James 5:19-20

A Final Word On The Importance Of The Brothers Having A Practical Concern For Each Other (James 5:19-20 ).

All through his letter James has been seeking to ‘convert sinners from the errors of their ways’, leading up to his final exhortation to prayer and praise in James 5:13-18. Now he passes on that responsibility to ‘my brothers’. That idea had begun in James 5:18, and the incentive that he now gives is not that they will thereby receive a reward, but that they will be doing eternal good and helping to defeat sin. As we have seen all the way through, God (James 1:17; James 2:23; James 4:4; James 5:7), peace (James 3:18) and eternal life (James 1:12; James 5:20) are to be seen as their own reward (and are indeed precisely what any ‘rewards’ will be all about).

We should not see these words as just a postscript. They are a reminder in the face of all James’ advice and exhortation throughout that his final concern was that sin might be dealt with in as many as possible so that they might be ‘covered’ before God, and they themselves be ‘delivered’ (‘saved’) by God. He was concerned with their salvation, their being ‘made whole’, and his vision was fixed on the work of his Saviour, the Lord, Jesus Christ, Who was to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Note also how in the face of this concern there is no suggestion anywhere for the need of ritual. It was sufficient that they be turned back to God. By this their sins will be ‘covered’. The Atonement is assumed, for he is confident that all his readers are aware of it. That is why they call themselves ‘Christians’. It is also a reminder that he has not been primarily concerned with writing about the way of salvation for the lost, but about the need for those who professed to be ‘saved’ to genuinely experience that salvation. His words were not so much directed at outsiders as at insiders, ‘the twelve tribes of Israel’, the new people of God (Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:13-22).

Analysis.

· My brothers, if any among you err from the truth (James 5:19 a),

· And one convert him (James 5:19 b),

· Let him know, that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way (James 5:20 a).

· Will save a soul from death (James 5:20 b).

· And will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:20 c).

Note that in ‘a’ men err from the truth, and in the parallel a multitude of sins are ‘covered’. In ‘b’ one causes another to turn round, and in the parallel he saves a human being from death. And centrally in ‘c’ comes the vital purpose of turning men from the error of their ways.