Tag: James 1:26-27

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Summer Reruns: Real Religion, Part 2

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Yesterday, we took a look at an old post from James that has our Lord’s half-brother describing what real, good, God-honoring religion should look like. What that first part of this two-part reflection established is that even people who profess to have no religion at all are a whole lot more religious than they think. This second part has us diving further into what James describes as the right kind of religion. The bottom line is this: real religion should accomplish kingdom good. If it’s not, then it’s bad religion. And there are few things worse than bad religion. Let’s take a closer look together at just what makes the kind of religion that is worth having.

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Woman sitting on couch looking frustrated at distorted TV screen showing a sports game with signal interference

Summer Reruns: Real Religion

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It never fails. Anytime a movie or TV series presents religious people these days, they are always the bad guys. Always. And, the more religious someone is in the script, the worse of a bad guy they are. The only solution here – as far as our culture sees it – is to become less religious. Well, while bad religion and people who claim religion but don’t actually live up to their religion’s moral expectations are certainly a problem, religion itself isn’t necessarily the problem. The antidote for bad religion is not less religion, but good religion. James here tells about a couple of things that make religion good religion. Let’s take a look.

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Digging in Deeper: James 1:26-27

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“If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

So, last time, we started out by spending some time looking at our culture’s struggles with the idea of religion. I told you that one of the common self-distinctions people often make when it comes to religious identity is that they are “spiritual, not religious” (SNR). People claim this identity because although they have been trained by either personal or impersonal experience or both to think poorly of religion, they don’t consider themselves secular or even merely agnostic. They just don’t like religion. For professed Christians who would claim this identity this is a real problem because they can’t grow well without the church and the church is a form of religion. As I asked before: What do we do with this? 

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Morning Musing: James 1:26-27

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“If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

One of the trends over the last few years when it comes to self-identifying religious preference is for folks to say they are spiritual, but not religious. This has in some ways been a partner to the rise of the “nones.” Many folks from this media darling social group don’t want to identify themselves as associated with any particular religious group, but at the same time, they don’t want to give the impression that they are claiming to be atheists. So they’ll say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.” How should Jesus followers respond to this? 

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