“Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
James 1:27
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
The fundamentals of religion are quite often made a mess of. The core of applied God-knowledge is mistaken for statements, for right premises, for right vocabulary. Correct understanding is often mistaken for correct relationship with Jesus. I propose that an individual can be hitched up with Jesus Christ and have never read Calvin’s Institutes. A person can be wholly yoked to the Holy Spirit and have I no articulated systematic theology. The Good News that Jesus saves is enough. Our salvation is based in His power to open our blinded eyes. Our Faith is practiced in the light of that reality (Jn. 9:25).
Pure, unadulterated, unpasteurized applied Faith moves people to action on behalf of other’s. We are able to intervene in the lives of others with empathy, for we once stood in their shoes. The Jesus-follower will feel completely unabashed – right in the center of God’s will – to provide for the needs of others. This could be as small as an in-home visit to check on a fellow Jesus-follower. It could be as large as the heights to which our imaginations and hearts can aspire under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God has big plans. Do not make the spiritually fatal mistake of underestimating His purposes.
“A second time He asked him, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’
‘Yes, Lord,’ He said to Him, ‘You know that I love You.’
‘Shepherd My sheep,’ He told him.”
John 21:16
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
The word shepherd is a compound word. It serves as a noun and title for a vocation of one who herds sheep. Looking after livestock is a consuming task. James tells us that looking after and tending to others is the most natural and crystal clear evidence to faith in Jesus Christ. Faith and good works are unable to be separated one from the other. One never exists without the other. Jesus-Followers actively tend the herd. Following Jesus awakens a practicable, demonstrable, intelligible pattern for living with and loving on others. Those outside of yourself are the objects of your nurturing ministry. God is glorified in our humble service to other people (Mt. 25:40).
There are those who would love to close the gate of the sheepfold – to limit the field of ministry. There are those who would like nothing more than to wash their hands of the strays, culls and wild goats. Praise God we do not have a Shepherd like that. He serves as doorkeeper and protector and He possesses sheep not yet pastured with the others, purchased by the blood of His Cross. He commissions us to bring them into the fold (Jn 10:16; Hb. 2:10). This is work. Let that shake you. God is a “yes, and” minister. Yes, He is big enough to tend many people. And, He is big enough to Shepherd the whole world.
“This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.”
Jeremiah 22:3
Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
Even in the Old Testament it was God’s consistent plan to lovingly tend to the needs of people. Because of Judah’s depths of rebellion, this comes across as a command to His chosen people through the mouth of Jeremiah. He commands them to do certain injustices. These commands should be the natural outflow of faith among Jesus-followers. We are empowered to hand out right verdicts for Truth and falsehood, to rescue from dangerous force, to show restraint in our leverage of power and force, to withhold deserved and undeserved punishment. True religion is simple enough for the humblest migrant and the most affluent nine-to-fiver. Both blue and white collars are included in the work of True Religion. We should need no command to do good. Faith naturally gives birth to good deeds.
People are the focus of Jesus’ blessing. God is glorified in this! We are no more firmly situated in the center of God’s will than when our Faith flows into direct service to God’s image-bearing people. He sets our sights particularly on the unwanted and outcast, the lonely and those in the twilight of life, victims of financial abuse, those who would otherwise seem strange and foreign to us culturally, and those who have no voice or advocate who have done nothing wrong. This is just a taste of Kingdom living. This is the bedrock – the True fundamentals – of Religion. We’ve only begun to taste and see that the Lord is good when we serve others as a way of life and as an expression of Faith!
“Remember, God is as Great as He is Good”
Noah R. Hunt
POIEMA: Created for Truth 