom in going through our trials, and James tells those needy Christians to serve other needy people. It’s pure and undefiled religion to God. It’s imitative, sacrificial generosity like the Father.

Conclusion

What can you do? Pray. Also remember, there is a way we have of “praying about it” that’s still not doing it. In addition, love your spouse and love your kids and stop getting angry with them like they are a worthless burden even if you’d never say those words. Talk to your children about the evil of abortion and the doctrine of adoption. Do some research about the “system”; it’ll work on your mobile device. Volunteer to be an “Office Mom” at the DCFS when a social worker is on the phone trying to find a home for the kid(s). Get a list and fill up a comfort bag. Get your company to sponsor scholarships to the Refresh Conference. Read Adopted for Life by Russell Moore. Talk to the deacons about organizing a work party for our widows, or setting up regular reviews of their needs.

We visit because Jesus is Lord. We fill out paperwork, we go shopping, we cook dinner, we pay lawyers, we attend meetings, we wash clothes, we play games, we rake leaves, we vote, and more because Jesus is Lord and it is right for those who care about the Word.

People say Christian’s complain but don’t anything, let’s make sure that have to say some Christians don’t. Let’s make sure they know what we care about.