Mark Twain once said: “It is not the parts of the Bible I fail to understand that trouble me most. It is the parts that I do understand.” Most of us can relate to this. This is especially true with the little book of James. James just says what he means, and does so in rather simple but direct language.

For starters, he tells us that “religion has to be pure and undefiled before God.” He then tells of what qualities this requires.

First, we must be receptive so that the word may take root in us. He says we must not have “selective” hearing of God’s word, just hearing what we want to hear. Using a word that can be translated as “earwax,” he says get rid of it!

Next, James says, “Act on this word. If all you do is listen, you are deceiving yourselves. If we don’t serve others, we will become irrelevant.”

Someone has observed that when the Communists took over Russia in 1917, they did not make Christianity illegal. Their constitution, in fact, guaranteed the freedom of religion. But what they did do was to make it illegal for the church to do any “good works.” No longer could the church fulfill its historic role in feeding the hungry, educating the children, housing the orphan or caring for the sick.

After many years of this, the church in Russia became largely irrelevant to the communities in which it dwelt. The church could no longer fulfill its mission. It became severely handicapped.

This could happen to us if we do put our faith into practice

God bless.