05.30.08

A Reformed Understanding of James 5:19-20

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:21 am by Perry

When discussing the doctrines of grace there are always people on both sides of the aisle who have seemingly irrefutable proof texts in support of their theological position. One verse that is commonly touted by Arminians in objection to the reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is James 5:19-20:

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.

The traditional Arminian interpretation of this passage goes something like this:
• James is addressing brothers who are believers, children of God,
• James is saying a brother can wander from the truth (i.e. the faith),
• The brother after his wandering is called a sinner,
• The brother needs to be saved from death as a result of his wandering,
 Therefore, the brother become a sinner by his wandering and needed to be re-saved suggesting his faith was lost in his act of wandering.

There is no doubt that this passage presents interpretative difficulties for someone with the theological position that those who are saved will persevere without the ability to fall away from the faith. I will attempt to show that these two verses do not teach that a true believer can fall away. In doing so, it is necessary to highlight the teaching of the whole counsel of God regarding the perseverance of the redeemed. Once that foundation has been laid, an exposition of this text can be performed to show its continuity with the whole of Scripture’s teaching on this subject.

Perseverance in the Whole Counsel of Scripture

I desire to in every way at every moment to be faithful to the truth of God’s revealed Word. With that being said, I pray that I may never interpret any passage of scripture in an effort to uphold a theological position. Instead, I desire to always build my theology first on the truth of God’s word and place my allegiance His Word and not any doctrinal camp.

With that being said, I do believe that Scripture does teach that those who are truly redeemed will persevere throughout their life and are unable to fall away from the faith bought once for all for the saints. I want to briefly show from Scripture that the weight of Scripture does in fact teach that the children of God are unable to fall away from the faith.

Believers Persevere in the Faith:

• … because God, in love, hold us and prevents us from falling away

John 10:27-29: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
1 Peter 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Corinthians 1:7b-9: as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 6:39-40: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Hebrews 7:25: Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Isaiah 46:4: Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

• … because the God promises to finish what He starts in a believer

Philippians 1:6: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Ecclesiastes 3:14: I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
Romans 11:29: For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Jeremiah 32:40: I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
Psalm 138:8: The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

This is only an overview of the Biblical teaching on the perseverance of those who come to faith in Christ Jesus. I hope it is clear from these verses that the love of God is shown to the Church when God protects us and prevents us from falling away from our faith. Jesus gives us such clear imagery that those for whom He died He will lose none of them (John 6:39-40). In fact, He says that He will hold the redeemed in hand to protect them from falling away (John 10:27-29). Additionally 1 Peter 1:3-5 tells us that our inheritance in Christ is imperishable and is kept in Heaven by God for us. It is therefore an act of God that maintains our faith which is completely apart from ourselves.

It should be stated that the belief in perseverance of the saints does not neglect the numerous calls to persevere and endure in the faith. As Nathan Pitchford says, “God’s preservation of the saints is not irrespective of their continuance in the faith”. There are numerous calls throughout Scripture for the Children of God to endure:
o 1 Corinthians 15:1-2
o Colossians 1:21-23
o Revelation 2:7, l0 , 11 , l7, 25 , 26; 3:5, 11, l2, 2l

Arminians commonly teach that the commands to endure and persevere suggest that there exists an act on the part of the believer that must be performed in order to endure in the faith and that in fact if one does not endure that their faith will be lost. I see such interpretations as narrow and out of context with the weight of Scripture. 2 Peter 1:10 tells us to “…be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We are to endure in the faith as a sign of true enduring faith.

This is in line with 1 Peter 1:3-9 where Peter starts by telling us that our faith is imperishable and kept for us by God in heaven. He then follows by calling us to endure through trials. Even though Peter says that our faith cannot perish he still calls us to endure so our love for God may increase as we trust Him through trials and suffering. We are called to endure in the faith as an evidence of true faith. Our endurance to the end shows that we are truly of the redeemed. Consider that Jesus says that there will be false believers among us (Matthew 7:21-23) and that many will fall away (Matthew 24:10). We are encouraged to endure to show us that we are of God and belong to Him.

This brings us then to the passage from James chapter 5. It is important to understand that the Bible teaches that there will be people who are among the Church of God who are false believers who will died in false belief and will be only recognized as such at the day of judgment (Matthew 7:21-23). Additionally, there will be people among the Church who leave the faith before death (Matthew 24:10).

This is where it becomes increasingly important to see the context of Scripture in interpreting James 5. James 5 speaks of some people who are among the Brothers who wander from truth and must be snatched from death. While a superficial reading of this passage seems to suggest that a true brother in the faith has lost their faith to which they need to be restored, consider what John says about those among the brother who wander from the truth:

1 John 2:18-25 (emphasis added):
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us eternal life.

John tells us that there are people in the Church who will walk away from the faith. Those who are truly redeemed will continue in the faith and those who leave the faith simply show that they were never truly redeemed. He concludes this passage by says that those who have the Gospel abiding in their hearts will abide in God which leads to eternal life. It has already been shown that there are people who will be among the brother who leave. John simply tells us that the act of leaving shows that they were never truly a believer because those who are of Christ continue in the faith.

