In this verse, James says that the real outward manifestation of a genuine Christian lies not in the liturgical routine, but in the practical life. True religion or worship will best express itself by action.

Mere external ritualism: There is such a thing as dead orthodoxy. Some are just members of a “church.” Does our religion stay behind in the pew along with the hymn books, or is Christ in us, a living force affecting every step of the way through our life? It is also possible for true Christians to become mechanical in listening or praying.

An even balance: The fellowship and worship of Christians as a body is important. We need the saints gathering together no matter how small that gathering may be. Someone once said: “No need for me to fellowship or attend services, as long as I live the Christian life.” We need fellowship, worship, as well as practical living. True fellowship and worship gives power to live for Christ.

Doctrinal and practical: We also need an even balance between doctrine and practice. We need to be sound not only in doctrine, but also in ethics. It is easy to emphasize the one, while neglecting the other. Sound doctrine is of course essential, and we should emphasize the fundamentals of God’s Word, but it is equally essential to emphasize the practical fruit of faith. In Scripture, the two are often together. James is very practical, but he also strongly emphasizes faith. Paul is strongly doctrinal, but he also emphasizes the practical. Obviously, we need to believe right in order to live right. We need to contend for the faith, but also, for the fruit of faith, and James is especially concerned about the fruit of faith.

“Pure religion and undefiled...” One of the principal proofs of the reality of Christianity is the purity of its adherents. When something is pure, it is unmixed with foreign substance. A pure Christian is one who is free from pride, malice, hypocrisy, etc. “Pure” is the positive, while “undefiled” is the negative of Christianity. “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8). “Blessed are the undefiled in the way” (Psalm 119:1). “To visit the fatherless and the widows” is the positive side, while “to keep himself unspotted from the world” is the negative side of Christianity.

“...before God and the Father...” A person with simply a form of religion might appear good before the eyes of men, but James tells us what form of religion is pure and undefiled before the eyes of God. What we are in the sight of men is certainly not as important as God’s approval, and that is what we should seek. Let us never forget that we are constantly under His eyes, and He wants to see more than just pious ceremony. He desires to see charity and purity. Can He see something of His Son in us?

“...to visit...” Visitation (to care for) is a work which almost any Christian can do. Our verse especially emphasizes the fatherless and widows, but the sick, the sorrowing, and those troubled in other ways also need caring for and visiting. There are many advantages to caring for and visiting. For instance, even Christians need strengthening and encouraging. Often, the best place to help the lost is in their homes. One can discover personal difficulties and cope with them there better than preaching a sermon. Those who have done a lot of preaching, as well as a lot of visitation; who have seen several obey the Gospel, often say: “In proportion to time and energy spent, visitation or caring for others is the most effective.”

Examples of visitation: The story is told of doctors who could do no more for a sick woman, so they sent her home to await death. A young Christian neighbor saw them wheel her into the house and he wondered, “Is Kathy saved?” He felt compelled to visit or care for her. Before Kathy died, she was happily born again. Later, this same young Christian witnessed a close friend struck down by cancer. Again he wondered, “Is he saved?” The same kind of visitation followed, and soon his friend was born again. After this, the young brother spent a life time visiting and caring for others and converted many.

“...visit the fatherless and the widows ...” To visit the fatherless and widows means more than just to drop by for a cheery visit. One translation puts it, “Pure religion and undefiled is to look after the orphans and the widows,” and another “to give aid to orphans and widows.” We should visit them, help them, and if necessary and possible, feed them, clothe them, and pay their rent. The Lord Jesus visited us, but it was much more than a social call. He was constantly ministering to the needs of all He met, and finally died on the cross to redeem His people from their sins. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68).

“...fatherless and the widows ...” The lot of the fatherless and the widows was often very bitter in Bible times. There were no orphanages or compensations for the widow. The impact of Christianity has in a measure brought them relief, although their lot is still very bad in many parts of the world. The Lord is especially solicitous toward them. “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation” (Psalm 68:5; also Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 1:17). The fatherless and widows may be regarded as symbolic of all that are in distress of any kind.

