Turn That Sinner Back
James 5:19–20 | Stefan Van der Merwe
When I was 18 years old my brother, 1 year younger than me, and I led a bible study and prayer meeting every evening from Monday to Thursday in the school hostel for boys we were in. At first, only a few guys attended but in a month or two we had more than 20 guys attending almost every evening and in my final year in school we led several boys to Christ. It was a movement that the school principal initially wanted to stop but when he saw that the effects on the boys were positive he gave us the nod of approval.
The odd thing was that close to the end of the year, the only teacher that truly followed Christ in the school suddenly started to smoke strong French cigarettes. It really caught me off guard and the fallout of his ways led a string of non-christian boys to my door asking me to explain why the Christian teacher is now smoking.
After prayer and contemplation I found myself in front of the teacher’s flat and I probably spent about 5 minutes trying to explain to him that his new “habit” is not good and that it seriously hampers the work that the Lord is doing in the lives of many of the boys. Unfortunately it was only years later that he admitted to me that he respected my courage and that I was right.
Having preached the last few months from the book of James we have come to the very last two verses in the book, and oddly enough it is not the usual greeting that you get from a writer but a plea to reach out to the sinner with the prospect to lead him back on the right way.
Let us read those two verses:
“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
1. Two ways…
Jesus himself once had this to say about the two ways a man can follow:
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13–14
1. The right way…that leads to life.
The gate is small and the road narrow — only a few find it!
2. The wrong way…that leads to destruction.
The gate is wide and the road is broad — many enter through it!
The bible makes it clear that man has a choice which road he will follow. We all start out at birth on a level playing field so to speak, but as man starts making choices and heads out on the journey of life he stands before a choice through which gate he will enter and which road he will follow.
The wide gate and broad road is the way that most people follow. It is also that road the devil wants man to follow because the end of the road leads to death and separation from God. Some of the promises this road entices people with are fame, riches, power, non-stop entertainment and apparent freedom (follow your own desires!).
The small (narrow) gate and narrow road on the other hand starts its journey at the Cross of Christ. The day when you put your faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and make the decision to follow Him, you start your journey on the narrow road. Opposed to the broad road, there is no promise of wealth, fame or worldly pleasures, but it is the road that leads to life!
The problem is, as James puts it, that there are people that “wander from the truth” or from the right path. If you look at the painting you can see that the painter tried to include this idea in his painting by painting several bridges between the paths.
Please remember that this is just a painting and not the gospel, but it does leave us with a glimpse of the two roads the bible speaks about.
2. Stick to the narrow path
John Bunyan, in his “Pilgrim’s progress” wrote the following:
“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”
It speaks of the steadfast resilience of following the path that leads to life, and as travellers on this road (behind Jesus) we will face hardships and temptations to stray.
The bible is full of verses that warns travelers to stay on the right path. Let’s read for example:
“Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
turn from it and go on your way.”
Proverbs 4:14–15
And little further in verse 26 we read:
Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
Proverbs 4:26
And yet, often we will find people (or even ourselves) straying from the narrow path!
3. Sinning leads to straying
Straying from the narrow path almost always involves sin. James does not specify any particular sin and probably rightly so, because as people are different, so are the sins they commit.
Apostle Peter warns Christians to “8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 4:8)
Temptation comes in countless ways and we must be alert because as we give in to temptation we are also slowly moving away from the right path. Many struggle with temptations from the world around us, others are tempted by their own flesh and yet others are directly tempted by the devil, but no matter what the source of temptation is we must be careful not to give in to any of these temptations because as we do, we move further away from the right path.
It is written in Isaiah 59:2
“But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.”
4. Duty to step up
What is worse, is that the person that goes astray is not always aware of his/her straying. The teacher in our school that I mentioned earlier certainly did not realise the magnitude of the error of his ways .
The more mature we become in our walk with God, the less we stray ourselves, but we still have the duty to step up and support others that wander from the truth by sinning and often unknowingly separate themselves from God by their sin.
This is exactly why James says that when we do see someone that strays from the path of truth we have a duty to step up and get involved.
James says clearly “someone should bring that person back”.
Making the sinner aware of the wrong path that he/she is taking is not something we can ignore if we care about them.
Apostle Paul taught the same principle when he wrote to the Galatians (6:1)
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.”
We see here that there are three things to consider when reaching out to a sinning brother or sister.
- Where are you coming from?
Approaching the sinner though calls for a Spirit filled approach.. “You who live by the Spirit” says Paul. The moment you feel the need to step up and act when you see someone else is in sin you should consider first the ground you are standing on.
