orphan | Gabriel David Hu

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. (Jam 1:27 NIV)

Ever wonder if the Church is what it should be? I do, probably because I have been conned and bullied by those wearing pastor’s clothes. This verse in James is an explicit statement about what the Christian Church should be. It is not all-encompassing or exhaustive, but it very clearly and concisely describes what we should be doing. Let us consider it carefully, word by word.

James begins with the word “religion,” which is a bad word to some people. Years ago, I frequently heard that our faith is not about religion but relationship, and that is true and false at the same time. Religion is the actions of people that originate from a faith in something, and everyone puts their faith in something. Organized religion tells us what to believe, and then how to live according to that belief. Individuals also have varying personal religion, their actions betraying their beliefs: themselves, the world system, a vain hope for a vague deliverer, or money or power or sex or community, or whatever.

We all have faith, we are all trusting in something, and the acts that come from that belief are what constructs and shapes our religion. If we truly believe Christ and the Bible, then our faith is in a relationship with God Almighty (John 1:10-14, Rom 8:12-17), and hopefully this is reflected in our life. In his letter, James is telling us how to live according to this faith.

It should be obvious that we desire a religion God finds acceptable, since we are trying to please him in this relationship. He is the author of life and the determiner of our eternal destination. Yet James describes our “acceptable” religion as pure and faultless, so let us examine these words.

Pure has to do with Old Testament cleanness, which is holiness (Lev 10:8-11). God is holy, which means special and set apart, and we must also be holy and clean to approach him (Lev 19:2, 22:31-33). To be clean means you are able to approach God and be a part of his community. Lepers were unclean, possibly due to no fault of their own, and were unable to enter the temple or even be a part of the holy community (Lev 13:44-46). Thus, acceptable religion is what makes us able to approach God and his community as holy.

Faultless, also translated undefiled, refers to having filth removed, making us pure and clean. For this, our sins must be atoned for, which was accomplished by Christ’s death on the cross (Lev 17:11, Heb 9:22, Col 2:14). Christ-believers show our faith when we respond to his act of sacrifice by being self-sacrificing (2 Cor 5:14-15), by denying ourselves and living for others (Phil 2:3-4).

One commentary explained pure and faultless this way:

“Pure” expresses the positive, “undefiled” the negative side of religious service; just as visiting the fatherless and widow is the active, keeping himself unspotted from the world, the passive side of religious duty. (JFB)

Next, James very clearly specifies two things which demonstrate this pure and faultless faith: looking after orphans and widows, and keeping oneself from being polluted. As pointed out above, a positive and a negative, what you do and what you do not do.

The “do” part of this regards orphans and widows, which refers to those who could not provide for themselves, the poor and possibly oppressed. I believe this is hugely significant, and is the reason why Christians have always been first to reach out to the poor, creating orphanages and hospitals and missions that sought to care for those who need it most.

Who are the “orphans and widows” that need help today? Some are obvious, some are not. Today, because we live on debt, it is easy to fall behind on payments after an illness or other interruption in work, and then become homeless. Many who have low paying jobs make too much to qualify for aide but still cannot afford health care. My wife recently went looking for a clinic and discovered that there were no longer many options for free or low-cost health care. And what about those fleeing war-torn countries? Some call them refugees, but others call them illegal immigrants trying to get a free handout.

Yes, I am getting a little political, but the goal is not politics, the goal is to be right with Jesus. Do our actions reflect Biblical descriptions of true God-fearing faith? Do we care for the poor? (Exo 22:21-27, Deu 10:16-19, Deu 14:28-29, Deu 24:14-15, Jer 7:2-8, Jer 22:2-3, Acts 2:44-45, Acts 4:32-35, Gal 2:9-10). I wrote more about this in my article Faith and Politics.

Next, the “do not” part, James says we must keep ourselves from being polluted by the world. To do this, we must recognize how much of what surrounds us is drawing us from the things of God and into depravity, and then we must make war against these heart influencers (Pro 4:23, 2 Cor 10:3-6, Eph 6:10-20). We are not to be monks and hide from the world, rather we are to live as exiles among the Babylonians (Jer 29), building and multiplying and praying for the city around us, and at the same time keeping ourselves pure and holy. This is challenging!

We wake up and read the news, which draws our hearts into the muck of divided politics and the nastiness of the murderers and enslavers of our souls, and we get discouraged. We turn on the radio as we drive to work and are influenced by the words of the devil in the music, telling us that we can be free of any restraint and live for pleasure, while still being right with God. By the time we get to work, our minds have created a new religion that shapes how we work and play and treat our families.

I do not have time here to explain in detail how to live this life unpolluted by the world, except to say we must continually be in the word studying and learning from it, in fellowship with other like-hearted believers, and in prayer, constantly working more of Christ into us and getting the world out of us. We must find ways to get the word of God into us every day, to start our day with God’s truth and prayer, to keep a hold of his Ways as we go to work and do our jobs and interact with people, and then after work, how we play and manage our family life (Josh 1:8). We must take off the world by putting on Christ (Eph 4:22-24). And make sure our closest friends, the ones influencing us, have the same goal of pure and faultless religion (1 Cor 15:33, Heb 3:13, Heb 10:24-25).

It is significant that the “do” part of our religion is caring for the poor, and this should shape what outsiders see in us. Is it what people see in our actions and words? Does the world see us mingling with it or keeping pure? What does our religion look like, and does it match what we proclaim as our faith?

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

(1) (JFB) Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, 1871, Public Domain

I am neither conservative nor liberal, Republican nor Democrat. I grew up in a very conservative environment, and for many years I believed the conservative way was the most good and that it made the most sense. However, I never really understood the liberal perspective, because the TV channel was always changed when a Democrat was talking. It was not until I left home that I was able to listen to other perspectives, but even still it was not until I was in my thirties that I truly sought to understand other political perspectives.