Based on the previous mentioned passages and the exposition by John on the nature of enduring faith, I cannot see James 5:19-20 teaching that the one who wanders ever being truly among the brother. The English Standard Version and New American Standard Bible translate James 5:19 by saying that the one who wanders in among the brother while the Kings James Versions says that it is one of the brethren who do error. I believe the ESV and NASB have correctly translated this passage to say that the one who strays is among the brethren and not necessarily one of the brethren. I base this assertion on the use of the Greek word en that is translated among. This work designates position (in place, time or state) that can be translated as by, with or in. In context of 1 John 2:19 we see that the simple act of being among brethren does not mean one is a brother themselves. Therefore, the one who strays in James 5:19 is among the brethren but his act of straying shows that he is not a true brother.

Consider also the relation to Paul’s command to confront a sexually immoral men in the Church and expel him from the Church for his wickidness in 1 Corinthians 5:1-12. Nathan Pitchford pointed out to me the parallels between this passage and our passage in James 5 in that this man was to be handed over to Satan so that:

“his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord”. In other words, he hoped by this public rebuke to bring him around to repentance, so that he might enter the Kingdom. Also, Hebrews has some similar passages, for example 10:23-27. There, intense and genuine church interaction is commanded because the day of Christ is approaching, and those who turn aside from the truth to willful sin will certainly receive condemnation. In sum, I would suggest that this sort of restorative ministry that James talks about is a blood-earnest and necessary thing to pursue, because, if someone doesn’t turn from the error of his ways, he will not be saved from death. Every true, regenerate believer will be brought to repentance, I believe, but the mutual support, and sometimes the rebuke of others in the Church is a necessary means of staying in the race. And those who turn aside and never come back show that they were never truly of us, as John describes elsewhere (I John 2:19).

The Greek used throughout this passage in many places seems to suggest that the one who is straying is not and never was one of the brethren. I am not skilled in Greek so at this time I will lean upon modern heroes of the faith who have skilled themselves in Greek studies. Consider the exposition of the Greek by John MaCarthur for the following parts of the passage (http://www.gty.org/Resources/Transcripts/59-34):

• Use of the word brethren/brothers

Let’s look at these two verses. He says, “Brethren,” he uses it many times in this epistle, many times over. He uses it to refer to those who are his brothers in the flesh, Jews. And he uses it to those who are his brothers in Christ, who name the name of Christ. The use of the word “brethren” is general then. You who are my brethren, in terms of our common heritage nationally, you who are my brethren in that you also name the name of Christ…but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t necessarily some within that term “brethren” who are not genuine. It doesn’t eliminate the reality that some of the brothers were only brothers outwardly and not at heart. And so we don’t need to assume that because he says “my brethren” he is therefore talking exclusively to Christians throughout the epistle.

I believe he is focusing here on those who are going to go out because they’re genuine and turn the hearts of those who are false around. And so he uses the word “my” brethren, and draws them in to an intimate…a more intimate circle. That stands first in a sentence only here and in chapter 2 verse 1 and in each case it indicates a sharp break in the thought. So I take it that there’s a sharp break in thought between verse 18 and verse 19, so do most of the translators, that’s why they make a paragraph at verse 19. There’s no connective link connecting the last two verses with the prior passage to make them one thought, so we assume that this is his final thought. It’s another thought. It’s not unrelated to the flow of thought, but it’s another thought. That is, he is not still speaking about the need for the elders of the church to be involved in praying for the weak and the weary Christians and those who have been persecuted for the faith, he’s not doing that any more.

He is now moving on to another group of people. He has spoken about how the weary and the weak are to come and the elders are to pray and the whole congregation is to uphold one another in prayer and care and compassion. And now he moves away from how the elders and the believers are to treat each other to how the believers are to treat those in their fellowship who fail the test of genuine faith. How do you deal with those who are showing up to be unbelievers in your fellowship? And I think another dividing line, notice verse 19, “My brethren, if any among you…” did you see that? Go back to verse 13 and see how it begins. Verse 13 begins like this, “Is anyone among you…?” And he talks about those who suffer and tells them to pray. Then he moves to another category, verse 14, “Is anyone among you weary?” And he talks about those who are weary and weak under persecution and distress and how the elders are to care for them. Now in verse 19, “If any among you…” introduces a third category and that’s the key phrase to let us know that he is dealing with a third category. In verse 13 it was the believer who suffers.

