Restoring One Who Falls

“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).

Unlike Paul who has a benediction to end his epistles, James puts in a final strong word about the responsibility of the church (and Christians) to bring back from error any who wander from the truth. James, wise pastor that he was, knew there would be those who would go after doctrines contrary to what Christ taught. We have developed a term for this: backsliding. In this present time of New Age teachings, it is very important that we weigh heavily the things we hear and evaluate them in the light of biblical truth. We have a responsibility, first of all, to witness to and win the sinner to the Lord. When the sinner accepts Christ as Savior that soul is ‘saved from death.’ Also, a ‘multitude of sins’ is covered. But to bring back the once-saved person who has wandered is a grave responsibility as well. Christians defecting from the church is a common occurrence. A comparison of almost any “church roll” with those who are active, in regular attendance and showing evidences of growing in grace and in knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will indicate how much we need to heed James’ admonition to restore the wanderers.

It is easy to think of the apostate (straying ones) as agents of the devil and therefore dismiss them with little effort to restore them to fellowship. “They should know better,” we often say. But maybe they don’t, or maybe the pull of the world has enticed them so strongly that they need positive, active Christian concern to awaken them. We read in Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife, But love cancels innumerable sins.” Peter must have had this proverb in mind when he wrote: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (Peter 4:8).

We have a saying about such spiritual wanderers: “They come in the front door of the church and leave by the back door.” That is, they lose their enthusiasm and desire to live a Christian life, and neglect soon becomes habit, and habit grows into a way of life absent from a nurturing, vital fellowship in the church. “He who waters others shall be watered also himself” was a well-known adage in the Jewish community of James’ day.

Think about the situation. What joy comes when a family member has been estranged and is restored. We should go after and seek to win back into active fellowship those who have become cold and indifferent. Eugene Peterson in The Message Bible gives these verses and their impact in a very strong appeal: “My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.” Think of ones you know who need to be restored to fellowship. Begin earnestly praying for them. Then cultivate their friendship and trust and gently “love” them back into fellowship. What a mission!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, October 29, 2010

Peter Receives an Assignment

“He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’ “ –John 21:17.

Consider Peter the impetuous, Peter the outspoken…Peter who had denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest while Jesus faced the death sentence. It was Peter, who, on the morning of this post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to disciples beside the Sea of Tiberias (or Galilee) said, “I am going fishing!” (John 21:3). Back to his old occupation! No thought of what he could do for Jesus, or that Jesus had said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Back to the sea, his nets, and no catch.

That is, no catch until Jesus whom the fishing disciples did not at first recognize called out from shore, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” (John 21:6). Their catch was large—John records 153 fish in all (21:11)--so big the net was broken.

When the disciples came ashore, Jesus had a fire going, and bread and fish cooking. And then Jesus turned to Peter, the one who had denied Him, and asked, three times: “Peter, do you love Me?” When Peter declared his love for the Lord, He told him the first time: “Feed my lambs”; the second time, “Tend my sheep”; and the third time, “Feed my sheep.”

Why the question three times? Some scholars hold that it was a reminder that Peter had denied Christ three times. Why a different command by Jesus to Peter: “Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my sheep?” Again, scholars can only surmise, but within these answers lie the progression of what teaching and nurturing a believer involve. Nourish my little lambs and feed them when they are young and tender in the faith. Tend my sheep; help them mature; they need much “tender-loving-care”; they need to be reminded: “greater is He that is in thee than he that is in the world” (I Peter 4:4). Feed my sheep; go beyond the ‘sincere milk of the Word’ (I Peter 2:2) to the status of royal priesthood in the Kingdom (see I Peter 2:9), and “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (I Peter 3:15).

There was Peter in the presence of the living Lord, the resurrected Lord. Jesus restored Peter to his status as a leader among the disciples. Jesus saw through the years and knew Peter’s life would not be easy. He told him in John 21:18: “but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” Peter lived to be a stalwart leader in the early church. His preaching on the Day of Pentecost led about three thousand to believe in the Lord (Acts 2:41). Peter was faithful unto death, following and doing what the Lord had assigned him to do: feeding lambs, tending sheep, feeding sheep. Church history reveals that Peter himself was crucified, but requested that he be placed upside down on the cross for he felt he was not worthy to be crucified upright in the same manner as was Jesus Christ.

Under great duress Peter had denied the Lord. With great love, Peter was restored to the Lord’s favor and assigned an important job in kingdom work. Peter’s one great mistake did not keep him from becoming an effective servant of the Lord. He was indeed able to “feed the Lord’s sheep.”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, April 7, 2010