“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27 ESV). We have come to think that pure religion is to have all of our theological words expressed perfectly, and without error. Theology is very important, but it must be put into practice by righteous acts. This verse reminds us that our religion should be about acts of compassion and restorative justice to “the least of these”. This is lived out in a polluted world by those who keep themselves unstained by that same world. Failure to see and work for the least among us is a failure of real righteousness, for which we will be judged severely (Matthew 25:37-40). On that “great day” there will be some folks that stumbled over theology who will “shine as the stars of the morning”, because of their pure religion and their unstained character.
