Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?”

From here through the end of the chapter God is getting very specific about what true religion looks like. I get the impression James was very familiar with this chapter! Just before this the Lord has been talking about the rituals of formal religion, saying that they were largely meaningless. We tend to like religion as long as it doesn’t interfere with our lifestyle and make too many demands on how we relate to the people around us. God is here placing the focus precisely on how we relate to the people around us, saying that how we relate to them is how we relate to Him. This is what Jesus was talking about in His famous teaching on the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. In verses 40 and 45 of that chapter He expressly says that how we treat the weak among us is how we treat Him. We aren’t very good religionists if we mistreat our deity! The Bible is remarkably consistent in saying this, from Genesis to Revelation. When we reduce our religion to ideas and ceremonies, we’ve lost the whole thing. It’s not that rules and activities aren’t important, but rather that our hearts, and the souls of the people around us, are far more important. No father is going to like you if you mistreat his children, and our heavenly Father is certainly no different. When we turn a blind eye to suffering, God is hardly pleased. That said, there will always be suffering around us. Even Jesus said, “The poor are always with you.” (Matthew 26:11) Our first focus must always be on our Lord, and then on the people with whom He gives us contact. There is no way we can meet every need, so we need to seek the Lord for which needs He wants to meet through us.

This is something I have known for a long time, but I do need reminders of it occasionally. I am presented with needs of various sorts all the time, and the Internet has greatly expanded my awareness of such needs. I do support an organization that works with persecuted Christians, but I am also confronted with emotional and spiritual needs in the people right around me. I am to look to Jesus first of all, so that I may then see the people around me accurately. I am not to react to every need the same, but rather let the Lord give me wisdom as to what He wants me to do. Sometimes that will be my direct action, sometimes it will be in referring the individual to someone else, and sometimes it will simply be prayer. The point is not to retreat into “ivory tower” religion, but be willing to get involved and get dirty, so to speak. That said, referral is indeed sometimes God’s plan. The apostles in Jerusalem instituted the office of deacon for precisely that reason, recognizing the importance of physical needs but at the same time knowing they weren’t the ones to meet those needs directly. Recently I’ve been contacted repeatedly by someone with whom I had a lot of contact for a period several years ago. His needs are emotional and spiritual, and I am not to draw back from being a channel of God’s grace and love to him – even if I find him irritating at times! I am to love God by loving the people around me. That is true religion!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You are doing in and through me. May my religion be genuine in Your eyes, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!