Family Life: The Secularist versus God #2080

26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26–27, NKJV)

Leftist ideology is today’s religion for the secularist. Unbelievers who refuse to retain God in their knowledge have a belief system (Rom. 1:20-32). Humanism says, “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves” (Humanist Manifesto II, 1973). Christians must beware of their tactics and influence to dismantle God’s purposes for humanity. With no fear of God and antagonism toward His word of truth, secular humanists are busy reshaping society and souls. One way is by destroying God’s arrangement of the family (male and female marriage, father, mother, and children, Gen. 2:22-24; 1:28) while telling us they are pro-family. No, they are not. Case in point: First, the secularists advocate for abortion, an action that denies family life to innocent, unborn children. Second, they advocate against adopting children in desperate need of family structure and security by telling us these adoptions disrupt the child’s ethnic and cultural identity. Take away life (abortion) and deny family life (anti-adoption policies); these are the results of the humanist philosophy. God cares for the welfare of orphans (and widows), and Christians relieve them. God cares for a child’s life (unborn and born) and wellbeing, not skin color, ethnicity, and cultural background. Let us beware not to be stained by the world.

A Promised Helper #1531

25 These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:25–26, NKJV)

Jesus taught His apostles God’s commands. They were to obey them because they loved Jesus, as must we (John 14:15). By doing so, His abiding presence was assured, even as it is to us when we obey His word (John 14:19-24). Jesus promised He would not abandon the apostles as orphans but would come to them by the Spirit of truth (“another Helper”) whom the Father would give them (John 14:15-18). Jesus assured His apostles that what He taught them in person would continue with them through the work of the Helper (the Holy Spirit). The Spirit would reveal “all truth” to the apostles and give them an accurate recall of all Jesus taught them (John 16:12-13). We are reading and keeping Jesus’s word when we read and obey the apostles’ teaching (John 14:23). Jesus promised the apostles the Father would send them the Helper, which He did (Acts 1:4, 5, 8; 2:1-4). Jesus promised His apostles the Holy Spirit would empower them to know all Jesus taught them, which He did (Heb. 2:3; Gal. 1:11-12). When we read their writings we can understand what they knew of God’s plan to save us in His Son (Eph. 3:3-5). We love Jesus and have fellowship with Him by keeping what the apostles taught (John 13:20; 14:23-24).

Pure and Undefiled Religion #1388

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27, NKJV)

James does not make excuses for the religious person who will not bring his tongue and heart under the control of God’s word (James 1:22-26). With striking contrast, he now identifies the person who is clean and unstained before God. It is the person whose actions match his words and deeds. It is the person who attends to the needs of the homeless and widows. Moved by compassion, this person relieves their suffering as he is able, just like the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). This is not a church-coordinated action, arranged by committee and financed by a church treasury. It is the action of the person whose religion is “pure and undefiled.” This same person is careful to guard his moral purity by withholding himself (or herself) from the defilement of the world (1 John 2:15-16). This person knows he or she lives before the true God who sees every action and knows every thought and motive of the heart. Devote yourself to the pure and undefiled religion that is revealed in God’s perfect law of liberty. Be a doer of its work and you will be blessed (James 1:25).