True Religion

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
The Israelites appeared to have set up a model religious community. They loved the worship of the solemn assembly and delighted to sit under the reading and teaching of God’s laws. On the day of a fast they humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes. Yet the Lord was angry with them (Deut. 9:88Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you. (Deuteronomy 9:8))!
They failed to appreciate the wider implications of their spiritual instruction, looking after their own interests but disregarding the needs of others. Their display of enthusiasm for God was nothing more than hollow ritualism. The condemning evidence of their sinful neglect was apparent. The poor, the hungry, and the afflicted among them still remained oppressed and unassisted! True religion is more than a love for right doctrine and correct worship (James 1:2727Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)). Next to our faith in the Lord, first aid to our neighbor evidences spiritual reality.
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