“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27)
If this verse tells us anything it is that we ought to care for the poor and needy because God commands us to do it. The orphans and widows here are clearly not to be taken literally so that we can forget sick men or the destitute family. This is a biblical catch-all for the most vulnerable and needy in society. And James’ point is straightforward enough: it doesn’t matter how useful it is, how helpful you find it or how easy it is to do. Jesus commands us to do it and it is disobedient to Christ NOT to do it.
James say religion that is pure and undefiled is to care for those like widows and orphans. That necessarily implies our religion is impure and defiled when we don’t do it. Given James says this is pure religion and Jesus says the second greatest command in scripture is to love our neighbour, it is worth asking how many ministries in your church point in that direction? What do you do, personally or as a church, to serve the poor and needy? Both Jesus and James put this at the heart of genuine faith, so it is vastly more important than we often credit.
Someone might push back. Isn’t this just social action? Aren’t we just meant to be about the gospel? The short answer is, yes. People’s deepest and most serious need is to know Jesus as saviour. So, A KEY WAY we must care for the poor and outcast IS to take the gospel to them. So let’s reframe the questions a little: how much of your time and how much of your church life focuses on taking the gospel to the poor, needy and outcast? If we are adamant the pure and undefiled religion James talks about isn’t social action, we must be significantly about the business of taking the gospel to the poor and marginalised on that understanding. I wonder how much of our ministry is pointed in that direction?
However, another point bears making here too. Whilst people’s deepest need is to know Jesus, James is clear that pointing people to Jesus whilst denying their basic material needs is hollow and ungodly. If we care about people, we’ll take the gospel to them AND we’ll care for their physical, emotional and material needs too. Genuine care includes both. That’s what happened in Acts 6. The Apostles met the material needs of widows. It wasn’t just a gospel talk. They fed and served them when nobody else would. They were serious about the gospel which also drove them to meet material needs. So, again, we should care for for poor and outcast because it’s a command of Christ and an implication of the gospel. This is the pure and undefiled religion that James is talking about.
I can guarantee, whatever context you’re in, there will be poor and needy people about. I mainly grew up in an affluent Oxfordshire village called Grove. My family went to church in Abingdon, an even more affluent town near Oxford. But I had free school meals growing up. For chunks of my childhood, we were objectively poor but living in an otherwise quite affluent area.
In Grove, there was a caravan park people lived in permanently. There were council house streets. In South Abingdon there were council housing areas. Even in ultra-posh Oxford, you have estates like Blackbird Leys and Barton. In fact, 25% of Oxford – an archetypal affluent city – is classed as deprived. In all these places, it isn’t exclusively doctors, barristers and nuclear physicists. There were bin men, shop assistants, carers, plumbers, electricians. There are the unemployed and the deprived. There are a host of crimes that speak to lack of money.
The issues where I live now, in Oldham, are essentially the same. They may be more widespread and deeply ingrained in our town. But my point is, these same issues exist everywhere. That means we are all in a position to care for the orphan and widow on some level because some will be in our area. The question is, how can we do it? There are lots of ways, but they will all depend on your context.
Our particular part of Oldham, Glodwick, is over 90% South Asian Muslim. So, we run English classes. A big driver of poverty in our area is language limitation so we help people with that.
Joblessness is a primary cause of poverty. Joblessness exists everywhere. You can run job clubs and serve people by helping them into work.
Drug use is as live in rural areas as it is in inner city areas. You can run drop-ins for people that connect them with church whilst also ministering to them. We run a drop-in for homeless people, drug addicts and ex-convicts. Poor mental health is not even an issue unique to people experiencing poverty. Those struggling with mental issues would fall under the ‘needy’ category. Drop-ins help people with their mental health as we chat and hang out. It lets you read the Bible with them (we use Word one-to-one) so you can serve their spiritual needs whilst simultaneously helping with mental and emotional needs.
Food poverty has risen across the country. We run a food club. It’s not a food bank as it’s not handouts. You could do that in your community.
There’s loads of stuff you might do. But I guarantee some of these issues will exist near you; even if you’re in a relatively affluent area. But the call on us in James is clear: care for the poor and needy because it is a command of Christ and constitutes pure and undefiled religion.
And so, I return back to my questions. If the poor, needy and vulnerable exist everywhere (and they do!), and James tells us religion that is pure and undefiled is to care for such people, taking the gospel to them and meeting their material needs, what does our approach to these issues say about us, our churches and evangelicalism more broadly? How much of our time is spent on these pure and undefiled aspects of our religion? How much time and energy in wider evangelicalism is pointed in this direction? What are we doing to take the gospel to the poor, needy and vulnerable? How are we supporting gospel work in such areas? What are our churches doing on these things?
I don’t ask this as side questions. These aren’t just nice things to do. These are key things. James says it is the essence of pure religion. Jesus says these questions push in the direction of the second greatest command in all of scripture. The implication is that our religion is defiled and impure when we do not do these things. We are shearing the heart of out of the gospel when we deny the second greatest command in scripture. What does our approach to the poor and vulnerable say about the quality or credibility of our religion?