James
1:26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet
do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their
religion is worthless.
This
verse of scripture from the Book of James drives home a point that is sometimes
not easy to swallow for many. It causes all of us to take a close look at what
Christianity means to us. James is comparing and contrasting the difference
between truly having a personal relationship with Christ Jesus and a false act
of religion. This is a comparison between the true follower and believer in
Christ Jesus and someone that just goes to church because they think it is the
right thing to do. There are many reasons why people come to church, social
reasons, to touch base with their friends, because some other members of their
family go there, to catch up on the latest gossip and the list can go on and
on. This passage is the difference between the true believer and the one that
just goes to church when they have nothing else to do on Sunday Morning.
This
is a matter of the Heart, when there is no one watching what we do, is our
heart totally surrendered to Christ Jesus, do we have a personal relationship
with Jesus or are we just going through the motions? The Greek word that James uses here for
religion is “threskos,” which means the ritual, ceremonial practices of
religion, but does not point to faith in itself. This word means an external
observance which someone does in the view of the public to show their religion,
it has nothing to do with one’s heart surrendered to Christ or their standing
with God.
It
is very clear in the Word of God that one can be religious but not be known by
God or know God, one of the greatest examples of this was the Pharisees in the
days of Jesus. Our salvation has no connection with any good deeds we might
perform or any rules or rituals we might impersonate. Our salvation is
contingent on one thing and one thing alone, and that is our relationship with
Christ Jesus. James is saying that one that believes they are religiously based
solely on the fact that they go to church and follow certain ordinances but “do
not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion
is worthless.” To the person that follows this false path, their religion is
nothing but public performance and meant just for the praise and glory for the
person themselves. The ones that are doing this and believing that it means
something to God is allowing Satan to get them to fool themselves. Satan will
try to get folks to believe that their eternal life with God is dependent on
something that they can do, some religious act they perform here in this life.
The problem with this, is those that are caught in that trap of Satan are going
to spend eternity in the same place that Satan will spend eternity. Our
relationship with Christ Jesus is the only thing that will set our place in
eternity. Have we accepted Him as our Savior and Lord, truly surrendered our
hearts, minds, bodies, and souls to Him, and turned our backs on the ways of
the world, not depending on any works that we might do? If the answer to this
question is yes, then we are truly Children of God and our place with Christ
Jesus for eternity is set and secured.
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