Simple and True
Dave Riddle - 7/11/2021
Key Passage: James 1:26-27
Religious = thrēskos: fearing or worshipping God; ceremonious in the worship of God.
only used once in the Bible
Our Lips
James 1:26
If we can’t control our words our religion is worthless, empty.
We’re the words you said and the things you typed this week full of the fruit of the Spirit?
James 3:7-8
No one can tame the tongue
A restless evil full of deadly poison.
James 1:27 - pure and undefiled religion
Religion = thrēskeia: religious worship, especially eternal
Used a few times
Pure = katharos: clean (literally or figuratively) clear, pure, free from the presence of anything that soils, adulterated, or corrupts.
Undefiled = amiantos: not defiled, pie, unsoiled. free from that by which the nature of a thing is deformed and debased
Our Hands
James 1:27
Look after the widows and orphans in their distress.
James 2:15-17
Faith without works is dead.
James 2:26
Faith produces change in us!
1 John 3:17-18
Not just a James thing.
Our Hearts
James 1:27
Keep yourself unstained by the world.
1 John 2:15
What has your heart? The things of God or the things of the world?
Romans 12:2
Transformed by the renewing of your mind.
The connection between mind and heart in the New Testament is powerful.
Luke 6:45
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart…
What you say and do flows from what is in your heart
What is God saying to you today?
What are you going to do about it?
“The world does not need a definition of religion, but a demonstration of religion.”
Martin Luther