Most of us know the story of the invalid at the pool of Bethesda in John chapter 5. He gets asked a simple question: do you want to be healed? His response however is not simple: vs 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Even though it's words on paper, you can almost hear the anguish in his voice. His immediate concern wasn't his healing, it's that he had no one to help him. An unusual miracle was happening on a regular basis and it seems like he had been a fixture at the pool, and everybody knew his condition, and that he could be healed, and yet no one helps him. Also he says that others would step down before he could get there, which seems to indicate that their ailments were considerably less serious than his. Why wouldn't anybody help him? Where was the compassion?

Human nature seems to dictate that all of our transactions have reciprocity, in other words we rarely do things unless we get something out of it. I'm not knocking that though because most transactions should have some sort of reciprocity. If a business owner gave everything away they wouldn't be in business for very long. However I think I understand why James said that true and undefiled religion was caring for the widow and the orphan: not only are you are helping somebody that can never pay you back, but what is generally a minor inconvenience to you, means the world to them.