If One of You Should Wander

James 5:19-20 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

“19My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

 

Christian, if one of you

 

In context, this is speaking to us here about a fellow Christian, not of someone who is not of faith in Jesus Christ. So when it says, “if one of you should wander from the truth,” the indication is first of all that they were one of them, that they were a fellow believer in Christ, and that they once were of the truth, for you cannot wander from something you were never first part of. And when it says, “and someone should bring him back,” they had to have been of the truth to have wandered from it, and therefore they cannot be brought back to something if they were never part of in the first place.

 

And this is about bringing that fellow believer in Christ back to walking with the Lord in obedience to His commands and away from walking in sin. Whoever does that, whoever turns the sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and his (or her) sins will be forgiven them. So this also means that a fellow Christian can, at some point, wander from the faith, and fall back into sin, and be in danger of losing their salvation if they do not repent of their sin and turn back to God and follow Him in obedience to His commands. And this is taught all throughout the New Testament writings.

 

The Need to Repent and Obey

 

Now there are people who profess faith in Jesus Christ who never once died to their sins, and who never walked in obedience to our Lord’s commands in surrender to His will. They call themselves “Christians” because they made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but then they continued on in their sin, many of them believing that God would not judge them and that He did not require that they repent of their sin and obey our Lord’s commands as part of faith which saves. They do not fit here because they never had a change of heart and mind resulting in a change of behavior. They are the unsaved.

 

But whether we are speaking of the truly saved, who once died with Christ to sin and who were once walking in obedience to His commands, but who have since wandered from the faith and thus are in need to be brought back into genuine fellowship with God, or if we are speaking of those who professed faith in Christ with their lips but who never died to sin nor did they ever walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, or if we are speaking of those who never made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, they all still need to repent of (turn from) their sins and obey God to have faith which saves.

 

Our Focus in Evangelism

 

Now our focus in evangelism is not to be just toward those who have never confessed Christ as Lord and Savior. It also needs to be geared towards all who have made professions of faith in the Lord, some of whom never did deny self, die to sin, and obey God, and toward others who were once walking the Christian walk but who have since wandered from the truth of God’s word and who have fallen back into sin. In all cases they need to turn from (repent of) their sin and now obey God in life practice, in the power of God, if they are to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

 

Do Not Take God’s Grace for Granted

 

So, do not take God’s grace for granted. Do not presume upon God that He is going to let you into His heaven if you do not submit to Him as Lord of your life.

 

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to Him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) Him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to His commands, in His power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

 

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

If One of You Should Wander

An Original Work / September 30, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

The Prayer

 

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,

Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

 

I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

And help us to be wise

In times when we don't know

 

I pray we'll find your light

And hold it in our hearts

When the stars go out each night

Remind us where you are.

 

Let this be our prayer

When shadows fill our day

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqFCbtRz1Z0

 

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