... Religion that is pure and undefiled ... is this ...” James 1:27
James, presumably steeped in the same moral and religious climate as Jesus, is consistent with and faithful to the Jesus whom he proclaims. He remains faithful also to the call to holiness and righteousness offered by Our Lord.
He does not direct his readers or hearers to the “the Law” which has been parsed and interpreted through all the generations since Moses first received it. Living at the heart of the earliest Christian community which was surely Jewish in its roots and practices in many ways, James fastens on the moral mandates which come from Christ, who himself stood in judgment of those, especially the Pharisees and the Scribes, who offered their observance of the Law as proof of their goodness. Rather than truly living the Law, it had become a tool to be wielded or a rock behind which to hide. In Christ, this could not be so!
Our hearts must not be far from the Lord, but must be one with him. That which begins in our hearts and is revealed in the works of our hands must be conformed to the heart and hands of our Savior. We seek not the protection or the outward validation of law but the freedom of grace 5 not to repeat words but to speak truth 5 not to search for a seat of honor but to welcome the humble and the less fortunate.
Then the Wisdom of God and the intelligence of the human mind and heart will be revealed, even as Moses commanded. This is so not because we have the ability to stand blameless before the Law, but because we stand and act in the powerful embrace of Our Lord and Savior. In him we are being comforted and conformed to the Mystery of his dying and rising, and ours. His love, his power, his sacrifice, his cross and his rising. And of these, we are called to more than know... we are called to share!