Ministry of Grace Church

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to watch over orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Truth to Learn

The true outward expression of a Christian life is to care for the needs of others and not be caught-up in the world around us.

Behind the Words

The word translated “Pure” is katharos, meaning “clean, unsoiled, or pure.” It is the word from which we get our English word catharsis, which refers to “a cleansing.”

“Undefiled” is translated from amiantos, which is made up of the privative a and a form of miainō, meaning “to stain, pollute, or defile.” So, it means something that is unpolluted or undefiled. Since purity is the opposite of polluted or defiled, James is expressing a type of religious observance which is completely without sinfulness or selfishness.

The word translated “watch over” is a form of episkeptomai, which is made up of epi, meaning “upon” or “over” and skeptomai, meaning “to look around.” Hence, this word means “to watch over” or “to look out for.” The word episkopos, meaning “elder” or “overseer” is derived from this word.

“Trouble” is translated from thlipsis, which means “to crush, compress, or squeeze.” Hence, its root meaning is “stress” or “pressure.” Figuratively, it refers to distress or afflictions.

Finally, the word “world” is translated from kosmos, which refers to “an orderly arrangement.” It is the word used throughout the New Testament to refer to the world system.

Meaning Explained

There are many people all over the world who think they are religious – and many of them are! But there’s a big difference between being religious and being a Christian. Being religious, by itself does not gain you a thing. Since James is talking to Christians in this letter, we have to assume that he means Christians who are religious.

As was mentioned in the previous verse, religion refers to the ceremonial observance of a religious system (praying, making sacrifices, giving money, taking care of others, reading scripture, fasting, partaking of communion, etc). James is not condemning any of these things. Rather, he is focusing where God focuses – on the heart; that is to say, on our motives. We can do these things for selfish reasons and they have no effect, or we can watch over those who are undergoing difficult times and take care of them, unselfishly watching out for them.

But just doing things for others is not enough. James also tells us that we are to keep ourselves from becoming spotted by the world system around us. We are to be separate from the world and not be polluted by it. We are to be a light to the world, but our light cannot shine brightly if it has to shine through a life that is stained and polluted by the things of this world.

Application

Many people just want the right formula for religion (say the right prayers, perform the right observances, give the right amount of money, etc.) but, like the Pharisees of old, they become whitewashed tombs. James says, instead of this type of religiosity, we need to be more concerned about the needs of others and we need to keep ourselves holy before a Holy God.