Fear God, Save Babies (James 1.27)
The book of James is a practical book about meeting practical needs. It even provides a practical definition of true religion, found in James 1.27:
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.”
This concise definition makes it clear that helping those in desperate circumstances is a primary component of pure and undefiled religion. Orphans and widows are the examples given, but it’s pretty unlikely that these are the only two groups he has in mind. In the very next chapter, he warns against neglecting the poor; so we must surmise, then, that the application of James’ admonition goes beyond just widows and orphans alone. They are simply representative of those in severe distress. And lest we wrongly assume that James’ emphasis on practical deeds of love is out of step with the rest of Scripture, consider the prophet Jeremiah’s command in Jeremiah 22.3:
Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”
In the patriarchal society in which James and Jeremiah wrote, where there was no safety net of state-funded social services, the prospects for widows and orphans were bleak in the extreme. With their natural providers gone, orphans and widows would not likely survive apart from the active intervention of God’s people. As daunting and desperate as their circumstances were, children facing abortion are even worse off.