Great blessing: Some always pray for a second blessing or a greater blessing. They may even shut themselves up for days praying and fasting for a greater feeling of some kind. The greater blessing lies in doing the will of God rather than in praying for it. Dr. Wm Harrison once said in a sermon: “Who among you would like to be in heaven for a little time? Not far from here is a poor widow who cannot pay her rent. They have put her out of her home, and her furniture is out on the street. Go to her, pay her rent, and help her back into her home.” Not long after, a member of the congregation came to him and said, “I’ve been in heaven, I found that poor widow, and helped her back into her home.” Our Lord Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Ye have done it unto Me: That the Lord Jesus truly appreciates this helpful visitation is evident from Matthew 25:34-46. He says in verse 36, “I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison and ye came unto me.” Then in verse 40 he explains, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The principle holds, generally, that He considers what is done to His own as having been done to Himself.

Our compassionate Lord: Our Lord always sought out the poor and needy while on this earth. He was constantly doing good to the needy. Jesus healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, caused the lame to walk, fed the poor, and raised the dead. We have a great example of His compassion in connection with the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16). She had lost her only son, and the funeral procession was leaving the city when He met her. When He saw her, He had compassion on her saying, “Weep not.” Then He said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” Her mourning was changed into gladness. Our public worship is empty indeed if we make no hearts gladder; no homes happier. We do not have the power to do the miraculous things our Lord did while He was here, but we can do some little things to lighten the load. The only proof the world has that we are genuine Christians is when they see us trying hard to be like Christ.

?“...to keep himself unspotted from the world.” “To keep himself unspotted from the world” is an added mark of “pure religion.” An unbridled tongue is a mark of a vain religion (v. 26), but a bridled tongue is not necessarily a mark of pure religion. Our verse says, “to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world,” is such a mark. In other words, works of love and purity are marks of genuine Christianity. It will be noticed that true Christianity presents duties to others equally with duties toward self. It is first, visit the needy, then, keep yourself pure.

“...keep himself...” Some may say, “God keeps me; if He did not, I would soon be lost.” That is absolutely true regarding our salvation. The Apostle Paul said, “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). He also keeps us day by day. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling” (Jude 24). And in Jude 1, we have, “preserved in Jesus Christ.” We desperately need that keeping power, but nevertheless, there is a personal responsibility to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Paul’s advice to Timothy was, “Keep thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). We are also told, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). God has provided a clean footpath for us to walk on, but the muddy ditch of the world is not far removed, and we must do what we can to keep from falling into it. We are washed, but with His help, we must keep ourselves from fresh calls it “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). We are not to be conformed to it (Romans 12:2), nor to love it (1 John 2:15). We are not to be like the monks who shut themselves up from all contact with it, but we are to keep ourselves unspotted while walking through it. Our Lord: mingled with men, walked with them, talked to them, touched them and ate with them, but, through it all, He was absolutely unspotted. We need to keep ourselves clean while walking through a dirty world.

“...unspotted...” We need to be constantly on our guard, or the contaminations of the world will engulf us. The worldly wise are constantly seeking to give us counsel. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly” (Psalm 1:1). They want us to follow their pursuits, their pleasures, their ambitions. Some worldly things may be innocent enough in themselves, but if a Christian is occupied with them too much, he will be stunted spiritually.

Separation from sin and the world: One of the principal parts of the Christian life is to be free from the thralldom of sin. The Word does not say we will be sinless, but it does say that sin shall not have dominion over us (Romans 6:14). In the very beginning “God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4), and we have been called “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Corinthians 6:17). This separation from sin and the world is a major teaching of God’s Holy Word – the Bible.

Cleanliness and service: Filthy garments will unfit us for service. The Lord will not and cannot use an unclean vessel. Nor will the world listen to the testimony of one who is unclean. Even Christians will not listen to such a one. A non-believer was heard to say, “It is hard for me to listen to his words, knowing what I know about him.” “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isaiah 52:11).

