Pondering the Scriptures

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27

This verse makes it very clear, that to James, religion is more than a philosophical endeavor. Furthermore, he suggests, that, to be pure and undefiled, religion must be inseparably connected to God. In addition, his reference to God and the Father implies an understanding of the mature of God significantly distinct from nearly universal Christian doctrine. James also insists that anyone attempting to follow such true and undefiled religious practices must rise above the world. 

Considering the concept of a pure and undefiled religion first.

Spiritually based behavior patterns are inseparably connected to the fundamental nature of God, and, that the understanding of that nature needs to be undefiled, which among other things could mean undiluted by the sophistries of human philosophy; and by way of comment, philosophy literally translated means the love of knowledge, and it was precisely that love and preoccupation with human wisdom which led the early theologians to substitute human intellectual achievements for the simple truths of the Gospel. 

The second is the nature of God

That dual phrase: “God and the Father” by Christianity generally interpreted as explanatory meaning God, who also is the Father, is understood as truly conjunctive in the context of latter-day revelation. Thus, when the God of the Old Testament introduces himself to Moses as Jehovah, and Christ subsequently in John states that “long before Abraham, was I, Jehovah”, it becomes clear that, when Christ says that I and the Father are one, he is speaking of a union in purpose and intent, not of the unity of a single person.

In turn, a deep understanding of the nature of God and the fundamental nature of man as His offspring becomes a wonderfully motivating force to help us want to do, what He intends us to do, namely prepare ourselves to return to our Heavenly home and be divinely creative in His presence. 

The third, of course, is the outgrowth of that understanding, namely a deep, truly selfless Love for all our brothers and sisters.

James speaks of visiting the widows in their affliction. One such was the widow of Zarephath who was preparing the last handful of meal and oil for herself and her son, and then to die. Instead. she obediently gave to Elijah, and her barrel of meal did not waste, neither did the cruse of oil fail until the Lord sent rain upon the earth (1Kings 17:8-16). So. it is our opportunity to fill the spiritual barrels of all in need, to make sure their barrel does not waste. nor their cruse fail until the Lord sends rain upon the earth. At the same time. we need to relieve all affliction, spiritual and material. We can only do this once we truly learn to love one another. 

In Matthew 10:39 Christ says: “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it”. I particularly like one phrase in the great sermon on Charity by Paul in 1st Corinthians 13:5: “Charity seeketh not her own”. It is difficult for us not to insist on that to which we think we are entitled, but rather step back and open opportunities to someone, in quotes, “less deserving”, and I use the quotes deliberately, lest anyone deem himself deserving.

The fourth, in essence, represents our response to all we have discussed: to keep unspotted from the world.

What constitutes the stain of the world?  Love of wealth, love of praise and glory, love of influence and power, and willingness to discard moral values for gratification. All four of these are rooted in selfishness. In a welfare session of General Conference in April 1978, President Kimball suggested three fundamental things essential to becoming the Pure in Heart. The first was: “We must eliminate the individual tendency to selfishness that snares the soul, shrinks the heart and darkens the mind”. The word snares. carries a sense of entrapment, the word shrink suggests something small, and to be darkened implies the absence of the light of Christ. 

May I suggest that when King Benjamin in Mosiah 3:19 talks of the “Natural man” as an enemy to God, he talks among other things, of this tendency, and until we “yield to the enticing of the Holy Spirit and put off the natural man”, we will not catch the vision of James and practice pure religion. This is not something that just comes to us, to which we can passively respond. We must act consciously, and deliberately to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters. 

This includes making sacrifices, which is President Kimball’s third point, the second being: we must be united.  Sacrifice is more than doing without. Sacrifice includes three elements. Quoting Pres. Kimball: “We must begin by offering a broken heart and a contrite spirit”. Repentance is an essential element of personal sacrifice. Secondly it involves commitment beyond that which is comfortable, and the third element lies in the word “sacrifice” itself. Literally translated from the Latin it means to make holy. Thus, when sacrifice is placed in the context of the Good News of forgetting ourselves in the service of our brothers and sisters it becomes the crowning characteristic of the life of a Disciple.