James 1:26-27

v26: How do you know if your religion is worthless? James gives us some tests to examine ourselves by. First, there is “a pretending to appear religious in the eyes of others.” Second, when we are “all too ready to speak of the faults of others, to criticise them as making scandalous errors, or to depreciate the wisdom and godliness of those around [us], so that [we] may seem wiser and better... to look good.” Those whose religion is worthless, “deceive their own heart.”

v27: A “true religion teaches us to do everything as in the presence of God - to seek his favour, to seek to please him in all our actions.” If false and worthless religion is marked by impurity and a lack of love, then true religion will produce a holy life and a loving heart. Two areas where this will be seen is in “compassion and love for the poor and distressed,” and keeping “both our hearts and our lives clean from both the love of the world and the temptations of worldly evildoers.”