Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

There are two aspects to “pure and undefiled religion” and that’s what we want our religion to be, “pure and undefiled”. The first aspect is “visiting”. Visit the widows. Visit the orphans. Get up. Get out. Do something in the service of love to alleviate suffering in the lives of those around you. The second aspect of “pure and undefiled religion” is “keep yourself unstained from the world”. Be holy. Be sanctified. Renew your mind. Live a life of humility. Be above reproach. But, the problem many Christians seem to make, myself included, is that we are prone to pursue one aspect of “pure and undefiled religion” while neglecting the other. There are some who are resolute in their commitment to personal piety. They read the word, they pray, they study, but they never get out. They bounce from one Bible study to the next, from one fellowship group to another, but they stay far away from the ugly and messy needs of the downtrodden. There are others whose commitment to social intervention is unwavering. They hit the streets. They care for the homeless, they feed the hungry, they protest abortion, but they feed off their own egos and energy. Somewhere along the line they cease falling on their face in prayerful desperation before a holy God. Devotion to God is sacrificed for devotion to program.

It seems to me that most conservative, doctrinally sound, bible believing Christians are far more likely to error on the side of personal piety than on the side of social intervention. I was no exception. In fact, before I entered full-time, pro-life work three years ago, I tended to belittle any ministry that wasn’t strictly evangelistic as being beyond the Christian calling. In reality, we are given a horse to ride biblically. You can fall off the saddle on the side of personal piety and you can fall off the saddle on the side of social justice. What James tells us is, “Don’t fall off the saddle!” Visit widows and orphans and keep yourself unstained from the world.

Anyone who has heard John Piper’s January 1999 sermon on abortion will already recognize his influence in my presentation. I will further follow his progression in asking, “What do widows and orphans have to do with abortion?” Simply this, by moving from the lesser to the greater we can deduce that the unborn child, on the way to the abortion clinic, is worse off than the child who is an orphan. Whereas the orphan is bereft because his parents are dead, the unborn child, on his way to being aborted, is bereft because he has parents who want him dead. That’s worse. If God would have us care for orphans in their distress, wouldn’t he also have us care for the unborn in theirs?

The passage which compelled me more than any other that pro-life activism is a legitimate and even mandated part of the Christian life is Luke 10:25. In this portion of Luke’s gospel, Christ is asked, after revealing that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor, Christ is asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Christ answers with the story of the Good Samaritan. If you don’t know the story read it. If you do know the story read it again.

The moral is this. Neighborly love compels action. It is so easy for us to condemn the religious leaders of Christ’s day that we might miss the whole point. Yes, the priests and levites, by and large, were hypocrites, and so are we! Don’t imagine that the two men who passed by in this story were so cruel and hard of heart that didn’t feel any compassion for this beating victim. They probably felt as we do when confronted with something ugly. We feel distraught and awkward, and though we know we should do something, more often than not we simply look away. I’m sure in their mind, this priest and levite had perfectly legitimate reasons for not offering assistance, for not becoming “unclean”. It is not that they didn’t recognize the injustice, they are condemned because they didn’t do anything. We right them off, but what would we have done?

Two months ago my wife Carrie and I were running late for Sunday school. As we turned the corner a few blocks from church, I see out of the corner of my eye a guy sitting on the side walk with blood streaming down his face. My immediate reaction was to turn away, to pretend like I didn’t see it. Then I started rationalizing. Well he’s right next to the bus stop. There’re other people there. I’m sure help is on the way. I’m late for church. While all this is going through my head I suddenly remember the Good Samaritan. So I do a U-turn and go back. I approach the man, nobody has talked to him, and help is not on the way. He’s an older man, probably drunk, he’s crying uncontrollably, blood streaming down his face telling me he fell down. After helping him to a nearby parking lot we got him calmed down and called the ambulance. The question is, how many people drove by him, feeling bad, but not wanting to get involved? How close was I to doing the same thing? Rest assured, had I not the benefit of Luke 10, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

The point is this, it is not enough to just feel pity, we must also show pity. Up until three years ago, my response to abortion mirrored that of the levite. I recognized the injustice, I felt grief, but I was doing nothing to actually intervene. I justified myself by saying, well, abortion isn’t really my thing, other people are called to that work, I’m not responsible for other people’s choices. I can almost hear the levite saying the same thing. Sadly most Christians are exactly where I was. We say we hate abortion but we’re not lifting a finger to stop the killing, and what does that say to the watching world? “Oh sure, they say abortion is murder, but if they really believed that they would be doing something about it!” When we see a two year-old child stumble and fall into a swimming pool, we go in to save them. We don’t stand there and ponder whether or not we’re called to be a life guard. Neither should we use the concept of “calling” as a way to shirk our responsibility. Ephesians 5:11 tells us that it is not enough to merely avoid the deeds of darkness. Rather we are even to expose them.

There are so many things that we as Christians can invest our time and resources in. But do our spending dilemnas look more like this…

Let’s see, am I going to invest this money in the church, or in the rescue mission, or in Campus Crusade, or in missions, or in urban outreach, or in defense of the unborn?

…or like this?

Let’s see, am I going to invest this money in a new car, or in a nicer home, or in a bigger TV, or in a longer vacation, or in a more lavish retirement?

For many believers, it isn’t the giving to other ministries which hampers their ability to support pro-life work, it is rather their giving to self. There is a return on everything we spend. The question is, are we investing for the small and immediate earthly returns or for the returns which will mature for an eternity?