Pray for the Straying (James 5:19-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

                                                                                                            Date:  11-22-03

 

My Worship Time      Focus:  Pray for the Straying

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 5:19 & 20

 

            1.  Message of the verse:  “19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”  (NASB)  “19 My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, 20 you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.”  (NLT)

            James identifies a problem in these last two verses of his letter.  It seems to me that James probably knew that this problem, and the other problems that he has already written about were going on with his readers.  There must have been some unbelievers in his reading audience and these verses can be applied to not only those who were backslidden, but also to unbelievers.  The root problem in these verses is sin, unconfessed sin and although James does not specifically say that prayer must rendered for these it certainly can be said that we should pray for those we know who are demonstrating this type of behavior.

            The condition of backsliding is a very dangerous problem for not only the person involved in it, but also for the church that he attends, or at least did attend.  It is dangerous for him because it could actually be a cause of death, as both John and Paul have pointed out in their writings.  “That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.”  (1Cor. 11:30 NLT)  “If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.

Every wrong is sin, but not all sin leads to death.”  (1John 5:16 &17 NLT)

            As stated before the root problem is sin, however to get a bit more specific about this sin we can see that it is a straying away from the truth.  Not only is the Son of God the truth, but also the Word of God is the truth, and in this case this offender is probably staying away from the Word of God, thus staying away from the Son of God.  It has been said that a person is either going forward in his Christian life or backwards in it, for there is not a neutral Christian walk.  The Word of God is described as food and one cannot go long without food before bad things begin to happen to him.  In 1980 while attending a “Basic Youth Seminar” in Cleveland, and the leader asked the question of the audience if any would like to make a vow to the Lord to read their Bible at least five minutes each day.  I made that vow to the Lord and by His grace I have read the Bible at least five minutes a day over the past 23 plus years, missing only six days.  I am not saying that by doing this has always kept me from sin, but I will never regret making that vow, because before making it I did not have a good track record of consistent time in the Word of God.

            Dr. Wiersbe says the outcome of this wandering is sin and possible death (James 5:20). 

      In the next paragraphs Dr. Wiersbe writes about how the sinning believer is brought back into the fold, and the responsibility of other believers and this process is described in Matthew 18, where Jesus spoke about it.  This process is similar to leading an unsaved person to Christ.  Part of the process involves love and is described on page 174 in the third and forth paragraphs.  “If we are going to help an erring brother, we must have an attitude of love, for “love shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Both James and Peter learned this principle from Proverbs 10:12—“Hate stirreth up strife: but love covereth all sins.”

This does not mean that love “sweeps the dirt under the carpet.” Where there is love, there must also be truth (“speaking the truth in love” says Paul in Eph. 4:15); and where there is truth, there is honest confession of sin and cleansing from God. Love not only helps the offender to face his sins and deal with them, but love also assures the offender that those sins, once forgiven, are remembered no more.

On page 175 Dr. Wiersbe writes about different ways evangelism is described in the Scriptures and I am not going to go over that, however I hope that everyone has read it. 

On the last page of the book he lists 12 questions that we have dealt with before in private.  I would like to ask if anyone would like to give testimony as to how the Lord has been dealing with you through these questions, as they have to do with maturity in our walk with the Lord.