James 5:13-20 - Part 5

One last week of relfections on this passage in James 5. Previous weeks can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

The final verses of James 5 say this, "My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way, will save that person from death and cover over a multitude of sins." (vs.19-20)

These verses are probably the ones in this passage I have the hardest time wrapping my head around. Parts of them make sense to me and other parts are a little more difficult. But, I guess that's often the case with Scripture.

James says that bringing someone who wanders back saves that person from death. That seems straightforward enough for me. If that person were to stay lost and not turn back to following God they would miss out on eternal life with God. So helping them turn back so that they are saved from death, makes sense.

But, the part that confuses me a bit is the part where is says that turning a person back to following God will cover a multitude of sins. I don't really understand what exactly what it means, so I really don't have anything to say about it. I guess over the years I've come to realize that it's okay to not always understand every detail of what Scripture says all the time. We shouldn't be content to stay there. We should seek to understand better each time. But we have to be okay with admitting when we jsut don't understand it.