Pure & Faultless

I love how this book starts out...James , "A servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ"...James was a half brother to Jesus and  like Jude he did not become a believer until after the ressurection. I love how they both refer to themselves as servants whereas they could of said they were half brothers of the Lord.

What a grand chapter this is, many things stand out...I noticed the word pure is used twice...first to instruct us in verse 2 to consider it pure joy when faced with trials of different kinds. James says that the testing of faith develops perserverance. Think of it this way, just like exercise develops muscle and strength, so too does the testing of faith develop the muscles of your faith. The more your faith gets worked out, the stronger it becomes. When our physical bodies are in optimal shape we feel good, the same applies to the spiritual body. There is pure joy in perserverance. The point to be taken here is that the next time a trial comes your way face it as though it is an exercise that will build you up not tare you down...

The second place the word pure is used is in verse 27..."Religion that God our Father excepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted from the world." There is more to this than what appears literally obvious. Who are the orphans, who are the widows and who is the world? When I think of orphans and widows the word that comes to mind right away is loss. Something in their lives is missing. The orphan has no parent, the widow has no husband. When you look at this through spirit eyes you see those who do not know God as Father and those who do not know Christ as Husband, are missing out. Notice it says, "in their distress"... If one does not have God as Father and Christ as husband, they also lack the Holy Spirit who is the comfortor and most certainly without these, a life is not complete or content, there is distress. Who knows God as Father, Christ as Husband and carries the seal of the Holy Spirit, (the comfortor)? We do, so who should comfort those who have this missing? We should...This is pure and without fault...Who is the world? Any idea, philosophy, or religion that is in oppositon to this and exalts itself above Christ...

In the verses preceding verse 27 James discusses that we should not only listen to the word, but to also do what is it says...Faith in ACTion...Be obedient to the word...Remember Romans 1:5 says that obedience comes from faith... James says that, "The one who looks into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does." Real faith will give birth to obedience. See it this way, when you go to college and receive a degree for a specific line of work, at some point you have to apply what you have heard and learned, if you do not guess what, the blessing of a pay check will not come your way...You have to act on the knowledge you have received...If you apply for a job, get hired, and they train you, are you going to apply what you have been trained to do? Of course you are...you move forward and improve in your position because you have become obedient to the knowledge that you have obtained...the same principal applies in our faith...Faith should never become stagnant, your faith through obedience should keep compelling you to move forward...to ACT...ACT on what we are hearing and learning...

In conclusion; in being a servant of the Lord our faith will be tested that we may become strong. We will  be expected to apply that which is learned through the hearing of his word. We will be expected to touch the world with that which is pure and without fault being careful not to let the world infect us...Through us, that which was/is pure and without fault (Jesus) will continue to touch the untouchable...