WOW! Heavy revelation today as I read James, specifically James 5:19-20. Lots of questions – GO!

James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 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 is addressing brothers, believers, Christians

• By wandering James is referring to wandering from the Truth, and into sin

• It is possible for a brother to wander from the Truth, into sin; wander to the point where he must be brought back

• It is possible for a brother that has wandered from the Truth, into sin, to be brought back

• If a brother that wanders from the Truth, into sin, is not brought back his soul will die

Questions:

How would James define wandering?

It doesn’t seem to me a stumbling, or mis-step. It seems like a walking away from the Truth, maybe into unbelief. Wandering away from living as God wants us to live; it seems like a “walking according to the flesh” – living for our own desires, not for Christ after a time of living for Him.

Does that sound accurate?

Like many times in Scripture, when a statement is made, we can conclude that the inverse is also true. In verse 20 it says that the one who brings the wanderer back saves his soul from death….

Wouldn’t it also be true then that the wanderer that isn’t brought back will be condemned?

If this is true, how would we reconcile that with the “once saved, always saved” theology?

Is this an example of, “they were not of us, so they went out from us”?

If that is the case, why would James call them brothers?

If they are brothers, how does that reconcile with Jesus’ Words, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”?

Are Jesus’ Words referring to when a person enters eternal life, and not our time on earth? After all, the Scripture does say, “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”