Two deadly enemies
Christianity has two deadly enemies: Modern theology – an attack against the faith (This we need to battle strenuously) and Modern immorality – an enemy that attacks the fruit of faith. It is good to contend for truth against error, but it is equally essential to battle the terrible enemy, sin. Obviously, immorality has gained a foothold, while most Christians have engaged and battled the other enemy. We apparently let our guard down and forgot the old saying: “While battling loose believing, let us beware lest loose living sweep over us.” Believers need to be shinning lights and return to the high standards of living found in the New Testament.
Teach morals: The world is bemoaning its own wickedness. Newspapers are full of the horrors of crime, drugs, and how to combat it. Judges are giving lectures on juvenile delinquency. Some are even passing laws to punish parents who have law-breaking children. Yet, too often the Body of Christ fails to teach its own the right way to live. With some, it does not matter much what you do, just so you believe right.

Moral soundness: Once again, the moral is of more importance than the outward form of religion. A holy life is the most beautiful of the hymns. The world teaches that your religion is what you believe; James points out that it is how you behave. Yes, we do need sound doctrine, but we also need soundness in love and life. In other words, it is good to be saved and know it; but it is better to be saved and show it.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

Essay I

“...visit the fatherless and the widows...” To visit the fatherless and the widows means more than just stopping in for a cheery visit. One translation puts it, “Pure religion and undefiled is to look after the orphans and the widows,” and another “to give aid to orphans and widows.” We should visit them, help them, and if necessary and possible, feed them, clothe them, and pay their rent. But it’s actually far more than that. The Lord Jesus visited us, but it was much more than a social call. He was hands on – constantly ministering to the needs of all He met, and finally died on the cross to redeem His people from their sins. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people” (Luke 1:68).

As with other verses, we need to carefully understand the point at hand. James is not restricting “right religion” to only literal care for literal widows and orphans. At the time James wrote, these represented society’s most helpless members. In that culture, widows were women who had lost their husbands prior to bearing children. This left them destitute. Children without parents, and women without husbands, were among that culture’s most needy. According to this verse, “pure” religion is defined as caring for those who are in need, and avoiding the sins of the world.

Widows are women whose husbands have died, and orphans are children whose parents, for whatever reason, are not in the child’s life. In biblical times, the main cause of a child being orphaned is that the orphan’s parents had died. The Bible reveals God’s attitude toward orphans and widows: He cares very deeply for them. God commands us to protect and care for orphans and widows “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3).

Some think that by just sending some money, we are thereby “visiting the fatherless and widows.” But where do you suppose the idea originated that giving to and visitingmean the same thing – certainly not from any inherent meaning of the word. Someplace “way back down the line” somebody merely assumed this to be the case and many of us have based our faith on this assumption ever since. But what does the word “visit” actually mean in James 1:27?

“The Greek word, here translated ‘visit,’ is episkeptomai, and is closely akin to the noun, episkopos, which is rendered ‘overseer’ in Acts 20:28” (Dr. James E. Priest). “The word is defined: to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes to look upon in order to help or benefit” (Thayer). Vine, another Greek scholar, defines it: “primarily, to inspect (a late form of episkopeo, to look upon, care for, exercise oversight), signifies to visit with help to visit the sick and afflicted.” This is the same word that is found in Matthew 25:36, “I was sick, and ye visited me...” Did this mean they merely gave some money? Read the context and see that personal contact is the thing under consideration. “Jesus Himself uses the word ‘visit’ in this text. When one considers the context of Matthew 25 and its detailed discussion of loving the unlovely as the sign of saved people and each of the examples (hungry, naked, sick, in prison, etc.) it made me think that Jesus could have said, ‘I was an orphan and you cared for me...’ In our analysis it further supports understanding ‘visit’ and when we ‘visit’ the least we are visiting Him” (James Snow).

From these facts we see that merely helping financially, although this might be needed, does not fulfill the demands of the word “visit.” Personal interest, care, and supervision must be present to obey James 1:27. As a matter of fact, “James strikes a downright blow here at ministry by proxy, or by mere gifts of money. Pure and undefiled religion demands personal contact with the world’s sorrow: To visit the afflicted, and to visit them in their affliction” (M. R. Vincent, Word Studies, Vol. I, p. 736).

A second fairly popular view concerning James 1:27 is that it is limited in application to destitute “fatherless and widows.” This view has arisen from the assumption that the word “affliction” in this Scripture has the exclusive meaning of “physical need.” But there is a broader application in both the English and Greek word.

