James 1:27

James 1:27 says:

"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."

The Lord is uncovering a new hidden meaning in this scripture. Widows and orphans do not have lovers or fathers. These two realities of a lover and a father are two of Gods biggest identities. As Christians we are the sons of God, yet we are also the bride of Christ who Jesus as a bridegroom will be returning for at the second coming.

Those who do not believe in Jesus are both widows and orphans. They do not know God as their loving father. That He is Abba Father. They are orphans. God longs for the hearts, He longs for them to be His sons and daughters. They also do not know Jesus as their Bridegroom. They do not know Him as their lover. He wants to marry His bride. This is not some weird thing. I have mentioned the Bride of Christ and the Bridegroom God in previous posts and I would encourage you to check it out for more insight. This is also a very biblical idea (Isa 61:10; Isa 62:5; Joe 2:16; Matt 9:15; Matt 25; Jhn 3:29; Rev 22:17).

But it goes deeper than this. I think that many believers in the Church today have missed this idea. Many of us are widows. We have not seen the greatest measures of love which are seen in the bridal paradigm. I encourage many of you to search this out. It is the foundation of Christianity. We must know Jesus as this bridegroom who is longing for us.

Us who do know our indentity in this man must begin to care for those who do not. That is what this verse tells us to do:

"... to look after orphans and widows in their distress"

Why are we not doing this? We must build each other up in this idea. He is our Father and our Bridegroom who is returning for us.

The verse goes on and says:

"... and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

None of us do this. We are so decieved by the spirit of this age. We are so caught up in the cares of everyday life. If you really were to calculate all your time, where would it be spent the most. Probably not where it needs to be. I have been thinking about the idea of devotions alot lately and I have come to the conclusion that I do not like them very much. I think that the little 2 minutes books are a great start, but we must move on from that. God must begin to consume us. Spending hours a day with the Lord should not be a task or a hard thing to do. This is not just for the very intense people, or the pastors and teachers, this is for everyone. Our only calling in this life that matters is to know God, to search out who this man is. Why are we not doing this.

I encourage you to really take this serious. Look at your schedule and see what needs to be moved, see what idols need to be taken out of the way to really spend time with your lover. We must keep ourself from being polluted by the world.