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James 5.19-20.Pages JAMES: AUTHENTIC FAITH Small Group Discussion Guide Text: 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. (ESV) Theme/ Big Idea: Scholars say James issues more imperatives per verse than any other book: 59 in just 108 verses.1 Therefore, it is no surprise that he ends like he began. But his final command is really more of a commissioning for believers calling us to be people who seek out, find, and call home those who have wandered from the truth. Context/ Background Information: James has been doing verses 19-20 throughout his entire letter; namely, calling the dispersed and scattered believers to stay true to the faith. He has been addressing double mindedness, fear, faith, hypocrisy, partiality, grumbling, the tongue and more. James has been addressing each of these issues in believers that were scattered, persecuted, and fearful. And each step of the way James has addressed these with the truth of the gospel. As he comes to his concluding remarks in verses 19-20, he turns to his audience and says, “Now it’s time for you to go and do as I have done and call wanderers to return, to encourage them to not lose heart, and to stay true to the faith.” James uses the word wander twice in verses 19 and 20. This means to roam from safety, to go astray, to be deceived whether casually or intentionally. He further clarifies his concern saying those who “wander from the truth.” By this he means all that the gospel entails. James understands that the gospel is both a matter of knowledge and living, faith and action, mental assent and personal allegiance.2 He also knows that movement away from the truth and good news of the gospel begins inwardly. James says as much in James 1:14-15- that we are tempted and led astray by our desires, that the outward active movement away from the truth first begins with inward deception, doubt, and disbelief. James is concerned for those who wander from the safe harbor of God’s Word and the good news of Jesus. James understands something about his audience and us. It is why he wrote his letter and why he ends his letter this way. Every one of us is tempted to wander from the truth, to go astray, to take good things and try to squeeze out of them our value and meaning and hope. We are all like sheep, as Isaiah says, who “have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Here, in verses 19-20, James concludes his letter by addressing the reality that there will be some who wander from the truth. But this leads us to his primary aim in these concluding verses. Just as sure as there will be wanderers, James asserts, there must also be seekers. At first glance it would seem that James’s concluding remarks are strictly about those who wander. But James’s last imperative in these verses is directed at the believing community that James has been addressing throughout his letter. This can be seen in his address to “brothers” and the “someone” of verse 19. This “someone” is distinct from the person that wanders from the truth. The “someone”James is addressing is the believing community who themselves were previously scattered and wandering and have returned. James urges, begs, and pleads with them to now be people who go and seek those who wander. One cannot help but think about Jesus and the various shepherding passages of the Old and New Testament. In Ezekiel 34, God rebukes the priests and shepherds because they were not seeking the lost sheep of Israel. He says, “the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought” (Ez 34:4). God’s sheep “were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts” (Ez 34:5). Therefore, God says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak….” (Ez 34:15-16). Fast forward to the New Testament and what does Jesus say he came to do? He came “to seek and save the lost” (Lk 19:10). And what does he call himself but the “Good Shepherd” (John 10). Furthermore, Jesus himself addresses the believing community of Pharisees in Luke 15 and confronts them for their lack of seeking. He tells the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:3-7 exactly because God’s shepherds were not seeking. What happens in that parable but a shepherd that loses a sheep, seeks the sheep, finds the sheep, hoists it on his shoulders, and “brings him back.” Wandering can happen for a variety of reasons. James’s primary concern is that when it occurs the community of faith takes intentional action to go and seek. There will be some who wander casually and some who wander intentionally from the truth. Regardless, the community of faith is responsible to make every effort to seek and restore those who wander. Don’t forget that James has set his concluding remarks in the context of the life of Elijah. In verses 17-18, James concludes his instruction on prayer by pointing to the prophet Elijah as an example. Elijah, per God’s instruction, calls for God to shut up the heavens and dry up the land. And God does. Elijah calls on God to provide food for he and the widow. And God does. Elijah calls upon God to revive a dead child. And God does. Elijah calls down fire from heaven on Mt Carmel. And God does. Elijah calls upon God to send rain after three years. And God does. Elijah saw remarkable answers to prayer, but that was all in 1 Kings 17-18. Do you remember what happened in 1 Kings 19? After all of these amazing, remarkable moments of God’s direct intervention and interaction on behalf of Elijah, Jezebel threatens to kill him. And Elijah, “a man with a nature like ours," ran, feared, doubted, worried, and wandered. In one moment he’s walking in the confidence of God and the fact that God is for him…in the next he’s defeated, hiding under a broom tree asking God to kill him (1 Kings 19:3-4). Consider James’s larger point. If Elijah, is prone to wander, how much more are you and I? But notice what happens. God doesn’t let Elijah go. Instead, he seeks, he confronts, and he restores Elijah. God comes alongside Elijah and quietly feeds him (1 Kings 19:5-8), and then asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9). Elijah gives God multiple self-justifying and prideful reasons for wandering. But, rather than come in great wrath, great power, and crushing authority (which God displayed), God comes in a still, small voice and asks again gently, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13). And then in that tenderness he gives Elijah instruction to return home. And what is more, God doesn’t expect him to go it alone, He provides him a community of faith to walk with him (in the form of Elisha). As we conclude, remember this was not just Elijah’s story. It was also James’s story. Remember, James was once a lost and wandering sheep. James was a doubting skeptic. He was part of Jesus’s family that mocked Jesus as crazy (John 7:3-5; Mk 3:20-22). But then Jesus came to him (1 Cor 15:6-8) and James’s life was never the same. Now James writes to scattered sheep calling them home. And now he comes to us and commissions us to go and do the same. But remember this is also your story. You too were once a lost and wandering sheep (Rom. 3:10-12). You too were once double-minded like Elijah. You too were once a doubting skeptic like James. And, rather than leave you for dead or crush you for your rebellion, God did something remarkable. He did not deal with you according to your sins nor repay you according to your iniquities (Psalm 103:8-10). Instead, he sought you. Instead, he came near in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Instead, he graciously called you home. Instead of crush you, he crushed Jesus. Why, you ask? So that the multitude of your sins might be covered and so that you might experience the peace that only Jesus can offer: peace with God, peace with self, and peace with others. Discussion Questions: • Who is James addressing in these verses? • What obligation does James place on the believing community with regard to those who wander? • Evangelism is often motivated by guilt. What is James rooting evangelism in and how is it different? • What, if any, is the connection of verses 5:19-20 to James’s reference of Elijah in 5:17? • James says Elijah had “a nature like our own.” How similar are we? • Consider Elijah’s double mindedness. In one moment he sees remarkable answers to prayer (1 Kings 17-18) and in the next he’s wandering in fear (1 Kings 19).
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