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“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you!” (James 1:27).
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This message is so strong that even James echoes this in his letter to the early churches. This becomes selfless acts of true religion rather than works to make us look good and try to grab both man and Gods attention. The difference is now we don’t look to help the poor, oppressed, orphaned and widowed to make ourselves look good but rather to bring glory to our Father in Heaven. The love and compassion He has for the marginalised of society (widows and orphans), is the same love and compassion we receive also.
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The hurt and injustice He sees in this world becomes our hurt. In turn the things that burden Him, become our burden. Simply put when God works in our heart for His glory, His glory pours out of our heart. So what do these pure and true outward expressions look like? Isaiah’s words in verse 17 help us to understand what true religion looks like. It is from that standpoint that outward expressions are true and noble. The only way we can become right before God is through confessing our sins and being made clean (verse 16). Religious works are sets of rules that say you must to do this or that to become holy or get closer to God, but according to Isaiah’s prophetic word from God, this simply is not the case. Yesterday we learnt that religion should not focus on external practices as a show of pride but should reflect the inward change by the work of salvation in our hearts.