James used strong language—not angry, but strong. He said if people don’t control their words, “their devotion is worthless.” Some people then (and now) used angry, ugly criticisms of “the wicked” (however they defined that) to try to show everyone else how devoted they were to
God. It didn’t work, James said—speaking that way was disobedience to God, not devotion. True devotion, he said, shows when we care for and help the weak, not in reckless speech.

• Ordinary Christians suffered from the social and legal persecution they faced. But those things were even harder on orphans and widows, who had no family and no legal standing to protect them at all. Which, James asked, would help them more—a biting, angry tirade against the oppressors, or a tangible act of love and assistance? How can we apply the principle behind his words to the situations we face today?
• We live in a world where tweets, anonymous comment boards and a 24-hour news cycle seem, at times, to bombard us with contentious, belittling speech. James wrote that one aspect of devotion to God is “to keep the world from contaminating us.” How do you actively seek to keep our world’s barrage of negativity from contaminating you? What choices help you do that?