Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. New Living Translation Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. English Standard Version Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Berean Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Berean Literal Bible Pure and undefiled religion before the God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation; to keep oneself unstained from the world. King James Bible Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. New King James Version Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. New American Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. NASB 1995 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. NASB 1977 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Legacy Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Amplified Bible Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world. Christian Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Holman Christian Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. American Standard Version Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Aramaic Bible in Plain English For pure and holy ministry before God The Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their affliction, and for a man to keep his soul without defilement from the world. Contemporary English Version Religion that pleases God the Father must be pure and spotless. You must help needy orphans and widows and not let this world make you evil. Douay-Rheims Bible Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world. English Revised Version Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. GOD'S WORD® Translation Pure, unstained religion, according to God our Father, is to take care of orphans and widows when they suffer and to remain uncorrupted by this world. Good News Translation What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world. International Standard Version A religion that is pure and stainless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Literal Standard Version religion pure and undefiled with the God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation—to keep himself unspotted from the world. Majority Standard Bible Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. New American Bible Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. NET Bible Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world. New Revised Standard Version Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. New Heart English Bible Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Webster's Bible Translation Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Weymouth New Testament The religious service which is pure and stainless in the sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own self unspotted from the world. World English Bible Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Young's Literal Translation religion pure and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation -- unspotted to keep himself from the world. Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context Hearing and Doing…26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. 27Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Cross References Deuteronomy 14:29 Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands. Job 31:16 If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow's eyes to fail, Job 31:17 if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless-- Psalm 146:9 The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates. Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them. Matthew 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come. Treasury of Scripture Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Pure. James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Psalm 119:1 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. To visit. Job 29:12,13 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him… Job 31:15-20 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? … Psalm 68:5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. to keep. James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. John 17:14,15 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world… Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Jump to Previous Accepts Affliction Children Evil Eyes Fatherless Fathers Faultless Free Holy One's Oneself Orphans Polluted Pure Religion Religious Service Sight Time Trouble Undefiled Unspotted Unstained Untouched Visit Widowed Widows Women WorldJump to Next Accepts Affliction Children Evil Eyes Fatherless Fathers Faultless Free Holy One's Oneself Orphans Polluted Pure Religion Religious Service Sight Time Trouble Undefiled Unspotted Unstained Untouched Visit Widowed Widows Women WorldJames 1 1. James greets the twelve tribes among the nations;2. exhorts to rejoice in trials and temptations; 5. to ask patience of God; 13. and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him, 19. but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter. 26. Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious. (27) Pure religion . . .--It will be observed that by religion here is meant religious service. No one word can express this obvious interpretation of the original, taken as it must be in completion of the verse before; and certainly "religion" in its ordinary sense will not convey the right idea. Real worship, we may say, pure and undefiled, beheld and acknowledged as such in the presence of God, even the Father--mark the tender pathos of His divine relationship--is this: To visit the fatherless (or, orphans) and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.--Here is the double proof of the perfect life of holiness, the savour whereof is as perpetual incense before the throne of God. And the help afforded to the helpless, put thus in the first place of the two requirements, will often bring about the second--namely, that spotless condition of unworldliness which marks, and will ever mark, the true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deeds of benevolence may be and are often done by those who are not His; but all who truly belong to Him must live a life which praises Him continually in good works; not, it is hardly needful to say, as a cause--but rather the natural and inevitable result of love for Him, warming the heart within. Scrupulous indeed were the "religious" contemporaries of James; they would not enter where the image of Divus Caesar had its votive flame, while they were ceremonially clean for the keeping of their passover--"they went not into the judgment hall lest they should be defiled" (John 18:28). But He whom there they cruelly sought to slay had told them before, though in vain, "that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man" (Mark 7:20), and "nothing from without can defile him" (James 1:15). What an eternal caution may be learned here against cold reliance upon ritual! What an instance, ever, under all varieties and forms, to be applied to themselves by the erring; persecuting, and deceitful sons of men! while, on the other hand, from these words of the wise Apostle we may be sure what is truest, nay, the only true service, acceptable and accepted, of the Most High--"To visit the fatherless and the widow," beholding in them a new image of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, is to show pity verily to Him; and at the last such "pure religion" will receive His own approval. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). Blessed be the ears attuned to catch the golden cadence, for it rings in angel voices round the soothers of the sick and sorrow-laden even now! . . . Verse 27. - God and the Father; rather, our God and Father. The article (τῷ) binds together Θεῷ and Πατρί, so that they should not be separated, as in the A.V. To visit the fatherless... and to keep himself unspotted. Observe that our duty towards our fellow-men is placed first; then that towards ourselves. Ἐπισκέπτεσθαι is the regular word for visiting the sick; cf. Ecclus. 7:35, "Be not slow to visit the sick (μὴ ὄκει ἐπισκέτεσπθαι ἀῥῤωστον)." The fatherless and widows (ὀρφανοὺς καὶ χήρας). These stand here (as so often in the Old Testament) as types of persons in distress; the "personae miserabiles" of the Canon Law (see e.g. Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 68:5; Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 1:17; and cf. Ecclus. 4:10). "Be as a father unto the fatherless, and instead of an husband unto their mother; so shalt thou be as the son of the Most High, and he shall love thee more than thy mother doth." To keep himself unspotted. Man's duty towards himself. (For ἄσπιλον, cf. 1 Timothy 6:14; 1 Peter 1:19; 2 Peter 3:14.) From the world. This clause may be connected either with τηρεῖν or with ἄσπιλον, as in the phrase, καθαρὸς ἀπὸ in Acts 20:26. |
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