The Bible says in James 1:19-27,
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
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.
27 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.
So pure religion is not just about a set of rules or regulations or "just not doing evil", it's about doing good also. Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37-40 says,
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Deut 6:5, 10:12 Mark 12:30 Luke 10:2738 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Lev 19:18 Matt 5:43 Matt 19:19 Mark 12:31 Rom 13:9 Gal 5:14 Jam 2:840 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Some people say that religion is about "dos" and "don'ts". Yet they fail to see that in their own lives, they do certain things and don't do others. The problem lies not in difference of pure religion but rather in that they don't see pure religion as the way they should live.
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