“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)
This is a fascinating word from James. Here you have someone wandering from the truth such like if he or she is not restored his or her soul will die and a multitude of sins will remain uncovered. That’s the jist of it.
Some think that this is someone (a Christian) slipping away into doctrinal error … an error that if it persists could lead to physical death (e.g. 1 Cor 11:30). Others think that this person is a professing Christian (recognized so by their persistent pursuit into error) who apostatizes. The death in this latter case is spiritual death including the multitude of sins that accompany the unbeliever.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary gives this notation: “That this cannot be physical death may be inferred from the literal translation of the Greek text: it "shall save his soul from death." So it would seem that spiritual death is in view. Since Scripture teaches that once a person is regenerated he can never be lost, it may be assumed that his hypothetical wanderer is not a genuine believer. He would be one who had been among the believers and had made a profession of faith, but his profession had been superficial. To bring him to genuine faith in the truth is to save his soul from eternal death. The result of bringing the wanderer back is that "many sins" will be covered. Genuine faith brings full forgiveness of the wanderer's sins; and they are covered, never to be held against him again.”[1]
The context seems to favor the second option. “In v. 20, the wanderer is called “a sinner,” not a brother, and it is his “soul” which he is in danger of losing. “Soul” in this passage has the meaning of “life,” and more particularly, his “eternal life” that will forever continue in either heaven or hell. James may again be echoing the words of the Lord Jesus, who said in Matt. 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”[2]
Many Christians have trouble with this type of issue because we don’t have a robust doctrine of apostasy. The early church did. We tend to see things in systems: Calvinism and Arminianism à eternal security and loss of salvation. I doubt if the intended readers even wrestled with that idea. One must leave the final outcome of the person with the Lord. The point that James is making (whether this is a real or nominal Christian) is that it is a good thing for the church to be in the business of restoring “wanderers”.
The debate should not center on whether this person “lost their salvation”. The point of James is to call the Church, the people of God to reach out to the “wanderers”. It is not simply the task of the pastor and elders; the deacons and leaders. It is the Church’s responsibility to look around from time to time and see who is missing and make that call. James makes it clear: “Brothers or brethren (ἀδελφός a fellow believer, united to another by the bond of affection[3]) if any one of YOU wanders from the truth.”
Do we know a professing believer that has been absent from our fellowship and your assembly? Are you waiting for someone else to reach out to them? Why do we not see this as our responsibility? Will you make the call today?
[1] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:James/Exposition of James/XII. Miscellaneous Exhortations (5:7-20)/D. Concerning the Wanderer (5:19-20), Book Version: 4.0.2
[2] Believer's Study Bible. 1997 (electronic ed.) (Jas 5:14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[3] Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.
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