Lesson 20: Faith that leads
James 5:19-20 
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 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.

We ended our last lesson with the statement that Jesus uses suffering in our lives to draw us to Himself. It is part of our sinful nature that we want to do things ourselves, in our own strength, according to our own way. When things go well for us, the temptation to believe we can accomplish our dreams or design our own destiny becomes stronger. It is only as we learn through suffering how this is not true that we come to God in complete submission to His will and His way. Just as our verses above tell us, we wander from the truth.

As we suffer, and learn to trust Jesus so we can encourage others too, to help them understand the uselessness of self-efforts.

 Verse 20 teaches us again that death is the consequence of sin. This verse does not teach that we can lose our salvation by sinning, but that we may die because of sin even if we are believers. Paul talked about this too, in 1 Corinthians 11:30 when he told the church at Corinth that many among them were weak or ill and some had even died because of sin. Paul continues in this chapter to say we must judge ourselves truthfully so that we will not be judged and condemned along with the world. We who are believers must never take God’s mercy and grace lightly. We must never presume that we can do anything we want and not suffer consequences just because we are believers.


Peter warns us how easily we might fall to temptation if we help someone in the way James is telling us. We may be tempted to judge the other person and think ourselves too strong to fall to the same temptations this person fell into. This is why Peter says in 2 Peter 3:17 – “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” He also gives us our way out of such temptation in the next verse - “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

 Our study in James is complete. We close, however, with this encouragement: faith does not stand alone. True faith does not stand WITH works; true faith in Jesus Christ is faith THAT works. It is faith which constantly grows in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is an action word – it follows wherever Jesus leads. Faith is a trusting word – it believes Him no matter what everyone else might say. Faith is a loving word – it begs those around us to come to Him too. Faith is a hope-filled word – it believes what it cannot see simply because Jesus has said it is so.

Memorize: 2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.