If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
An example of doing work.
Verse 26. Religious ... religion, х threeskos (G2357) - threeskeia (G2356)] - express the external service of religion, 'godliness' being the internal soul. James, as president of the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:13-21), had decided against ritualism. So here he adds, Instead of Judaic ceremonialism, true service is:
(1) active,
(2) passive piety.
'If any think himself х dokei (G1380)] to be religious - i:e., observant of religious offices-let him know these consist not so much in outward observance as in acts of mercy and in practical piety (Micah 6:7-8), visiting the fatherless, etc., and keeping one's self unspotted from the world' (Matt. 32:23). James does not mean that these offices are the essentials or sum total of religion; but that, whereas the law service was merely ceremonial, the very services of the Gospel consist in mercy and holiness (Trench). The Greek is only found in Acts 26:5; Colossians 2:18.
Bridleth not his tongue. Discretion in speech is better than fluency (cf. James 3:2-3). Cf Psalms 39:1. God alone can give it. St James, in treating of the law, notices this sin. For they who are free from grosser sins, and even bear the show of sanctity, often exalt themselves by detracting others, under pretence of zeal, while their real motive is love of evil-speaking (Calvin).
Heart - it and the tense act and re-act on one another.
Verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled, х kathara (G2513)]. "Pure" is that love which has in it no foreign admixture-self-deceit and hypocrisy: х amiantos (G283)], "undefiled" is the means of its being "pure" (Tittmann). "Pure" expresses the positive, "undefiled" the negative side of religious service: as visiting the fatherless, etc., is the active, keeling himself unspotted from the world the passive side of religious duty. This is the nobler shape that our religious exercises take, instead of the ceremonial offices of the law.
Before God and the Father, х too (G3588) Theoo (G2316) kai (G2532) patri (G3962)] - 'before Him who is (our) God and Father.' If we would be like 'our Father,' it is not by fasting, etc., for He does none of these things, but in being 'merciful, as our Father is merciful' (Chrysostom).
Visit - in sympathy and kind office.
The fatherless - whose "Father" is God (Psalms 68:5): peculiarly helpless.
And - not in the Greek, so close is the connection between works of mercy to others, and the maintenance of personal unworldliness: no copula is needed. Religion in its rise interests us about ourselves; in its progress, about our fellow-creatures; in its highest stage, about the honour of God.
Keep himself - with jealous watchfulness, at the same time praying as depending on God as alone able to keep us (John 17:15; Jude 1:24).