Bring him home

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. – James 5v19-20

The title for this devotion, even though I had not read the passage yet, has been ringing though my head for hours. We went to Three Tenors (plus a soprano) concert last night. One of the solo performances was Andrew Lloyd Weber’s ‘Bring Him Home’ from ‘Les Miserables.’ Although the setting has nothing to do with the passage, the title does.

In the song Valjean is at the barricade asking God to take Marius home. In the passage the task of bringing some one home is ours. Let us take a brief look at our application of ‘bring him home.’

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, kick him while he is down and get him out of your sight. If he does happen to come back treat him like a pariah and make sure he feels good and guilty for his sin. Never let him forget.’

That tends to be our modern interpretation of an erring brother. I don’t know how we got that way. Over and over in scripture we are taught that our action in dealing with others is never to put them on trial or punish them, but to bring them to the truth.

I am sure that plenty of folks will differ with my view of this passage, and that is fine, but, after all these are ‘Roger’s Reflections’ and not ‘Mark’s Musings’ or ‘Bill’s Blunders’ or whatever.

James writes to the brethren and says that if any one you wanders from the truth. That seems to me to indicate that he is talking about believers. He then calls upon the other to turn him back from the error of his ways. He says that is they do that they will ‘save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.’

Okay – here is my take and then I’ll make an application. If I see a brother in Christ wandering away from the truth my goal is to bring him back home into the family. If he comes back he avoids all kinds of sins and even possibly death. Therefore my goal and my motivation is to ‘bring him home.’

Even if I am wrong there is a principle about which I am not wrong. When one errs we need to go after him with a passion. Our passion cannot be fear, anger, resentment, or bitterness. Our passion must be love and a desire to see him come back home.