Trailblazin Ministries

Worthless Religion - James 1:26

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, 24 July 2007

Now that we're stepping away from the mirror analogy in terms of being a doer versus a hearer of the Word, today we will start to see the what this looks like in a real world setting, especially inside the four walls of the church. This is not to say that the previous passage was not applicable to everyday life, but it spoke more to an internalized longing and yearning for the Word of God; in contrast, today's passage focuses more squarely on parts of our lives that are made visible to the public. So, if our hearts and minds are right with the Lord, let's dive into this study.

James 1:26 (NASB95) - 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

Overall, this is a rather short verse, but it sure does pack a wallop of a punch once you begin to dissect all that it has to say. As always, let's take a look at this verse at face value and see what it has to say before we begin to dig deeper. Examining this verse, we can very easily see that James is speaking about people who are religious and go to church, and that if they can't control their tongue, then what they believe or practice is worthless and futile. Simple enough, right? Indeed it is, but there's always more under the surface.

Let's start going a little deeper by looking at two words in the Greek: religious and religion. The word translated as "religious" is the Greek word threskos (Strong's #G2357) and "religion" comes from the word threskeia (Strong's #G2356). The first word deals with more of the externals of religious service (i.e. going to church, performing rituals, and the like) and the second is like it as well, dealing with the external ceremonies of religious worship. When we look at these two words combined together, we get a picture of a person who is very astute in religion; in our day, this would be the kind of person that goes to church every Sunday, performs good deeds in the community, does all the religious ceremonies, is solid in theology, and so on; in other words, this is the perfect Christian (at least in practice).

On the outside, this is the Christian that has everything together and seems to be doing everything right, but there is something missing, which we see pointed out in this verse. If this person is able to do all of these things, but is not able to control his tongue, then he is deceiving himself. How is this so? This is true because one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, and one of those areas that is more telling than any other about our level of self-control is the tongue. Sure, you may have all of the outward signs of being religious, but if you're speaking with filthy language, gossiping, tearing down others, telling dirty jokes, and so on, then you don't have the Spirit inside of you. It doesn't matter how religious we think we might be on the outside, if cannot control our tongue, then we deceive ourselves and make ourselves out to be liars. As I just stated, the Spirit gives us self-control in all areas of our life, but if we habitually choose not to control our tongue, then how can we say that Christ is in us? This is what James means when he says that this person's religion is worthless.

In all, the tongue is the telling tale of who we are on the inside. We can know Christianity inside and out, and do all the right things, but if we don't have self-control, especially with our tongue, then we really don't have what we profess. It is the objective of the Holy Spirit to give us temperance and control, and that is in all areas of our life. If we choose to abide in Him and the Word, keeping it near to us, then He is able to empower us to keep away from sin, and that includes foul speech from our mouths. Today, take some time to think about what comes out of your mouth. Is it wholesome speech or it is stuff you wouldn't want your parents or pastor to hear? If it's the latter, then check yourself, seek the Lord, and ask Him to help you control your tongue and speech things that would be edifying and pleasing to His ears. Take to heart the words of today's passage, as well as Matthew 12:36, knowing that God is both watching and listening.