Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: …. In this the Dispensation of Grace, the nation Israel is “fallen” and “blinded.” Notice what the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote in Romans chapter 11: “ I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. James and Paul are not meant to teach the same thing! Rather than destroying one or the other-“this verse does not mean what it says,” “throw away the Book of James!,” et cetera-we need to understand those passages are to be “rightly divided” (2 Timothy 2:15).
This will not work, as Paul and James are writing to two separate peoples living under totally different circumstances. In a desperate attempt to reconcile its legalistic (Law-keeping) passages with Paul’s anti-legalistic passages, they change its doctrine and force it into our Dispensation of Grace, God’s current program. Why are those in James 1:27 “fatherless” and “widows?” What is their specific “affliction?” Are there unique circumstances in place, situations starkly different from the plight of today’s orphans and widows? What verses can help us interpret James 1:27? Let us search the Scriptures!įor many centuries, theologians, pastors, and church members have stumbled and fallen over the Book of James because they do not understand where it fits on the Bible timeline. Nevertheless, we should use God’s Word very carefully. Our thoughts and hearts go out to the world’s orphans and widows.
We are not here to criticize or diminish their work. James 1:27 says, “Pure 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.” “Christian” ministries and philanthropic organizations often use this verse as their motto, but do they know what it is really talking about? Hardly! Make no mistake, dear friends, we commend people who do their very best to help the needy (particularly orphans and widows). WHO ARE “THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS” OF JAMES 1:27?