“26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:26-27 NLT 

It’s made fairly clear here that Christians have the ability to show their religion as being worthless based on the things that they speak.  If we have the Holy Spirit living in us then His nature gives us self control; one of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians chapter 5.  That means we even have control over our tongues, which may be the sharpest and most damaging weapon known to man.  But, I think really you could boil this statement down to what is said in verse 23 of this same chapter:

“22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” – James 1:23 NLT

And verse 14 in chapter 2:

“14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” – James 2:14 NLT

In other words, real faith or real religion isn’t just something that we claim to have, or some creed we agree to, or some list of rules that we adhere to; it’s not just words.  Rather real faith or real religion is the fleshing out of the words.  If we say we have faith, then our lives should speak that much louder than our words.

True religion that is acceptable by God the Father is …..taking care of orphans and widows….or hospitality.  If we just hear God’s word and say, “Yes, that is good and I agree with that”, but we never do the things we agree with, then according to Scripture we are fooling ourselves, and to some degree, making fools of ourselves.

Until very recently I always understood James 2:14 to be talking about my own faith saving myself.  In other words, if I say I have faith but I don’t show it by my actions, then I’m probably not saved.  But in context, I now think it’s talking about the impact our faith fleshed out with feet on it has in the lives of others!  If I say that I have faith, but I don’t show it by my actions, then how can I expect anybody to ever want to consider following Jesus?

From what I can gather these days, non-Christians seem to be fed up with people who claim to have faith which causes them to love unconditionally, but aren’t able or willing to actually do it.

“18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” James 2:18 NLT

The image used for this post was created by artist Ain Vares from Estonia.  He has an amazing style and some really incredible work.  His art work will be featured on the cover of my book, The Hospitality of God: Discovering and Living Kingdom Hospitality.

To see more of his work or purchase some of his amazing products, you may visit any of these sites:

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