6/24/26- Unstained
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this; to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27)
Hey there! How have you been? I hope you’re having a good week so far. Today, I want to visit a passage in James that has been on my mind for a little while: James 1:27, referenced above. I’ve brought it up recently as a part of a longer study I’m doing, but I wanted to focus on it more directly here. Ideally, if you’re reading this, it is important to you that your life be marked by the daily practice of pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, but I’m curious; what does that look like? Do you have a concrete set of definitions in mind? On the face of it, it seems very simple- and it kind of is- but, like a lot of scriptural mandates, it is easy to take apparent simplicity and convert it to unpracticed knowledge. For example, Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, so we apply a mental weightiness to prayer- but how often do we actually pray? So here, in James, when we hear him describe what it is to practice undefiled religion, I want to talk about what that actually looks like, rather than just nod my head and say, “yep, got it!”
Firstly, context matters. Soundbiting a single verse is easy, but addressing and internalizing a passage takes more intentionality and fidelity. I encourage you to take a minute and read the full first chapter of James (or the whole book if you have the time), but if you can’t, here’s a brief summary: James introduces himself, encourages the brethren to persevere, he admonishes them on faithfulness and endurance, he exhorts them by the faithfulness of God Himself, and he instructs them in how they ought to conduct themselves in the light of these things. It’s a lot, gone through somewhat quickly, but it can essentially be broken down like this: greeting, encouragement, admonition, exhortation, and instruction. Through all of this, he summarizes what pure and undefiled religion looks like- but first, some definitions. Verses 26 and 27 go like this: “26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Colloquially, we tend to understand the word religion similarly to the Merriam-Webster definition, which is: “an organized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices…the religious beliefs, observances, and social practices found within a given cultural context…commitment or devotion to a god or gods, a system of beliefs, or religious observance : the service and worship of a god, of multiple gods, or of the supernatural…” This is not entirely removed from the biblical usage found in James, but it is also not totally in line with it. Do you know what word is translated as religion in James? It is the Greek word Thrēskos, and it literally means:
fearing or worshipping God
to tremble
trembling, fearful
It does not remove the sense of devotion, but it does clarify the reverence or fear that accompanies it. If you were to insert this broader understanding into James 1, it might look something like this:
“26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious (a fearer and/or worshiper of God), and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion (fear and worship of God) in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
So, now that we have some context from the chapter preceding these verses and a clear definition of what it means, let’s get into what it looks like. James succinctly states what it looks like to others– charity for those in need, not withholding kindness and compassion to those who are hurting– so I want to talk about what it looks like applied to ourselves.
I’ve expressed some of this elsewhere so I will try to focus today on what is at the root of keeping unstained in the sense of our own personal conduct, and the things we do when we are alone.
I often struggle with what it means to keep oneself “unstained;” I was taught a very high standard of purity growing up, and— as I’ve said many times on this website— I spent a lot of time angry about it and fighting against it. Along the way, things got really blurry and confused for me. When I was growing up, it often felt like any and everything that was not explicitly about our faith was evil, and even then there was always a chance that whoever/whatever was behind it could have mixed something evil into it. Things that were less than spiritually perfect didn’t feel like they mattered or were worth caring about. (Which isn’t totally wrong; materialistic tendencies are very easy for most of us to develop if we aren’t careful.) I think, if I’m being honest, a lot of my own hard-hearted and stubborn tendencies were compounded by the way the world was presented to me. I remember my dad praying, while I was a teenager, and asking for hardship for our family, to refine us; in light of this, comfort often felt sinful to me. I remember how mad he got when I started listening to christian metal and secular pop music, treating it like I was listening to the most vile things imaginable; it felt like no matter what I listened to, if it wasn’t a pre-approved selection of hymns, it was evil. I remember how frustrated he would seem with many of my hobbies and interests– my collections, my guitars, my crafting and outdoorsy tendencies– and just feeling like, to him, they were all just wastes of time.
To some extent, I get it a little better now.
It is a real gift of God to be put through the refining process. I really shouldn’t have listened to the music (yes, even some of the Christian music) or watched the shows I was choosing to take in and meditate on every day. I could have done more productive, more profitable things with all of those hours I spent practicing guitar riffs. My priorities were, like many teenagers, horrendously out of whack, and it only got worse as I got older. My dad, I concede, was right; his delivery, though, was often exasperating and difficult to receive. (For what it’s worth, he’s gotten a lot better and gentler in the years since. I’ve also probably become a little bit less sensitive.)
Now that I am a little older, have my own family, my own relationship with God, and am working on my own home, I get it. There’s so much in the world that can and will stain you if you let it, and it really is better just not to touch most of it than to risk it. I think a significant part of my struggle has come from the difficulty of balancing my presence in the world with the fact that I’m not supposed to be of the world.
