Concord Minute: Bring him home

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” — James 5:19-20

I am a fan of Broadway musicals. One musical I remember listening to on repeat as a kid was Les Misérables. In reading the last few words of James’ letter, I was reminded of a modern connection in that musical: the song “Bring Him Home.” If you haven’t heard the song before, here’s a synopsis: the main character, Jean Valjean, pleads to God that God might preserve the life of another man. The climax of “Bring Him Home” is when Valjean pleads that God would take Valjean’s life and not that of his fellow, younger man: “If I die, let me die, let him live, bring him home.” A moving plea for salvation and deliverance.

James desires his readers to bring [others] home. James says that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Anyone who leaves the faith and yet later is brought back to faith by someone in the faith will be saved. What joy to know the gravity of bringing someone home to Jesus.

The pronouns are tricky here though. Whose life is being saved in bringing someone back home (that is, to faith in Christ in the church?)? Whose sins are covered? The wayward sinner’s life? The Christian’s life? How do we understand these verses and pronouns? Consulting the Greek text of the New Testament (the original language James’ used to write to his readers) is helpful here. The Greek indicates that the person who comes back home will receive salvation from death and his/her sins will be covered. If anyone is keeping score at home, the sinner’s pronouns are in the genitive case (meaning belonging to or possession) with “wanderings” and “his soul.” At any rate for the rest of us, the simple reading of these words of James are thus: whoever brings a wayward sinner to repentance and faith is a blessed gift and should be praised. Whomever comes back to faith in Christ will save his/her soul from death and have his/her sins covered. What grace upon grace!

For many of us, we all know family and friends who have wandered from the faith (or truth, to use James’ terminology). How troubling and heartbreaking it is to see our loved ones fall away from God’s grace? The pleas of Jean Valjean are joined by our voices pleading to God that He would bring our loved ones home. Perhaps some have even pleaded that God would damn us and not our wayward family member or friend. “If I die, let me die. Let him live! Bring him home!” is our cry. James helps us know the gravity of our work to bring our loved ones to faith again. To bring our loved ones back home is the Spirit’s work through us. To bring our loved ones home is to save their souls from death, and their sins are covered for Jesus’ sake. What hope we have as Christians as we work to bring our wayward family and friends to faith: the wayward will be forgiven! They will have eternal life! They will be brought home.

The Rev. Matthew Berry is pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston, Missouri. Based in Sikeston’s Historic North End, Concordia is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a theologically conservative, biblically sound, Christ-centered church.