Vine tells us “The Greek word is thlipsis which primarily means a pressing, pressure, anything which burdens the spirit.” Paul’s use of it in 2 Corinthians 1:4 (there translated “tribulation” and “trouble”) demonstrates that the meaning of the word is not limited to physical affliction alone.

In our present economic set-up many fatherless and widows are without physical need because of insurance, Social Security and other plans. But there certainly is an affliction that is common to all fatherless and widows whether they be rich or poor. And that is the affliction of heartache and sorrow arising from the loss of father and husband. Long after their physical needs have been met, this affliction of the spirit will remain. If they need money, food, clothes, rent, etc., we should supply it to the extent of our ability. But more often they will need friends more than funds, people more than presents. It is here that all children of God may practice “pure and undefiled religion” by truly visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction.

Therefore, let us never think we can discharge the responsibility placed upon us by James merely by writing a check.

Essay II

Introduction
James 1:27 defines what religion God accepts as pure and defiled, and is regularly interpreted as being composed of two distinct actions: caring for the needy, and keeping oneself unstained from the world. However, looking at the evidence, a more accurate interpretation is that the religion that God accepts as pure and undefiled is a single action and its effectuation: caring for orphans and widows effects keeping unstained from the world.

Orphans and widows
James tethers orphans and widows together for a specific purpose. “In the text of the  Hebrew Scriptures, almost every instance of the term “orphan” [yatom] or “fatherless” is paired  with that of the widow [almonah]” (Dr. James E. Priest). Most commentators simply take this phrase and make it a generalization of the poor and the needy, which orphans and widows epitomize in the culture. However, the text is not so specific and these burdens may involve physical requirements such as food or clothing, or they may be identified as emotional or spiritual needs.

We know that James is well versed in the Hebrew Bible. If we look deeper into the shared distress of orphans and widows with the Hebrew Bible in mind, we find something much more profound than poverty and being marginalized. Going all the way back to creation, we see that God created humans to be in relationship to Him and to one another. He instituted the husband-wife relationship and the parent-child relationship. To a wife, the most important human relationship that she has is with her husband. The most important human relationship for a child is the one with his parent. However, when sin entered the world, death also entered. Sin broke the human relationship with God and death has left orphans and widows with the lost human relationship that is so important. Although orphans and widows may share the distress of poverty, shared distress of broken relationship caused by death is much worse.

Resolving the distress
The word that is often translated as “to care for” literally means “to visit.” The beauty of the word is inevitably lost in translation. “In the LXX (Septuagint or Greek Old Testament), the verb episkeptesthai becomes virtually a technical term for the ‘visiting’ of God to rescue or save the people” (Dr. James E. Priest).

By “visiting,” God resolves the distress of the people. In addition, it is only by visiting that one could ever begin to resolve the distress that is caused by a broken relationship. In the LXX, God visits humans, but James here makes it a covenantal obligation of humans toward each other. James is not the first to do so and makes a reference to the LXX, “Be a father to orphans, and be like a husband to their mother; you will then be like a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than does your mother” (Ecclesiasticus 4:10-11, NRSV)

The effect of visiting orphans and widows
Keeping unstained by the world is a specific concern for purity. This concern for purity has a direct bearing on the first part of the definition. It is important for Christians not to get caught up in the quest for status and wealth.

This is the first aspect of how visiting orphans and widows in their distress changes us. When we experience the distress of the orphan and the widow, we are faced with the realization of what the most important blessings are that God has given us: relationships. In this light, we are freed to realize the greatness of God’s blessing versus the foolishness of the world’s blessings. James provides an excellent example of how we seek the world’s blessings in 4:1-6 and attempt to be the friend of the world. There, he espouses humility. In what other way can we be humbled greater than in the midst of the distress of orphans and widows? We are left inwardly changed, unstained.

Conclusion
The thrust of James’s advice is moral rather than sociological. Christians must find a way to live in the world without adopting its value system. That is the mark of the Christian character, which James has been describing throughout the first chapter. In fact, it is the driving point in the entire letter; the holiness that God desires is effectuated by the works of our faith. It is by these works that we are left unstained by the world. The work of “visiting” orphans and widows in their distress is the purest because it addresses the direst distress and it is undefiled because the earthly reward is being unstained from the world.