January 31 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 31—James 1:26–27

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Devotional:

Being a Christian means knowing God (not just knowing about God) through his Mediator, Jesus Christ. No one can truly know God and stay unchanged. Is your religion real? In these verses, God gives three ways to take your spiritual temperature. They are not a comprehensive list, but they are "leading spiritual indicators." First, do you control your tongue? Second, do you care for those in need? Third, do you pursue cleanliness from sin? "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: … to keep oneself unstained from the world." (v. 27).

Most Christians are well aware that God's Word says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). But what is "the world"? God's Word often uses the term "world" to describe people who are out of touch with heaven. The world disobeys God. It lives as if God is not real (Ps. 10:4). Although believers are "in the world," they are "not of the world" (John 17:16). The great enemies of your soul are the flesh, the devil, and the world.

What is it to be "unstained from the world"? Some have thought of "worldliness" as breaking a set of pious taboos ("Don't drink, don't chew, and don't go with girls who do"). In our day, many so react against the external legalism of previous generations that they have no fear of worldliness at all. But God himself calls his redeemed children to be "unstained (or unblemished) from the world." They must turn from the attitudes and approach to life that marks the world. "The lambs that were offered under the Old Testament sacrificial system had to be without blemish: so the Christian must 'keep himself unspotted from the world' that he may offer himself a holy and living sacrifice acceptable to God."^†

Note that God says that the genuine believer will "keep oneself unstained from the world." This implies that, even though it is all of grace, nevertheless sanctification is neither automatic nor easy. It involves a struggle. But if you really have been "brought … forth by the word of truth," then it is to "be a kind of firstfruits of his creation" (James 1:18). Consequently, there is no such thing as a new birth without a new life. There is no such thing as true religion without transformation. There is no such thing as justification without sanctification. True religion makes God's redeemed children godly (God-like), not worldly (world-like).

Hence God commands us, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world" (1 John 2:15–16). Likewise, in James 4:4 he says, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

"The proof is in the pudding." How does your life contrast with that of the world around you?

^†R.V.G. Tasker, The General Epistle of James (Eerdmans, 1956, 1975), p. 55.

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