If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.  James 1:26-27 NASB

You know that I believe that Christians should be in church. It tells us in Hebrews 10:25 that we should meet together and encourage one another. The good thing about this is that we also get encouraged. Now many people tell me that they don’t have time to go to church and I will admit that it takes time out of your schedule to do so. But if you are one of those faithful church goers that just goes in and warms a pew and the only thing you are giving is your time, then let me say that you are wasting your time.

Our scripture passage today basically tells us that religion without a relationship is worthless. If we truly love God, then we want to honor Him. Often times the best way we can honor Him is to keep our mouths shut. In a world of selfies and posting all that we do on social media, we are becoming more vocal in more ways and less sociable. We prefer the vast network of social media to sitting down eye to eye and one on one.

Our scripture passage tells us that pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God is to visit the orphans and widows in their distress. We are instructed to love the Lord with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves in Matthew 22:37. So, as we look at our scripture passage today, are we spending the time it takes to love others? Are we carving out times in our busy schedule to encourage other believers and visit and pray with those who are in distress?

Last but not least, we are told to keep ourselves unstained from the world. We as Christians are sanctified. This means we are set apart. We are not to entangle ourselves with the things of this world. We are to focus on God and go about doing His business. When we fail to do this, we get out of whack, things get off balance.

If you are going to church, that is wonderful. But, if you are going there without love, then quite honestly you are wasting your time. 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 tells us that without love we have nothing. So, I ask you today is your religion worthless? Are you busy playing church?

You see, it is not about the religion. There is no place in the bible that says that heaven is open only to Catholics or Methodists or Baptists or Presbyterians or Episcopalians or any other religion. Why? Because it’s not about the religion it’s about the relationship that you have with your Lord and Savior.

If we love God, and I mean truly love God, then we want to please Him. Let’s face it, in our earthly relationships when we love the other person, we want to please them, right? Well, if we love God we want to please Him. So, I ask you to look at your life. How do you spend your day? Is it in a way that is self gratifying? Are you spending the day pleasing man? Or are you spending the day pleasing God? Even if we work in a job we hate, we are told to do it to the glory of God (Colossians 3:23). We are to do our best to please God. Our relationship with our Lord and Savior should be obvious to those around us. We should look different from the world. We should be unstained.

Once God has cleansed us from our sin, the world should see someone who strives to please God and not sin. The world should see someone who is loving and kind to others. The world should see someone that tries their best to live out the example that Jesus Christ set for us. The world should see someone who is filled with gratitude for what God has done for them.

If you don’t love others, if you don’t spend time helping others, if you allow yourself to become stained by the ugliness of this world, your religion is worthless. So give that some thought as you go through this day. If you feel that this applies to you, it’s not too late. Turn to God and enter into a close relationship with Jesus Christ. Allow Him to guide you and don’t worry so much about the religion, but about having a relationship that is worth all we have to give. Experience the joy and peace that comes from pure and undefiled religion.

Have a great day!