James 1:26
If any man among you
seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart,
this man's religion is
vain.
There is a difference between our
salvation and our religion.
Salvation
is the securement of our soul into a heavenly position
It is the result of the reconciliation of
our sins with a holy God through faith in the sufficient work of Christ on the
Cross.
Religion is the resulting practice of our faith
It is the useful exercise of
our spiritual position for the sake of others.
James here makes it perfectly
clear that our religion can be vain:
- empty
- useless
- of no real good
His application here has to
do with the tongue.[1] When we
do not bridle our tongues and bring it into submission so that our speech is “alway with
grace, seasoned with salt” we do harm to some, we fail to encourage and help others and we
make the practice of our faith (though not our salvation) useless.
[1] I do not think it to be the only way we might make our religion vain,
but it is certainly a common way.
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