Pure And Faultless Religion

Many people claim to be religious, but their actions don't follow their words. Their works don't follow their alleged faith. James 1:27 (TNIV) tells us, "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."

Recently there was a massive earthquake in Peru. It registered 8.0 on the Richter scale. 500 people died, 2,000 were injured, and 85,000 were left homeless. We visited one of the hardest hit areas just a few days after the killer quake. The highway leading to the area was fractured with cracks and crevices. All along the roads, people were begging for food and holding up signs saying, "Help me!" or "We need help urgently!" Homes lay in ruins. Disease was rampant. Traffic lights and utility poles lay snapped in half and useless on the side of the road. There was a sense of desperation everywhere.

But in the midst of the devastation and destruction, we were there to bring help and hope. The generosity of the people in our church allowed us to donate one ton of food to the earthquake survivors, and also to feed 1,000 people in a single day. There were a lot of orphans and widows among the thousands of people we met that day, and we were able to show them the love of Jesus in a very tangible way.

It's ironic, isn't it? There's a good chance that we will never again meet the people we served after the earthquake. But we still served all of them and loved on all of them and did our best to be Jesus to all of them. That is what pure and faultless religion is all about. Many people can talk the talk. But only a few people actually walk the walk.