Dubious Dichotomy
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 (emphasis mine)
“The ‘pure religion’ of the ‘perfect Christian’ (v. 4) combines purity of heart with purity of action.” -Doug Moo (emphasis mine)
We do well to separate matters that God separates in the Bible. Light and darkness come to mind. God’s work and Satan’s. Evil and good. Truth and lies. We could go on but, I think you have the flavor of it. The danger is when our culture divides things that God does not separate. Dividing things that are meant to be held together creates a ‘dubious dichotomy’ which will only mean pain and trouble for the follower of Jesus. One such division made often in the current culture of Western, and maybe especially American, Christianity is the ‘right believing’ Christians and the ‘right acting’ Christians. I am thinking here of the sort of thing we see in terms of some denominations or churches who run Bible studies multiple times a week but are making no attempt to help the ‘least of these’ over and against churches or denominations who’ve made it their whole aim to ‘do unto others’ all the while walking away from key doctrines of the Bible. The temptation is of course to make a ‘straw man’ of the camp to which you do not belong, draw up some battle lines and go to work lobbing weakness, compromises and easy to see differences at one another. As people confuse their politics for religion (note carefully my preposition) this turns uglier and more vitriolic by the day. And of course, there is enough truth in these dubious dichotomies to give them fuel and credence. I am not here trying to enflame anyone nor excuse one “side” or the other. What I am hoping to make plain is this: we ought not divide these two clearly linked matters for God does not. James 1:27 is just one of many places where God provides ample proof in both the Old and New Testaments that He does not want us to split these two matters and choose a side. He wants BOTH of these, right believing (orthodoxy) and right acting (orthopraxy) for genuine Jesus followers. And what God puts together we at our own peril split apart. Rather than choosing a side here, let me urge you to refuse to divide these matters, mentally or practically. Do the right thing AND believe the right thing. Don’t be all for caring for the poor while neglecting personal holiness. Even so, don’t be all for personal holiness while refusing to care for the poor until they come to adhere to our creed. Now, I realize that some of this ‘dubious dichotomy’ lies only in posturing and can be overblown by those with an agenda. My point still holds. Refuse to divide these two truths. To neglect either is to your peril and to the church’s detriment. We, the people of God, the legit followers of Jesus, must avoid the world’s pollution AND demonstrate loving care for the least among us. Such a life authenticates our faith in a world full of counterfeits.
“Doing good, even in the name of Jesus, will bring few to Christ when others see no inward transformation in those reaching out to them. Conversely, the most pious, moral believers who refuse to help the needy of the world will find their attempts to convince others of Jesus’ love often falling on deaf ears….Neither orthodoxy nor orthopraxy may be subordinated in favor of the other.” – Bloomberg and Kamell