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. James 1:27 (NIV)
It’s fascinating how often scripture couples moral purity and good works. James 1:27 is an excellent example. It talks about “pure religion” and keeping oneself “unstained by the world.” But there are other passages as well.
“Learn to do good,” God commands in Isaiah 1:17, “…Help the orphans. Stand up for the rights of widows.” Then He goes on and promises in that famous passage, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they can be as white as snow.” (New Century Version)
In Titus 2:14, Paul states that Jesus not only “gave himself for us in order to acquire a special people, zealous for good works,” but also that he might “redeem us from every lawless deed and purify us.” (New King James Version)
And in Romans 6:18, Paul reminds us, “You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.” (Today’s English Version)
Christians in New Testament times lived in a culture that was just as pagan and godless as ours. They faced the same kinds of temptations as we do, especially in the area of sexual sin. But they knew a secret to victory that modern believers sometimes forget: victory over sinful temptation comes when we focus our attention and efforts on doing good.
For example, many years ago “Helen”, a former prostitute, showed up at church wearing a hardened demeanor that masked a deep sense of guilt and desperation. I shared the gospel with her several times, but she couldn’t understand how God could possibly forgive a sinner like her.
Eventually I assigned Helen a team of men, and for the first time in her life, guys showed up at her door who wanted to serve her out of love instead of abuse her out of lust. Soon Helen’s whole countenance began to change. As these men lovingly served her month after month, Helen began to understand grace and came to faith in Christ.
Sometimes a believer can become obsessed with sin because he’s focusing on the very thing he is trying to avoid. The biblical principle, however, is that faith in Christ brings freedom to do good, giving us the opportunity to focus on the positive instead of the negative; what we can do instead of what we can’t do.
One of the reasons New Commandment focuses on men in this ministry is because Christian men are having such a difficult time with the constant sexual bombardment our culture is delivering. When we give believers something positive to do, the negative becomes easier to avoid.
Believers doing good works provides a context with which to view evil. Within the context of righteousness, sexual immorality, and indeed all evil, become repulsive. Once that happens, victory is ours.
This post first appeared in Doing Good Well, by Herb Reese, and in NewCommandment.org.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
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