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)
James closes his letter with a word about caring for those who wander from the truth. Who are these who wander? And what is the truth they wander from?
James is writing to believers, to his brothers and sisters in the faith. And his words are about one of them who wanders. So the most natural reading of this is that it is a believer who has wandered.
Truth can be used in a number of ways. But the most likely meaning here concerns the gospel and the teachings about Jesus, who is the truth (John 14:6). So, in that case, to wander from the truth would be to abandon the teachings about Jesus and turn back to the world.
As a community of faith, what should we do when one of our members wanders from the truth, leaving the community of faith and returning to the world? James would encourage us to go after them. To seek to restore the wanderer from their wandering.
When Someone Wanders
That restoration, if successful, will save their soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. We can get hung up here about whether or not the wanderer was a true believer. We can debate if the death referred to was physical or spiritual. But doing so misses the point of this passage.
When someone wanders away, which happens all too often, how should we respond as a community of faith and as individual believers? Do we just let them go? Do we condemn them for turning against the faith? Or do we reach out to them in love as brothers and sisters, seeking to restore them?
All too often, regardless of what we may say, we choose one of the first two responses. James would have us choose the third—a more challenging response, but one that can make a significant difference in the life of the wanderer.
Chuck Girard wrote a song about 40 years ago entitled “Don’t Shoot the Wounded” that is about this.