In verse 14, the believer who needs spiritual strength to be infused through the prayer of righteous men. And now in verse 19 the one who claimed to be a believer but departs and needs to be drawn back to true salvation by the rest of the fellowship. This person then emerges in James’ thought at the end of the list because really he’s the theme of the whole letter. The whole letter is a calling to those whose faith is less than genuine to come to true faith. “My brethren,” again is an all encompassing statement referring to the whole church…”if anyone among you shows that they weren’t genuine, strays from the truth…” now there’s the first evidence. That’s a possibility phrase in the Greek. It means it’s likely to happen.

• Use of the word “to stray”

The word “to stray” is planetes from which we get planet which was a wandering body. It means to reject, to go astray, to apostatize, to wander. The term is used in Scripture many many times to refer to physical wandering and many times to refer to spiritual drifting. And frequently it is used to refer to the condition of the unsaved. The unsaved are said to wander, or stray. And I don’t want to take the time to show you every indication of that but in Matthew 22 for example, 29, “Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures or the power of God.” And He uses that very same word. The condition of the unsaved…you don’t understand the Scripture, you don’t understand the power of God, you’ve strayed away, you’ve wandered away.

In Titus chapter 3 and verse 3, another verse, familiar one to us, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived…” and there is that same word, literally led astray, led off to wander away from reality and slave to lusts and pleasures and spending our life in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another. And the word is used many times with reference to those in an unsaved condition. Now these are the people then who have claimed to believe for a while and then come to a place where they just wander away from the truth. They now reject the will of God. They act contrary to the will of God. They willfully rebel against the truth. They’re described throughout the epistle to the Hebrews. They are those who have heard everything but have a heart hardened against belief, mentioned in chapter 3…chapter 4. They’re like those in chapter 6 who having once been enlightened and tasting the heavenly gift turn their back and fall away and reject Christ. They’re like those in chapter 10 verse 29 who trample under their feet the blood of the covenant, counting it an unholy thing. These are the wanderers. Those who stray away.

By the way, the same Greek term is used in the Septuagint which is the Greek Old Testament, to refer to transgressions of the law, especially idolatry. It is so used in Isaiah 9:15, Jeremiah 23:17, Ezekiel 33:10, 34:4 and Proverbs 14:8…there it refers to one who transgresses God’s law and goes after idols. Now I’m saying all of this to let you know that this word is used frequently to refer to an unsaved person who has strayed away from God’s truth. Now what does it mean to stray from the truth? What does he mean when he says, “If any of you strays from the truth,”? Well, the truth is the gospel, the gospel truth. James in chapter 3 verse 14 talked about lying against the truth. In chapter 1 verse 18, he talked about the fact that we were brought forth by the Word of truth. And when James speaks of the truth he’s referring to the Word of God, the message of salvation primarily, or the gospel. That’s the word of truth. This is an aorist passive tense which seems to indicate the fact of straying without reference to the process. This is a person who has gone away from the truth. Then the first evidence of a false faith is departure from the gospel truth. What do you mean? They reject the gospel…they go away from the Word of God. They depart doctrinally.

And there’s a second thing. Would you notice also verse 20, it says, “Let him that he…let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way,” here’s the second characteristic, the second evidence. The first thing is the people who aren’t genuine wander away from the truth…the second thing is they get in to the error of their way. Now what does that mean? Error…it’s from the same verb form as wander, it’s a noun from the same root. It means basically they have gone in to error, they have gone into rejection. But the key to this concept is the phrase “his way.” “His way” simply means his own life style, his own pattern of living, his own path, his own kind of life…that’s the idea. So the first thing you look for is an errant theology, the second thing you look for is an errant life style. Those are the evidences.

• Use of the word “sinner”

Notice in verse 20 this person is called a sinner. Did you notice that? This person is called a sinner. You say, “Is that important?” It’s very important…very important. This term “sinner” is used, listen to this, only of the unregenerate. It is used in Scripture only of an unbeliever. In fact, it refers to a hardened unbeliever, one who openly defiantly disregards the law of God and ignores the standards of morality. It describes an openly bad person whose evil character is apparent to everybody, whose wickedness is common knowledge. In Genesis 13:13, the homosexual men of Sodom were called sinners. In Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners.” Verse 5, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” It is a characterization word, it describes the character of a person who lives in sin. In Psalm 25 again, to show you some Old Testament usages, verse 8, “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in His way.” He gives the gospel to sinners, those who are bound in sin.

