We are our brothers’ keepers in spite of all they say and all that we may feel. You that are spiritual have a call to mind the broken lives all about you. There is no nobler work than this rescue work, to turn a sinner “from the error of his way.” It is so hard to get a man back on the right track. He, like all lost men, wanders round and round in his old tracks of sin and error. He is the victim of his own logical fallacies and sinful delusions. Though a giant, he is bound by the cords of the Lilliputians, the bonds of habit which he does not break.
It is enough to discourage any social worker in the slums or in the tenement districts of our cities to see the hopeless conditions in which the victims live. Drugs have fastened some with clamps of steel; drink has fired the blood of others; cigarettes have deadened the will of others; and immorality has hurled still others into the pit. They stumble into the rescue halls, “cities of refuge” in our cities. Happy are those who know how to save souls like these who have known better days and who have gone down into the valley of sin and sorrow. But it is worthwhile to save souls like these for whom Jesus died. Let the rescue worker know (by personal experience, in truth) that he “shall save a soul from death,” from a living death in which such a soul already finds itself and from eternal death as well. That is the reward of the winner of souls.
But it is not alone those who go down into the depths of gross sin, the “pick-me-ups” of life, that are to be won back. There are many who live in accord with the outward ethical standards of life who turn away from the knowledge of Jesus, who go after the strange gods of gold, of so-called knowledge, of materialistic monism, of “new thought,” of Christian Science, of Russellism, of any new fad in science or philosophy or religion, of any new form of old wives’ fables that lead men astray. These are, in reality, more difficult to win back to the truth as it is in Jesus, for they have the pride of knowledge and look with compassionate condescension on those who still worship Jesus as God and Saviour from sin.
The worker for souls has one more joy. He learns to see the good side of human nature. The bad side is there beyond a shadow of doubt. No man knows that better than the worker for the redemption of human souls. But this fact does not make him a pessimist or a cynic. He sees the angel in the stone. He learns the love that “shall cover a multitude of sins,” “hides a host of sins” (Moffatt), that covers with a veil the sins of the poor soul who wandered away and is now brought back. See 1 Peter 4:8 for the same idea.
This is not the Jewish doctrine of merit in good works balancing evil ones, as Oesterley holds. Mayor also thinks that the man who rescues another saves his own soul. But this interpretation seems out of harmony with the teaching of Jesus and the whole trend of the gospel message. We do not need to go back to these “blind guides” of Pharisaism to find the key to this verse and that in 1 Peter 4:8, where we read that “love covers a multitude of sins.” It is the love that no longer sees the sins of the saved sinner. We see the true idea in Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all transgressions.” See also Psalm 85:2: “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin.” In Luke 7:47 Jesus speaks of the love of the converted woman as proof that she has been forgiven much.
James presents the joy of the winner of souls who throws the mantle of love over the sins of the repentant sinner, the joy of the Shepherd who has found the lost sheep out on the mountain and is returning with him in his arms, the joy of the Father who welcomes the prodigal boy home with the best robe and the fatted calf, the joy in the presence of the angels that one sinner has repented and turned unto God. That is heaven on earth. The preacher who has missed this joy of winning souls has missed the greatest reward in his ministry. If he has this, he can do without much else. He can stand many rebuffs, small salary, lack of help, if only there is this meat to eat that satisfied the soul of Jesus when he led one poor abandoned woman into the light and life of God.
Select Bibliography
Dibelius, M., and Greeven, H. “Der Brief des Jakobus,” Meyer Kommentar. 1956. Easton, B. S., and Poteat, G. “James,” The Interpreter’s Bible. 1957. Hauck, F. “Die Kirchenbriefe.” N. T. Deutsch. 1949. Hort, F. J. A. The Epistle of St. James 1:1 to 4:7. 1909. Knowling, R. J. “Commentary on the Epistle of St. James,” The Westminster Series. 1904. Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. 1946. Marty, J. L’epitre de Jacques. 1935. Mayor, J. B. The Epistle of St. James. 1910. Moffatt, J. The General Epistles. 1928. Oesterley, W. “The General Epistle of James,” Expositor’s Greek Testament. 1910. Patrick, W. James, the Lord’s Brother. 1906. Plummer, A. “The General Epistle of St. James,” Expositor’s Bible. 1891. Ropes, J. H. “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James,” The International Critical Commentary. 1916. Ross, A. “James and the Johannine Epistles,” New International Commentary. 1954. Schlatter, A. Der Brief des Jakobus. 1932. Tasker, R. V. G. “The General Epistle of James,” Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. 1957. Windisch, H., and Preisker, H. “Die Katholischen Briefe,” Handbuch zum N. T. 1951.
Footnotes
[1]Our “James” comes through the Italian “Giacomo.” The name is common enough in the first century A.D.