²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27 ESV)

I believe, due to the presence of our sin nature, it to be very difficult to live life without being stained by the world. When you live in a place you tend to take on, to one degree or another, the stains of the place.

Some of these stains are not necessarily bad. Dialect, or a way of talking, local cultural habits that are unique to the area (like boots and hats in Texas). But so very many are truly sinful stains that also inhabit a culture in a given area.

Part of this also revolves around the other aspects of what God ask us to do in scripture. Things to keep our religion pure and undefiled, like caring for widows and orphans. But what do we really do today in these areas? Unless some one we already care for becomes a widow or an orphan we do not typically go out of our way to seek them out.

So, what today, can we do to remain pure and reduce the stain? Well, for one, we can show care and mercy to those around us. We can involve ourselves in others lives and seek to lend people a hand when needed. We can seek out those opportunities through our local church and community to lend our time and treasure to the needed programs found there.

To be honest, there is much we can do to focus our lives upon helping others and through this effort live a better faith life. We know that only through Christ can our stains be washed clean as snow, but we can strive to remain as unstained as possible.