19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
James 5:19-20
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
A friend told me once about a family member named Frank. He often said, “My name is Frank, and that’s what I am.” This certainly sounds like James. If there is one thing we have learned about James in these studies, it is that he does not mince words. He sugarcoats nothing and gets right to the point. He is frank, direct, straightforward, and real. He is blunt, bold, and candid. His approach, while painful at times, is both natural and refreshing.
Consistent with his style throughout, these final two verses of James’ letter are succinct, incisively penetrating, and fraught with meaning.
James teaches that Christians are to be involved in the ministry of restoration, bringing back fellow believers who have wandered from the truth, presumably by wandering from the church. Christians are to go after those who have fallen into this error. They must work to turn these erring brothers and sisters back to the truth. Doing so, argues James, is tantamount to saving their soul from death and receiving God’s forgiveness.
There are some straightforward truths for the church here, real truths embedded in the text.
A Believer can Wander from the Truth
James supposes the real possibility that someone hearing or reading his letter may “wander from the truth.” This wandering is possibly a wandering into heresy, but more likely a wandering away from living the truth, falling into sins addressed throughout the letter—sins of being judgmental, sins of the tongue, or sins of worldliness.
It is possible for a believer to wander from the truth. We often sing of this possibility in a well-known hymn:
Prone to wander,
Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
We may ask how this is possible given the fact that Christians have a new nature, are born again, and have the Holy Spirit residing within.
Before we address this question, let us admit that many in the typical church congregation may not be saved. No one knows with absolute certainty who is saved and who is not. When we read the New Testament, it seems the writers never pretend to know that every person to whom they are writing is genuinely saved.
The New Testament writers write the same way we would if we were writing to our church. We would address the “brethren,” not knowing that every brother is a genuine brother. Sadly, there may be some among our gathering who will turn away from the church, turn away from spiritual truth, and walk down a path that leads to hell and destruction. That is simply the reality of the situation.
Recall Jesus’ warning: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew 7:21).”
We may address Jesus as “Lord,” or refer to Him as “Lord,” but that alone is no guarantee we are true believers.
Furthermore, we may perform good deeds and works among the community of faith and not be genuinely saved. Jesus adds:
Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness (Matthew 7:22-23)!”
A person can refer to Jesus as “Lord,” serve in the church, and perform good deeds among the Christian community, but not be a genuine brother or sister in Christ.
In the Apostle John’s first letter, he writes of those who left the faith:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us (1 John 2:19).
James addresses the “brethren” without assuming that every person is, in fact, a brother. This uncertainty notwithstanding, James’ truth applies to all: turning a sinner from the error of his way saves his soul from death and covers a multitude of sin.
Having addressed the possibility—if not likelihood—that not all James’ readers and hearers are genuinely saved, we are comforted knowing that true believers will remain true believers. Authentic Christians will persevere in their faith. They will struggle from time to time but will finally overcome.
Justification describes the very moment God declares us entirely forgiven of all sin. It happens all at once, at a specific moment in time. But while justification is a precise point in time, sanctification is an ongoing process. Sanctification takes a lifetime. So God changes us, but He does not change us all at once. Much of the change occurs gradually, often through the “various trials” mentioned earlier in James’ opening chapter.
Because of Christ, Christians are saved, redeemed, and justified forever. Yet, there is still what we often describe as the “sin that remains,” the daily struggle with temptation, the daily battle with the “old man” or “the flesh.” When we give in to the tug of the world and the flesh, we are at that moment “wandering from the truth.”
So it is possible for a Christian to wander from the truth. Interestingly, the original word for “wander” is a word from which we get the word “planet.” That’s helpful as the term conveys the idea of going off-course, wandering like a planet out of orbit.
This is why it is vitally essential for a Christian to endeavor to walk in righteousness every day, reading the Word, communing with God, praying to Him, spending time with God’s people, attending worship with other believers, and sharing the gospel with the lost. These actions are the “working out” of the salvation God has “worked within us (Philippians 2:12-13).”
As we endeavor to walk in righteousness, we have the assurance that God is growing us in our sanctification, making us more like Jesus, the One with whom we are assured to spend eternity. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, God “will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8; cf. Romans 8:30).”
Until that day, however, we battle sin and temptation.
So James’ words remind us that it is possible for a believer to wander from the truth. When we return to our study, we’ll examine James’ assumption that believers will “turn back” those who have wandered.
Until then, here’s a helpful link to consider what is involved in becoming a genuine follower of Jesus Christ.
**Excerpt from You’re Either Walking The Walk Or Just Running Your Mouth (Preaching Truth: 2020), pages 208-212, available in all formats here.
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