“Religion
that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by
the world” (James 1:27).
In the
past, I have read that verse as if it was a test with the question being, “Have
you ever gone out of your way to look after someone?” If you answer, “Yes I have helped people in
the past” then you pass. The problem
with this thinking, though, is that it does not tell you anything about what you
are like right now.
For
example, if you were to look at my grade twelve report card, you would see that
I got a passing grade in Geo-trig.
However, that was twenty-seven years ago! If you were to put me in a geo-trig right
now, I would fail miserably. My old
report card tells you something about what my skills were at one time, but not
necessarily what they are now.
Therefore,
what if we looked at this scripture differently? What if it does not say, “Service proves
your faith” but rather “Service is your faith”? What if the definition of Godliness is that you
move yourself out of the centre of your life and put other people there by
serving them every day?
Jesus was described
as one who “… went around doing good and healing” (Act 10:38). Hebrews 13 says, “Do not forget to do good
deeds and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (verse
16). Those two verses seem to say that
serving others is more than an optional, once in a while, thing.
Think of it
this way. In March of this year, Niagara
Falls froze over. It was so cold that
the water literally stopped falling. It was beautiful (Google it and you will
see), but is a frozen waterfall still a real water fall? It looks like one. It has all the elements (water, a cliff,
gravity), but the thing that defines a waterfall is “falling water”. By definition, a frozen waterfall is not a “waterfall”
at all!
Similarly, we
can look like Christians. We can talk
about prayer. We can debate what we
believe and teach. We can study for
hours. However, according to James, what
defines our faith is not that we know the right stuff, but that, every day, we
serve God by serving others.
The good
news here is that by seeing people’s needs and serving them you become more
tender-hearted and compassionate.
In other
words, you end up being more like God.
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