James 1:27
“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.”
“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.”
I attended Concordia University, Irvine for my undergrad. On my school tour, we started at the globe by the admissions building and the tour guide told us that Concordia is known as the “Great Commission University,” taking seriously the command in Matthew 28, saying, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The tour guide then proceeded to tell us how the school felt called to be involved in many local, country-wide, and global mission efforts. Halfway through my freshman year, I became a tour guide and this little segment of the tour, and all the rest of the tour, became very familiar to me as I would deliver those words during upwards of 6-8 tours per week. The more I would tell others the more critical I became of myself and every organization who wanted to spread the gospel and go out and evangelize.
I would read the Bible and see verses like James 1:27. These verses would tell me how God expects us to act. I would read verses about what religion should be and what type of religion is worthless (1:26). Pretty heavy stuff for someone who was trying to carry all that weight on his own. It began to weigh me down. All I was hearing was this law, forgetting about the resurrected Savior who was perfect so that my inability to be perfect wouldn’t define me.
The second part of the Great Commission states this, “and surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” What comfort that brings. We, as humans, want to know and control and succeed. Even if we are putting that energy towards Christian efforts, if our hope is not resting solely on the fact that God is with us and promises to lead us “to the very end of the age,” then
all we are doing is in vain. What a gift it is that we get to participate in God’s restoration of the world as Christians and help to spread the good news.
Keep that as your mindset, don’t get bogged down by the commands, but be uplifted by His promises to help you accomplish all the things He wants you to do. God loves you and He wants you to share that love with others. This week, think of ways that you can share God’s love with others. Send a letter, call a friend, call your grandma. Whatever it is, know that God commands us to be His hands and feet, but also promises to help us every step of the way.