“If any of you considers himself religious, and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself, and his religion is worthless. Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is: to care for the needy…to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27.
I love the KJV of ‘keeping a tight reign on his tongue.’ It says ‘to bridle his tongue’ giving us the image of a horse that needs to be controlled and guided by this apparatus. At first glance I felt James was talking about controlling our tendency to gossip, using our tongues as a whipping board towards others, repeating dirty jokes or using offensive language that grieves the Holy Spirit. But, in my spirit I realized that another way that deems our religion worthless by our tongues is by calling attention to ourselves and our works.
In Matthew, Jesus speaks of the value of bridled words when helping the needy, who is anyone in any type of distress. “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in Heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do…But when you give…do not let the left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:2-4. Basically, Jesus is saying that once it is stated it is negated!
God deems our religion pure and faultless when we care for the needs of others without the witness of man. Only through the bridling of the Holy Spirit can we be protected against the pollution of pride, power and status.
The only thing our trumpets should announce is the presence and power of the King…who was, and who is and who will always be!
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