wandering sinner

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

This admonition to go after wandering sinners with the gospel give unique insight into the make-up of the early church. James was perhaps the first epistle written chronologically to the Christian community. And it ends with this admonition to go after anyone “among you” who “wanders from the truth”. This would seem to have been a known sinner, not a hypothetical illustration, and this was important enough to caution the entire church with a precedure to assist in this type of situation. It seems this type of thing was something Christians faced. Apparently the very early church welcomed people who weren’t quite settled into Christian belief but were under the preaching of the gospel.

I see two classes of people addressed in this passage: brothers and sinners. The “brother” is exhorted to go after a wandering “sinner” who had once been a part of Christian community and the brother is told to seek to restore the wandering one with the gospel. It is clear this “sinner” is not a believer because his soul is in danger of death, and that can only be the second death, or hell, that is the peril. After this restoration a “multitude of sins” is covered, which implies atonement by Jesus at conversion.

The early church did not take for granted that all among them were truly converted. They had this admonition to follow in cases where clear gospel conversion needed still to take place. And the way such people were “brought back” was through the gospel being believed resulting in true forgiveness of sin, release from their guilt, and deliverance from hell. The gospel is how we deal with wandering sinners. It is our only message and hope.