Verses to Abide In
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
James 5:19-20 ESV
Digging Deeper
A New Thought Regarding the Unsaved
MacArthur
prefaces these last two passages - There is no connecting link with the previous section (James 5:13-18+); rather James is now turning to a new and final concluding thought. The concluding two verses describe a different group from the weary, weak, persecuted believers who need to be ministered to by the elders. To the ministry of restoring struggling believers James adds the ministry of reconciling the unsaved in the church.
A Continued Thought Regarding Fellow Christians
Walter Kaiser
…James is written in a typical Greek letter form. It was customary to end such a letter with a summary (Jas 5:7–11), an oath (Jas 5:12), a health wish (Jas 5:13–18) and a purpose statement (Jas 5:19–20). This verse, then, should be part of the statement of the purpose of the whole letter. That in itself is reason enough to assign it great importance.
The condition this verse (James 5:20) speaks to is described in James 5:19. A Christian (“one of you”) has erred. James gives us plenty of illustrations of this in the letter. The errors he addresses are those of partiality and greed, of anger and jealousy. All of them are found within the church. Such error calls for another Christian (“someone”) to point it out so that the person can repent and be restored (“bring him back”). That, of course, is what the entire letter is about, bringing the Christians he addresses back to proper Christian behavior. This is indeed the purpose statement of James. Therefore the sinner in this verse is a Christian who has fallen into sin.…
Reach Out
Rich Cathers
Reach out. Rescue the perishing. It might be that James is talking about reaching out to those who have never known the Lord. It might be that James is also talking about reaching out to those who used to walk with the Lord but have gone astray. Either way, the idea is the same. Reach out. When we turn people from their sins and help them turn to the Lord, they will find forgiveness and eternal life. God will hide their multitudes of sins under the blood of Jesus Christ.
An Illustration
Brian Bell
Have you ever rescued someone from drowning? Often victims will fight their rescuers in the hysteria of that terrifying moment…This often happens to those floundering spiritually also!
Who do you need to swim out & rescue? Don’t let them go. If they fight you, back off & wait for that right moment & get in there again. Get a life jacket around them. Get them to shore.
From the Heart
When I joined my Monday Night Ladies small group there was a link in these women of shared hearts in crying out to the Lord for loved ones—for many of them it was for one of their children—who wandered from the Lord, from the truth.
Their burdens became mine.
I cried out to God with them.
When I started to lead more in the group—mentored beautifully by the leader before me—I had it in my heart to somehow make our bond and commitment in prayer more official to one another.
That year for Christmas I made up a list with all of our names on it and we went around and shared who we wanted to pray for—the wanderers—saved or unsaved.
I then asked if they were willing to commit to pray for each other and the names we shared everyday.
Everyday.
I admit I felt a bit audacious asking.
But these women are prayer warriors.
They agreed.
In the years since we have broadened those we have on our list to those who know Jesus as Lord of their life and we pray for them to continue to grow. Most of us have our children and other family members on the list. We have all walks of life on the list—from at least one atheist to a couple missionaries.
From the beginning, I had it in my heart to really make this a serious commitment to follow through with. Some may say I can be intense (😁).
We called our list our Covenant List—because we made a covenant with one another to pray.
It doesn’t mean that there is no grace if we miss a day. It means that we take it seriously and we want to pray for one another and trust each other is doing the same.
I have to tell you, for me personally, I have grown in my prayer life because of this list and other lists I have added to it, because of this accountability, because of these women and others, because of how God has answered our prayers, because God is a consuming fire that grows in me and makes me want to bow down and pray and abide in his word more and more.
So we pray.
We wait.
We are watchful.
We are ready—by God’s grace and help—to take action with each step on the path of return as we are called to “bring back a sinner”.
Let's Pray
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD (Psalm 36:5-6 ESV).
You are the Lord; besides you there is no God. We bow our hearts and minds and allegiance before you (Isaiah 45:5, 23).
Is there anything in the way of my relationship with you? Any idol I have put in the place of you, including my own self or my pride? Any sin that I need to confess?
Please forgive me for…
Ah, Lord, may my heart not wander away from truth.
Can I detect when anyone among us starts to wander from the truth (James 5:19)? Would you give me that kind of wisdom and insight, Lord, so that I could help bring them back just as I would long for another to do the same for me?
Is there a wanderer you want me to pray for, to take action in bringing back?
We pray specifically for _______________ (name of anyone who has wandered from the truth).
We ask for your help to bring them back so they can grow and mature, to be like Jesus, so that they may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Ephesians 4:13-14 ESV).
Would you enable us—and surround them with others also—to speak truth in love to them (Ephesians 4:15 ESV)?
May we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you as we do so (Micah 6:8 ESV).
O God, we commit _______________ (name of a wanderer from truth) to you. We ask in the name of Jesus that they would do as the Psalmist called—to put their hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord is unfailing love,
And with him is full redemption (Psalm 130).
We pray that they would take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them (Ephesians 5:11).
We ask that these unfruitful works would be exposed by the light so that they would become visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
So we cry out to you in this call to them:
Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14)!
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light (Psalm 36:7–9).
Amen!
“Redemption” Psalm 130 Song
May God use you as his ambassador this week,
Laura
P. S. This is the last blog for James 5! Would you please pray with me for what to do next? I would like to take some time in the upcoming months to really focus on writing new songs, so I may take a blogging break for a bit to be able to do so. Coming up at the end of October will be a women’s retreat with my church, and we will, Lord willing, start a new series on here following that. Thanks, everyone, for your prayers, love, and support! L