James 1:22-27 The test of true religion is obedience

Do what God’s word says. Don’t merely listen to it, or you will fool yourselves. If someone listens to God’s word but doesn’t do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. However, the person who continues to study God’s perfect laws that make people free and who remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don’t merely listen and forget; they actually do what God’s laws say. If a person thinks that he is religious but can’t control his tongue, he is fooling himself. That person’s religion is worthless. Pure, unstained religion, according to God our Father, is to take care of orphans and widows when they suffer and to remain uncorrupted by this world. In our last lesson we learned that God does not tempt anyone and that temptation comes from Satan and attacks our flesh but cannot tough our inner-man which has been regenerated and is not subject to the sin nature of the flesh. However God does test the saint. The reason is to find out how much you love him and will to demonstrate it through obedience. Just as Abraham was tested by God when he commanded him to slay his son, Abraham passed the testing when he showed that he would. There is a difference between testing and enticing or creating a snare, the former is godly and the latter is evil.