Who is Religious and Who is Not?

Who is religious and who is not?

“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion 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.” James 1:26.

This passage is very revealing to those who want to be acceptable to God. One characteristic of Christians is that they control their speech. One way to control our speech is to limit our interaction with others or to totally seclude ourselves… that is not what God wants. He wants his people to interact with others. That’s obvious because the next section of this passage says that Christians are supposed to…

“look after orphans and widows in their distress”.

So Christians are people of action and in their action they need to control their speech. Why is God interested in orphans and widows? By definition orphans and widows are missing something; Orphans are missing their parents and widows are missing their husbands. As such they are missing the emotional well being that comes from those relationships and they also may be in financial distress.

When I was at Darell Robert’s funeral a man came up to me and stated that when he was a kid his father abandoned their family. He said that Darell and Mackie took an interest in him and his siblings. That meant the world to him. He also told me that other kids would make fun of them saying things like, “your dad left because of you”. He encouraged me to be on the look out for kids in a similar predicament.

When dad died and mother was widowed I learned a lot of things. One thing she told me was that she was no longer the most important person in anyone’s life. Think about that. You go from being a person who you have a rich history with, who you’ve shared everything with to being… alone.

So what do you do for a widow? Let me suggest that a little attention goes a long way; remembering birthdays, anniversaries, thoughtful gifts, sharing a meal, even a hug.

That’s not going to replace a husband but it helps and the real person it helps is you and I.