Jesus warned us of hypocrisy when He said in Matthew 7:4–5:
4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The duty to help the brother or sister in need first asks for a personal check up. Before you jump in, ask yourself, am I perhaps guilty of the same sin? Do I have the right to approach him/her in this regard? I am not saying this so we can feel all unworthy to support others, but it is important to understand that we cannot help other people if we ourselves have a “plank in our own eyes”.
Jesus also taught us not to judge others. In Matthew 7:1–2 we read:
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
It is clear from this passage that our support to a sinner should never include judgment, because as people we do not have the authority to judge, but only God does and He will eventually judge all people fairly according to their ways.
A truly Spirit filled approach to helping someone else in sin asks therefore for the restorer to first check the ground where he is from and then to approach the sinner without any form of judgement.
The next thing to consider is:
- Why are you doing this?
It is very clear from scripture that the emphasys here should be on restoration. A person that has wandered from the truth is on the wrong way and our emphasis should be to lead him back to the right way.
You could almost say that this is a ministry of reconciliation.
During the Appartheid years in South Africa countless atrocities were committed in the years between 1960 and 1994 but when Nelson Mandela was elected as president of South Africa in 1994 he set an example to millions of South Africans (black, white and coloured alike) of what it means to forgive. He also immediately set in place what was called the “Truth and reconciliation Commission” by which human rights abuses committed in the years from 1960 to 1994 could be investigated and also set mechanisms in place for victims to tell their stories and to create unity in the country by granting amnesty to some and bringing peace to a nation that was very close to war at that point. The whole process took more than seven years to conclude.
The whole point was reconciliation! The truth had to come out and the truth in our case is that some of us also strays from the right path at times when we sin and in the process alienates ourselves from God. God has also given us the task to help reconcile that sinner back to God by bringing the truth of their sins to light and help them to see the error of their ways.
This brings us to the third thing to consider in restoring the sinner:
- How you are helping the sinner
Let’s read Galatians 6:1 again:
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.”
Paul says that the process of restoring the sinner is one that is to be done GENTLY.
It’s one thing to stand on the street corner to stand and preach to unbelievers that they are sinners and need to repent of their sin and totally another thing to tell a believing brother or sister that they are in sin and need to repent.
None of us likes it when someone else tells us that we are wrong, and even more when this wrongdoing involves sin. We should therefore consider our approach carefully.
More often than not, a strong “in your face” approach leads to the sinner putting up strong defensive mechanisms that may include either denial of sin committed or an all out attack on the one that was, to be honest, foolish enough to take this approach.
The gentle approach on the other hand is one where love for the sinner is the motivational force behind all interaction and a true desire to restore them to the right path.
Another thing to consider in regards to how we are to reach out to the sinner is in regard to your own approach.
In the second part of Galatians 6:1 Paul has this advice to the one helping the sinner:
“But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”
I have heard countless stories of people trying to help other people getting free from the addiction of pornography, from alkohol, and many other vices and then ended up falling themselves back into that old sin.
The temptation to fall into old sins is real, especially if it was one of your previous weaknesses and therefore it is imperative that the approach to helping any sinner should be done from a “in the Spirit” approach. Ask yourself, are you doing this from a position of victory over that specific sin or are you still weak in resisting that specific kind of temptation. My advice to all Christians therefore is to first make sure where you are coming from before you dive into the ministry of reconciliation head on without God’s approval or a firm foundation to stand on.
After all, sin really can have very serious consequences. This brings us to the final point of my sermon.
5. Consider the victory gained
Let’s read again James 5:20
Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
Helping the sinner from the error of his way consequently leads to saving them from two serious consequences of sin.
- Death
The bible is clear that
“The wages of sins is death…” (Romans 3:23)
The ultimate penalty of sin is death and when a sinner turns from the error of his way he consequently is saved from death.
- James also tells us that another consequence is sin leading to more sin.
He uses the words here “a multitude of sins”.
Sin is like a spider’s web. Once you have gotten yourself entangled in it is very difficult to get yourself loose of its grip and often leads to more and more and more sin committed unless someone helps you to get loose from the grip that sin has on you.
This process by which this is done is called repentance.
In the first book of John 1:9 we are taught that:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
This is the simple process by which disentanglement from the grip of sin takes place.
Remember the verse from last week’s sermon in James 5:16:
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
Victory from sin is gained by confessing it and receiving forgiveness from God. Victory over sin is possible and sometimes we need a brother or sister to lead us back to the cross of Christ and back to the right path.
I am not sure if our teacher in school ever repented from his ways, but I am still convinced that the day I reached out to him in love to help him get restored was the right thing to do. He still reads my facebooks posts and often “likes” the bible verses I post on Facebook. God is still at work in his life and so in each of ours too!
Amen
