Erring from the Truth

James 5:19-20

19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.(KJV)

James’ last admonition here is to bring back those who err from the truth and the results. One thing we can see here is that in order to err from the truth, one has to have been following it and living by it first. At least that is how I see it. In other words, he is talking about believers going astray in their beliefs. Remember who James is writing to, he is writing to believers, not non- believers. These believers happen to be Jewish believers as indicated in the first verse of the book. We don’t know whether particular churches received copies first, or whether James was just writing to believers among the Jews in general. At the time of his writing, the number of gentile believers was small, even though it was growing. James primarily dealt with Jewish Christians, as he seemed to be the head of the church there in Jerusalem.

Now James is saying, "if any err from the truth, stray from the truth," and someone convert him–let us look at the Greek for both the words stray and convert.

stray--

4105 planao (plan-ah'-o);

from 4106; to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue):

usages in KJV-- go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way.

convert--

1994 epistrepho (ep-ee-stref'-o);

from 1909 and 4762; to revert (literally, figuratively or morally):

usages in KJV-- come (go) again, convert, (re-) turn (about, again).

Did you know Peter had to be converted after Jesus’ death? Yep, after lying about knowing Jesus, you know that he immediately repented, but it wasn’t until Jesus appeared to Him that he was fully converted to the beliefs he had had before the crucifixion. Thomas too, for if you remember, he had lost faith and did not believe the rest of the disciples when they said He rose from the dead. They talked him into getting together with them in the room they met in that next week on the first day of the week, and Jesus appeared to them again and told Thomas to feel his side and his hands. Well, Thomas was converted, convinced, and worshipped Him saying, "My Lord and my God!"

Now in James’ statement, he is referring to those who have erred from the truth they have known. At least I personally am interpreting it that way. You may feel he is applying it to non-believers, and it is up to you how you are seeing that. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide. But to my mind, if someone errs from the truth, then he has known it and gone astray and needs to be brought back again. And James wants you to know what happens when someone brings someone back again. The last verse says it all, the person who brings the other back will have saved a sinner from death and hide or cover a multitude-many-sins. Whose sins? The converter or the convertee? Well, since the converter is the subject of the sentence, I presume that it is the converter who receives the benefit of a multitude of sins being covered or hidden.

Let’s talk about the fact that sins get hidden or covered. First, let us look at some verses.

1 Pet 4:8

8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.(KJV)

Do you notice what Peter is saying. Same kind of thing James did.

Let’s look at some symbolism here. We will use the word cover. Let’s look at more verses:

Exod 33:22

22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:(KJV)

Exod 40:3

3 And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.(KJV)

Lev 16:13

13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:(KJV)

In the above verses, covering is shown as a protection. Protection from what? Protection from God’s wrath against sin. So what James and Peter are referring to here is that your works for the Lord that He has given you to do, including bringing back the erring, will serve as a covering, a protection for you. In other words, God says, the person’s sins are minimal compared to the good he has done to another. Kind of like God goes ahead and forgives many of your sins. (We are not talking about the forgiveness that leads to salvation, but the forgiveness one receives on a daily basis on confessing and repenting.) James mentions that a multitude of sins get covered. Love too will cover a multitude of sins.

By the way Jude too points out the importance of rescuing people from death and hell. Look at the next verse-

Jude 1:23

23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.(KJV)

So you can see why James and Jude brought the subject up-they are both saying that we need to be rescuing those who have fallen away if at all possible.

So if you know any believer who fell away, if you can at all talk with the person, do so, for God will bless you both, and you will have saved a soul from death.

This is the end of James. I could go deeper into the subject of erring individuals, but will leave that to another time as we will be also hitting that subject in the study of Romans which will begin next week.

Have a great weekend.  The Good News Lady