I like how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” Basically, “I am free to live this life that God has given me, but not everything I could do is worth doing.” When I look at it and James 1:26-27, it makes me pause and say, “Am I living like someone who genuinely fears and worships God? Is the way I live my life right now profitable?”
Unfortunately, if we were to take ourselves line-by-line through a purity rubric, I don’t think any of us would get anything approaching a perfect grade on this. Some things are genuinely just harmful, and we tolerate a lot of harm, either through blind spots or willful stubbornness. Freedom in Christ means options, and options create opportunity, but not all opportunity is good or helpful. Here is my personal struggle: what amount of “unprofitable” am I willing to accept, and what all falls under the umbrella of “unprofitable?” Fortunately, scripture tells us: sexual immorality, obscenity, lying, theft, murder, lust, covetousness, gossip, slander, malice, idolatry, and general godless behavior. These things are denounced throughout the book as traits that should not and do not reflect God and should not be found among His people. I think, though, that too often we– I– fail to follow the example of Christ, the apostles, and the prophets in these issues, to cut out and call out things that encourage these traits in our lives. I used to watch a show called “The Boys;” have you ever heard of it? It recently had its 5th season, although I stopped watching a few episodes into season 4, back when that was still being released. I’m not proud of it. The general idea is that the show is a dark, gritty parody of the superhero genre, replete with debauchery, murder, tremendously sexual content, and profanity so heavy that it feels like a weighted blanket. It’s also full of jokes, cute relationship moments, and an impressive soundtrack. Overall, I think it’s the type of thing no believer should put their eyes and ears to; not because it discusses evil subject matters, but because it glorifies and humorizes them. Jokes, cute relationships, and catchy music aren’t evil, but visual jokes about an evil Mr. Fantastic giving sexual favors to someone on the other side of the room surely is. Cute, flirty relationship moments aren’t evil, but watching evil superman and his girlfriend flirt and then proceed to have sex while they murder a guy is definitely evil. Heck, catchy music isn’t evil, but if it’s being used to evoke emotions that applaud wickedness and laugh at people being horrifically mangled, then I think it just might be getting used in an evil way.
All of those things independently are good and fine; it’s when you pervert them that you get the issue. When you pervert them, they become unprofitable and staining. They become a hindrance. The author of Hebrews exhorts us to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1) This is an ongoing struggle for me, as I often question whether or not the game I am playing or the show I am watching is something that adequately represents the standards I claim to hold to. (Not in a paranoid way, but in a conscious sort of way; I want to be able to give a good account to my Maker for the ways that I have spent my limited time on this earth, don’t you?) The line between profitable and unprofitable, encumbrance and allowance, can be muddy sometimes, and strikingly clear at others. My personal metric looks something like this: 1) Is it clearly opposed by scripture? (porn, drunkenness, lying, theft, etc.) Then it has to go. 2) Is it technically permitted but actively hindering me from spending time taking care of my family or growing in my faith? Is it consuming a disproportionate amount of my attention, affection, time, or money? Then it needs to shrink, or it needs to go. I think this is what James and Paul are talking about when they teach about liberty and the law of liberty; the freedom given by Christ to choose to honor God. The freedom to look at the world around you, the things you put your hands to, and to exercise the fruit of the Spirit– self-control– and choose to love God more.
Alright, all of that said, I do want to end on one last, very important note: you don’t do this alone, and neither do I. Revelation 3:1-6 (the letter to Sardis) supports the fact that each of us bears a responsibility before God to work towards keeping ourselves undefiled, but it does not ignore the equally important fact that the Spirit of God Himself is here and willing and able to help us to do what is right, to keep us unstained, to lead us towards James’ true and undefiled religion. The process is rigorous and lifelong. Sometimes, unfortunately, you will have very little physical desire to pursue it, but it is exactly at those times that it is necessary to pursue it more fervently. The Father is able and willing to keep us, Christ is ready and willing to intercede on our behalf, and the Spirit is present and willing to guide us; we just need to be humble, obedient, and grateful enough to set down the things that get in the way or reflect our God poorly. That, I think, is what is at the root of all of this; the cultivation of a heart with an appetite for God more than anything else, and one that will choose Him over everything else.
It is a very simple conclusion, I know, but the application is so often neglected that I think it is worth drawing out. I’ve heard it my entire life, took a stab at it many times over the years, but it really wasn’t until last year that I really committed myself to it. There’s a beauty in the simplicity, I think.
I don’t know if this will be helpful or encouraging to anybody else, but it was very good for me to take some time and really think about these verses intently. Between my upbringing and my own stupid choices, I’ve struggled for a while with a somewhat shaky idea of what is/is not okay, and I think that boiling it down to those two points I mentioned earlier was healthy for me. Could it have been more thorough? Almost certainly. I’ll probably revisit this topic many times in my life, ideally to refine it and get closer to that pure religion; I hope that this will encourage you to do the same.