In Proverbs it’s used several times, I’m thinking of chapter 11 and verse 31, the writer says, “If the righteous will be rewarded in the earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner?” You come in to the New Testament, you find the word is always used with reference to those who are outside the Kingdom of God. Matthew 9 verse 13, “I desired compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, said Jesus, but…what?…sinners…sinners.” In Luke chapter 7 and verse 37 we find its usage again consistent. “Behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner, she was a sinner.” That means she was an evil woman of ill repute, the vilest of human kind from a moral perspective. Luke chapter 15 and verse 7, “I tell you in the same way there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” And I could go on with scripture after scripture…in to John 9 verses 16 and 24, Romans 5:8, and that wonderful verse says, “God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Galatians 2:17, 1 Timothy 1:9 and 15 Paul says, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” And that’s how it is.

Sinners is always used to refer to those who are outside the kingdom, who are lost. It is a characterization word. In 1 John 3, to compare, verse 8 says, “The one who practices sin is of the devil,” that’s the same as the sinner. “For the devil has sinned from the beginning, no one…verse 9…who is born of God practices sin.” In other words, he’s not characterized by his sin, he’s characterized by his righteousness because God’s seed abides in him, he cannot sin because he is born of God and by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. So John says essentially the same thing, a sinner cannot be a Christian. While a Christian may sin he’ll never be characterized as a sinner.

So I believe it’s clear that James has in mind here sinners. And those who have strayed from the truth and those who have chosen a life style of wickedness, having once identified with Christ, once identified with the church. And John says in 1 John 2:19, and this is so very important, he says these words, “They went out from us but they were not really of us for if they had been of us they would have remained with us, but they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.” Names come into my head, just flooding my mind…people that I now believe never knew Christ and they deceived themselves perhaps and they deceived me. They’re gone. They’ve chosen to reject the truth and live a life style inconsistent with everything Jesus Christ desires. They’re lost. You know some of them as I do.

• Use of the word “soul”
Look again at what James says, “Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his…what?…soul.” We’re talking about a human soul here. The word psuche means the real person, the whole person. We’ll save that person. When God breathed into men the breath of life man became a living soul. That’s the whole person. That’s the real person that dwells in the mortal body. That’s the immortal person that we’re saving here. The soul…do you understand the threat? The soul is being threatened by what? Verse 20. Save his soul from what? Death…death. What death does James have in mind? Eternal death. Ezekiel 18:4 and 20 says, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.”

That doesn’t just mean physical death because all of us will die. It means eternal death, eternal death, death in hell, eternal judgment. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is…what?…death.” Way back in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 2, “Righteousness delivers from death.” What a great statement. “But where there’s no righteousness there is death.” Again in Proverbs 11:4 the same phrase is repeated. In Revelation, as John draws the New Testament to a close, chapter 21 verse 8, “For the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second…what?…death.” What is the first death? Physical death…the second death, eternal death.

• Use of the words “will save”

So, what is our goal? To convert…to convert. It’s used again in verse 20, look at it. “Let him know that he who converts a sinner, turning him from false faith to true faith…” Then another word “will save”, beautiful word, sozo, it’s the word, the commonest word in the New Testament for salvation, the basic New Testament word for salvation. It’s used five times in James and four times it refers to salvation…1:21, 2:14, 4:12 and here. In 5:15 we saw it used for restoring weak Christians but its dominant use is with those references to salvation. So, what is the goal? To convert, to save. There’s one other goal, to cover. What is the word cover? To cover a multitude of sins, to hide a multitude of sins. What does that mean? Forgiveness…forgiveness.

Back in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 12 we get a helpful insight. Hatred stirs up strife but love covers all transgressions. It’s talking about forgiveness. So what is the goal? We want to convert people, turning them from sin in order that they may be saved and being saved their sins will be…what?…forgiven. We’re talking about evangelism, folks…evangelism. And “the multitude of sins” has reference not so much to describing the state of the sinner as describing the extent of the forgiveness that God in His grace forgives the multitude of sins. “Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sins,” said Andrew Banar. And only the death of Christ can provide this covering. In Christ, says Ephesians 1:9, we’ve been forgiven all our sins…all our sins. Who is a pardoning God like You, the prophet Micah said. The psalmist said He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. Our sins are buried in the depths of the sea and He remembers them…what?…no more.

In light of this brief study, I can only conclude that the one who wanders in James 5:19-20 was never a brother and that his act of wandering showed this to be true. When considering both the whole counsel of God and the specific exposition of the Greek text, we can only conclude that those who are redeemed children of God will persevere in faith and that those who wander show themselves as unregenerate in need of being “saved from hell”.

Let’s finish by considering the implications of this study. James is calling us to do evangelism within the Church. He is telling us that there are people among us who claim to be regenerate but fall into sin and show that have both deceived themselves and other. Who should not conclude that everyone who professes faith possesses faith and we should therefore look for the fruit that comes from true faith (Luke 6:43-49). Where clear evidence of faith is lacking we should reach out to those among the brethren to “save their soul from death”.

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