In listening to other perspectives, I heard things that made sense. I heard people who genuinely believed the best thing for the country and for people was a perspective that differed from what I had always believed. I began questioning my beliefs about political policy, everything from economics and immigration to welfare and even abortion. What policies really worked? Was there data to show what was really beneficial?

I doubt the numbers we hear that “prove” one perspective or another are clear, because the talking heads that espouse their side of the argument do not really care about facts, only about being right, and they are very good at sounding smart and making the opposing arguments seem foolish.

Yet as a Christian, I do not need to trust political commentators, I do not need to know for certain which news outlet gives the most unbiased information, and I do not need to fully understand what really goes on in the power struggle at the highest political and financial levels in this country or the world.

I just need Christ and his word to guide me.

What does the word say, then? What is the perspective of Christ? What does the Bible say is the responsibility of politicians and leaders, including the wealthy who wield and influence power over many? What sort of policies should I, as a Christian, support?

Start with the obvious: God demands that rulers and judges pursue and execute justice and righteousness:

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Deu 16:18-20 ESV

This is what the LORD says to you, house of David: “‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.’” Jer 21:12 NIV

The laws in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy not only teach of sacrifices to atone for sin, but laws regarding justice and moral living. In these laws, we see the heart of God, and that the intent of rulers and judges executing justice was for them to protect the poor from the oppressor. Looking a little past one of the verses above, we see what is truly on God’s heart:

Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the LORD, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. Jer 22:2-3 NASB

In God's O.T. laws, we see the heart of God, and that the intent of rulers and judges executing justice was for them to protect the poor from the oppressor. Click to Tweet

The charge is to do justice and righteousness, but what does that look like? The charge continues in explanation: Rescue those robbed from their oppressor, do no wrong or violence to the stranger (also translated: foreigner, sojourner) or the fatherless or the widow. Elsewhere, there is another added to the list:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart. Zech 7:9-10 ESV

Either the “one another” includes or is an addition to the sojourner (foreigner, stranger), the fatherless, the widow, and the poor. In ancient society, orphans and widows would have no means to provide for themselves, being without father or husband; therefore, relatives were charged to provide for them. This would surely be a burden on family without means, while those with means would easily be able to provide for relatives.

This brings us to the poor, which is really what all of these words refer to. Those with means do not need protection or provision from the government.

The word for poor refers to the afflicted, humble, lowly, needy, and poor (from the Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary, h6041), and I believe each of those words points to an important group that God wants us to look after.

Finally, there’s the stranger or foreigner or sojourner, which requires a more lengthy definition:

Sojourners are not like foreigners visiting some other country; rather, they have settled in the land for some time and live there, even though they are not native to that area. Abraham was a sojourner in Hebron (Gen. 23:4), Moses in Midian for forty years (Exod. 2:22), Elimelech and his family in Moab (Ruth 1:1), and the Israelites in Egypt (Exod. 6:4; 22,20). (Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Word)

It should be obvious why God wants us to care for the poor, orphans and widows, but why the foreigners? The answer is in the law itself: “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21, NIV). This refers to the same category as the others, the poor and oppressed foreigners among them, because the Hebrews went to Egypt to flee famine and years later were oppressed by the government and made to be slaves.

I also believe the focus on foreigners is meant to include non-Jews in God’s salvation, but that is a different discussion. Interestingly, the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians out of fear of their numbers, which seems very similar to the immigration problem in America today.

Foreigners, orphans, widows, the poor – all of these are people without the means to defend themselves from those who do have means, from those who abuse their power and take advantage of the social and economic difference between them. Who does this refer to in today’s society? It probably differs from country to country, and even within each country there may be differences state to state and city to city, so I will refer to my specific experience.

Recently, my wife and I went to court against someone who was a criminal, who had a criminal income and connections, a man with means and influence beyond our own. We were unable to afford an attorney at the time, so after trying in vain to get multiple law enforcement agencies to pursue this criminal, we represented ourselves in court. Despite ample circumstantial evidence showing what this man was doing, despite the judge believing us, neither law enforcement nor the court acknowledged that this man was a criminal, nor did they give us justice. The system was unable to provide justice to those without the means to spend money on attorneys and without the influence to get law enforcement to do their job. And we are comfortably in the middle class!

This is why I do not believe capital punishment is a good option for this country, because it seems only the poor will ever end up being executed for their crimes. While I believe capital punishment is Biblical (Gen 9:6, Rom 13:4) (I acknowledge this is debatable), it is not Biblical to have laws that are only enforced on those without means to defend themselves.

This is what I believe God intended the rulers and judges of nations to consider in their execution of justice and righteousness. It is easy enough to say that stealing is wrong and that those who do so should be punished in some way, it is much more challenging to ensure that the poor man stealing because he is starving (Pro 6:30-31) is not punished more severely than the stock broker who steals to increase his already substantial wealth (Jam 5:1-6). When a judge sentences a white man to a few years for embezzling millions while sentencing a black man to decades for embezzling a couple hundred thousand, he may be adhering to the laws of the land, but he will fall under the judgment of God.

God’s provision for the poor applies not only to laws and courts, but to social services like welfare, housing assistance, financing education, but there is not time here to explore all of this. And while I do not see any indication in Scripture that the wealthy and those with means and influence need any special protection or provision from the government, I do see God commanding fairness even for them: Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit. (Exo 23:3 HCSB)

From here, I would like to address a handful of specific issues, exploring how I can use the Word of God to guide my support of the various political issues and debates, but in separate articles. In conclusion, I see the Bible being very clear about the role of government as well as those with power and influence, that it is to protect those without means and those who are suffering.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant