Terry Storch

Writing about life, leadership, faith, and anything else I find interesting.

James 5:19-20 - Play your part

 

James 5:19-20 - Play your part

I could pick a number of different ways to highlight the importance of playing a part. Think about your car...if one of your tires goes flat, the entire car is rendered nearly useless. Millions of parts on the car, and one of them isn’t playing it’s part, the car becomes unusable. The other day, my wife cut her thumb in the kitchen. Life got a bit harder with a thumb being nearly unusable for a while, she mentioned how hard it was to get her contacts in and out without the use of her thumb. I could go on, and on but I want to get to this really powerful closing to the book of James. We must play our part! If you knew that other Christians salvation was dependent on you, would that change the way you lived your life, the way you acted, the way you leaned into conversations? Here we go...

This is such an important topic, I am using a easy to read translation, and a more literal translation. (TPT, ESV)

“Finally, as members of God’s beloved family, we must go after the one who wanders from the truth and bring him back. For the one who restores the sinning believer back to God from the error of his way, gives back to his soul life from the dead, and covers over countless sins by their demonstration of love!” - ‭‭James (Jacob)‬ ‭5:19-20‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“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 ‭ESV‬‬

First we need to see the important opening of this verse, My brothers or we also read as member of God’s beloved family.  This is something we need to take to heart, and fully process. This letter was written to a scattered group of Christians, not just a single church. James is telling us, and modeling to us that all Christians, race, creed, gender, whatever, all Christians are our family our brothers and sisters. Actually, as I was studying this text I learned that EIGHT times in the book of James he uses My brothers! Unity is being preached here, family connection and bonding as Christ followers no matter the background, culture, and non-essential beliefs. 

Next we see James say we must go after the one who wanders from the truth and bring him back. James is not talking about unbelievers here, James is telling us that Christians are wandering from the truth. This is a great reminder that we must not jump to conclusions, or make assumptions that when we see people wandering, or sinning, or just doing stupid stuff that they are not Christians. That would be a leap into assuming, and we all know what assuming makes us to be, right? 

Here is the huge step into playing our part as a Christian, we are the someone or the whoever here.  Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Whoa, have you ever really read and taken this text in before? I can not tell you how many times I have read the book of James, and I just do not remember these closing verses. I do not remember a pastor every talking about this, or any devotional covering this. I am sure it’s happened, I just don’t recall every hearing about it or reading it. Let’s read this again, both verses in the ESV since it is more of a literal translation of the text. 

“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 ‭ESV‬‬

We have a significant part to play as Christ followers, as Christians. James is making it crystal clear that we as humans are agents of God that can save the wandering believers, we play a huge part in covering the multitude of sins. This is where the “body of Christ,” where community is so essential in our lives that we are surrounding, and surrounded by other solid Christians who can bring this accountability and radical love. We need and more than likely understand the God is the Shepard, he is the creator of all things and the great master, but we are his agents we as humans are working in concert with His mighty will to fulfill His plans. I really liked how John Piper put this, God is the lumberjack, we are His axe. The tree doesn’t get cut down without both. 

These few verses highlights the important role that we play in the body of Christ, and our part to play. This puts some significant weight and heaviness on us and in many ways I think that is good. Our time here on earth is limited, and we have a huge purpose to fill...and that is not padding our pockets, living for fun and wandering aimlessly or without purpose as Christians. We must play our part, in a really odd way to say it, but God needs us. Ok, that didn’t sound right, God would love to use us and can use us to complete His will, to bring those wandering Christians back to him. This is our part to play, we need to step into this today. 

If you want this text unpacked and broke down in a powerful way, here are 2 videos from John Piper.

Watch first - https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/bringing-back-a-wandering-believer

Watch second - https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/five-truths-about-eternal-security

other writing
John 20 - The Gospel

John 20 - The Gospel

The Gospel, the Good News! Jesus, Son of God, was born of Mary, lived as the Son of Man, died, and rose to life to rescue the world and bring about a new life. The central message of the gospel. Jesus, the centerpiece! John 19 & 20 cover the brutal death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

In this scene, I can not imagine how the disciples felt. John describes them as overjoyed...but those words just fall short of what I can imagine this moment was like.

John 19 - The Magnitude of the Cross

John 19 - The Magnitude of the Cross

The day of Jesus' crucifixion fulfilled 28 Old Testament prophecies. Scripture was fulfilled! Beyond that, trying to wrap my mind around what happened this day, on the cross, and fully grabbing the magnitude of the cross is mind-boggling.

Sure, we can dumb this down or simplify it to a place where I just don’t believe it is anywhere near accurate. We can get into penal substitution and argue over was God full of love or was God full of wrath and hate that he killed his son. To me, John 3:16 is pretty clear on the love part.

John 18 - Jesus levels an army

John 18 - Jesus levels an army

In John 18, we come to the great betrayal. Judas came with the soldiers, officials, and chief priest and Pharisees. We know the scene. But this morning, I saw something I don’t remember reading and surly don’t remember learning about.

“So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” - ‭‭John‬ ‭18:3-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

John 17 - The Lords Prayer

John 17 - The Lords Prayer

John 17 is Jesus looking heavenward and praying to God the Father. So much beauty and mystery in this prayer. One thing that jumps out to me is that Jesus, fully God, and fully man prayed. Jesus is God fully. Why did he need to pray, He was One with the Father, He was God...and yet he prayed. This is so powerful;

“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” - ‭‭John‬ ‭17:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

John 16 - What does it take to believe?

John 16 - What does it take to believe?

By the end of John 16, Jesus had done countless miracles, preached some amazing sermons, transformed so many lives, and developed a close and personal relationship with his disciples. So, when reading these verses, I am just utterly confused on so many levels.

“I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.” - ‭‭John‬ ‭16:28-31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

John 16 - Undervaluing God in Spirit

John 16 - Undervaluing God in Spirit

Jesus’ time on earth is quickly coming to a close, and he finishes up his last sermon or teaching to his disciples as they walk to Gethsemane. This final teaching was a heavy one that no doubt left his disciples with a heavy heart. Jesus said it this way;

“...None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.” - ‭‭John‬ ‭16:5-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus goes on to say;

John 15 - Constant Growth

John 15 - Constant Growth

We were built for growth, constant growth. From birth, all the way until our death, we were designed by God for constant growth. The problem is, we often can find ourselves stuck in a belief, a phase, or a part of life where we stop growing.

One of the most brilliant investors embodies this understanding. Charlie Munger, at 96 years old, is still learning and growing as a person. I love this quote:

“Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”
- Charlie Munger

John 14 - The Gift of Peace

John 14 - The Gift of Peace

John 14 opens with Jesus, saying, Don’t let your hearts be troubled. And the chapter closed down with Jesus saying Don’t be troubled or afraid.

A message that needs to resonate with our spirit and our inner self. This was such a good reminder, reading through John 14 over and over. This passage lifted off the screen.

“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart…

John 14 - Troubled Hearts

John 14 - Troubled Hearts

The world today seems so volatile and chaotic. Everywhere you look, whatever we read and see on TV just seems to be troubling. Last night, I noticed my lovely wife Tweeted this;

“I can’t be the only one who watches the news and is simply embarrassed right now, right? (Dear Jesus, we tap out. Come on back.)”

I find this first humorous, but then I also find it sad. It’s true, watching the news as a Christ-follower is pretty embarrassing. In John 14, we see Jesus…

John 13 - Unselfish Concern

John 13 - Unselfish Concern

Summarizing John, chapter 13, looks like this. The Lords Supper takes place. Jesus washes the disciple's feet. Jesus calls out Judas, and Satan enters him. Night comes, Judas leaves, and Jesus says he must go, and where I am going, you can not come. To cap it all off, Jesus also calls out Simon Peter and tells him that he will deny and completely disown Jesus three times. Whoa, a really full chapter, and historical day.

Nestled in the wrap up of the day is the parting message Jesus leaves his disciples, a message Jesus is sharing with us right now.

 
thoughtsTerry Storch