CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
James 5:19. Err.—Or, “be led astray.” Convert.—Turn him round, and bring him back.
James 5:20. Hide a multitude of sins.—Compare LXX. on Proverbs 10:12: “Friendship covers all those that are not contentious.” See 1 Peter 4:8. It is clear that the sins St. James has in mind are those of the object of the action, not of the agent.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— James 5:19-20
The Redeeming Work of the Redeemer’s Servants.—The closing word of the epistle is especially interesting. St. James seems for a moment to stop, to think over what he has been writing. He has had in mind many failures from the Christian spirit and relations. He has thought of many who, in various ways, have “erred from the truth.” What shall be his last word of counsel to the Churches? What should it be but this?—Don’t let what I have been saying breed enmities among you. Don’t let it separate you one from another. Don’t let it make you suspicious of one another. Don’t let it put you upon searching out your heretics, either in belief or practice. Let it bring you closer together in pitiful and sympathetic brotherliness. And if there is any one who makes you anxious, who seems to be going wrong in faith or conduct, set your heart upon his conversion, getting him turned round, and turned back to thoughts and ways of righteousness. Working for his conversion will keep you near to him in sympathy and love; and if you succeed, you will save a soul from death; when he is recovered, the sins of his lapsed time can be fully forgiven; and you will have the joy of knowing that you have been the means of “hiding a multitude of sins.”
I. There is a redeeming work to be done within Christ’s Church.—St. James is not writing about the conversion of outside sinners. There are weak Christians, who slide from righteousness in their weakness. There are wilful Christians, who break out of bounds in their wilfulness. There are always some in a Christian Church who need to be recovered and redeemed; and in the anxiety for the conversion of the world, it is quite possible for us to neglect the conversion of the failing, lapsing members of the Church. Servants of the Redeemer should expect to find redeeming work in every sphere in which they move. We can always find some Christian brother who needs to be converted from the error of his ways. To redeeming work within Christ’s Church attention needs to be more fully directed.
II. There is a redeeming power within Christ’s Church.—The members of a Church ought to have a most unusual and peculiar influence one upon another. That influence may properly be called redemptive. It is the continuance of the work and influence of the Church’s head and Lord. It should be a power checking lapses in their beginning, guarding against persuasions of evil, and restoring the fallen. It should be an influence securing soul-health in the community, which is the best perservation against scepticism, heresy, or unfaithfulness. Very seldom is the Church’s redeeming power upon itself considered; and this may explain why inconsistency is so often permitted to grow into apostasy. We ought to convert one another—within the Christian brotherhood—from the error of any ways into which we may have fallen.
III. The exercise of the redeeming power is a blessing to him who exercises it, as well as to him on whom it is exercised.—“In the very act of seeking to convert one for whom we care, we must turn to God ourselves, and in covering the past sins of another our own also are covered. In such an act love reaches its highest point, and that love includes the faith in God which is the condition of forgiveness.”
1. A blessing to him who tries to convert another, because it
(1) clears his own vision of truth;
(2) makes him anxious about his own example; and
(3) brings to him the sense of Divine sympathy and approval.
2. A blessing to him on whom it is exercised.
(1) It saves a soul from death. For if the man is in sin, this will be true for him—“sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” And
(2) “It shall hide a multitude of sins.” Because when one of His people is heart-restored to His allegiance, God can, and does, cast all his sins behind His back; they are hidden, as the harlots and riotous living of the younger son were all hidden from the home view, when the father had a penitent and restored boy back at his table again. St. Paul teaches the same duty of Church members to one another, when he says, “If any of you be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
James 5:19-20. Heresy.
I. These words imply the possibility of a truth-possessor becoming a truth-loser.—Men may “err from the truth” through—
1. A daring, speculative turn of thought.
2. Want of sympathy in their intellectual difficulties.
3. Intellectual pride.
II. The principle of mutual oversight in spiritual life is here recognised.—In him who would convert the sinner, there must be—
1. Intense sympathy with Christ in the love of souls.
2. A thorough acquaintance with the heart’s deceitfulness.
3. An intelligent reverence for the established truths of religion.
III. The text teaches that the salvation of the soul is the sublimest of moral triumphs.—It is so because—
1. Christ deemed it worthy of His incarnation and sacrifice.
2. The mission of God’s Spirit is thus fulfilled.
3. The sum of moral goodness is augmented.—Dr. J. Parker.
James 5:20. Hiding Sin.—This is conversion—to turn a sinner from the error of his ways, and not to turn him from one party to another, or merely from one notion and way of thinking to another. He who thus converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall, save a soul from death. And by such conversion of heart and life a multitude of sins shall be hid. A most comfortable passage of Scripture is this. We learn hence that though our sins are many, even a multitude, yet they may be hid or pardoned; and that when sin is turned from or forsaken, it shall be hid, never to appear in judgment against us. Let people contrive to cover or excuse their sin as they will, there is no way effectually and finally to hide it but by forsaking it. Some make the sense of this text to be, that conversion shall prevent a multitude of sins; and it is a truth beyond dispute that many sins are prevented in the person converted, many also may be prevented in others that he may have an influence upon, or may converse with.—Matthew Henry.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
James 5:19-20. One Conversion leads to Many.—The conversion of a soul to God may issue in the conversion of scores more, and perhaps in the planting of various Christian Churches. It is impossible to calculate where the blessing may terminate. The visit of a travelling pedlar to the door of Richard Baxter’s father led to the purchase of a little book; that little book led to the conversion of Richard Baxter. Baxter wrote the Saint’s Rest, which was blessed to the conversion of Philip Doddridge. Doddridge penned the Rise and Progress of Religion, and that led to the conversion of Wilberforce. Wilberforce’s Practical View was the means of the conversion of Dr. Chalmers and Legh Richmond. How much good Chalmers did by his exalted genius, his burning piety, his sterling writings, it is impossible for any man to estimate; and I think we may safely say that the Dairyman’s Daughter, and other works of Legh Richmond, have been honoured by God to the salvation of thousands.
James 5:20. Thank God for the many instances in which one glowing soul, all aflame with love to God, has sufficed to kindle a whole heap of dead matter, and send it leaping skyward in ruddy brightness. Alas! for the many instances in which the wet, green wood has been too strong for the little spark, and has not only obstinately resisted, but has ignominiously quenched its ineffectual fire.—A. Maclaren, D.D.