Daily Devotional for Sunday, March 3

True Religion

“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 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 1:26, 27.

From 1990 to 2008, the percentage of those who identified themselves as having “no religion” grew from 8.2 percent to 15 percent. Yet, how many who claim to know Christ do not practice “true religion” as defined in the Bible? Our sinful human nature drives us to give when we know we will receive some kind of reward or recognition. We are naturally drawn to be kind to those who are kind in return. However, James declared a principle of godliness that convicts us to give to those who may never be able to give in return.

First Timothy 5:3 admonishes us to “honour widows that are widows indeed.” A “widow indeed” would be one who has no family to care for her apart from those in the Christian community. In today’s economy, a widow living on Social Security with no means to supplement her living would be scraping by every month. This dear lady would not have any ability to repay our generosity. Yet, Scripture commands us to care for her and challenges the authenticity of our faith if we do not.

James also calls us to care for the orphans. Likely more helpless than a widow on a fixed income is the life of the orphan. With no place to call home and no family to which to turn, these helpless children would most certainly face an uncertain future. Imagine the impact Christians would have on this earth if we generously cared for just one orphan.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Many Christians would point to their church attendance or moral fidelity to qualify their faith. God’s Word points to our compassion and generosity to those who cannot repay to qualify our faith.

Steven Ridings