Brethren. — My brethren, it rather ought to be. The last, and, to some, the dearest of the wise Apostle’s remarks, is this on conversion; and it fitly closes his loving and plain-speaking Letter.
If any of you do err... — Better thus, If one of you be led away from the truth, and one convert him. It is not the wilful error, so much as the being seduced by others, who draw the unwary from their proper course, till in time they become of themselves “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 1:13). As the leading away was an act prompted by the devil, so the bringing home is the service of God, and each will have its fit reward. The sinner is riding, as it were, headlong to destruction, when a friend lays hold upon the rein, and literally “converts” him, i.e., turns him round; but, observe, the wanderer is still far from home, and many a weary league must he traverse, even with face turned and kept heavenward, before the end be neared.