Study No. 10 -
The Judge is at the Door
James 5:1-20
James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
God says to us through the writer of the book of Hebrews, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, Heb 9:27
Judgment day is coming. What is the saying … the only sure thing in life is death and taxes? The second coming of Christ is called our ‘blessed hope’. The apostle John prayed ‘Come quickly, Lord Jesus”. The Thessalonian believers were said by Paul to have been ‘waiting for God’s Son from heaven. Paul says in Romans 8:23 that we wait ‘eagerly’ for the redemption of our bodies.
So which is it? Do we wait ...in apprehension for the judgment … or do we wait expectantly to see Jesus? A verse in particular that stands out in my mind is 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
The Apostle Paul (or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews) wrote Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Heb 13:17. We are left wondering what exactly the writer means when he says leaders might have to give an account before God … with grief.
What should be our attitude with respect to judgment day? This is what Paul said, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2Timothy 4:8
Paul had a wholesome attitude regarding judgment day. He looked forward to it. But he gave some cautionary advice to the Corinthians. no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1Co 3:11-15
It would seem the key to anticipating judgment day is to 'lay up your treasures in heaven' as Jesus instructed us to do.
Well, no matter what we say about it … it is a fact of life --- expect it!
In this final chapter James give us a list of things to keep in mind in light of God’s coming judgment day.
He now addresses those in the church with money and influence … and a poor record of generosity.
1 And now, you men of affluence, is the time for you to weep and wail because of the miseries in store for you!
These believers' attitudes seems to have been one of superiority, simply because they were better-off than others in the congregation. As a matter of fact, some of these well-off believers were ‘doing a favor’ for those who have showed up with just the clothes on their backs. They have given them employment. That was nice. But now they ‘had them over a barrel”.
These workers were in no position to argue or demand what was rightfully theirs. It sounds like these employers were very casual in their attention to paydays and in keeping with what was originally promised to the workers. And these employers are Christians … church members!
Let's read on …
2 Your riches are ruined, your fine clothes are moth-eaten, 3 your gold and silver are tarnished. Yes, their very tarnish will be evidence against you, and they will burn your flesh like fire. You have made a fine pile in these last days, haven’t you?
4 But look, here is the pay of the reaper you hired and whom you never paid, and it cries out against you! And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts himself.
5 Yes, you have had a magnificent time on this earth, and have indulged yourselves to the full. 6 You have picked out just what you wanted like soldiers looting after battle. You have condemned and ruined innocent men, and they are powerless to stop you.
The pastor of the Jerusalem church is writing to Christians who have fled from Jerusalem as far as Asia minor. They have settled there. They may wish that pastor James would just mind his own business. But no, scorching words from their former pastor have been etched into our Bibles and have been here for everyone to read for centuries. How embarrassing.
How will these Christian 'businessmen' respond? Will they repent? Hopefully they will, but in the meantime James says to the ones whose pay-cheques have been shorted,
7 But be patient, my brothers, as you wait for the Lord to come. Look at the farmer quietly awaiting the precious harvest of his land. See how he has to possess his soul in patience till the early and late rains have fallen.
8 So must you be patient, resting your hearts on the ultimate certainty. The Lord’s coming is very near
Have you ever been cheated, jilted, disrespected, abandoned or whatever by a Christian in your church circle? You have tried to make it up. They have been confronted … they have not repented nor changed their attitudes … and so you have just tried to let it go.
James is telling you to be patient. It will all work out in the end. That can be a bit hard to take. We would really like it to be sorted out here, before Jesus returns. That may never be possible. But James is giving some very solid advice here. Let it go. Vengeance is the Lord's, He will repay.
So he tells those who have been cheated,
9 Don’t make complaints against each other in the meantime, my brothers — you may be the one at fault yourself. The judge himself is already at the door.
Well there's a thought … we may also be at fault? We may have to confess all those bad, ugly thoughts that went have gone through our minds for years.
James says the Judge is at the door. He may have expected the Lord's return way back then. Or he may have in mind the brevity of life – like grass that today clothes the field, but tomorrow is dried up. Life is like that. Before we know it, it has 'gone and slipped away'.
James realizes, I think, that many of us do not like to be told things like, Be patient. God will sort everything out. And so he says what many of us parents have said to our kids ... “You are not alone. Others have faced this very same thing, and they were able to do it”
He tells us about some of those 'others'.
11 Remember that it is those who have patiently endured to whom we accord the word "blessed". You have heard of Job’s patient endurance and how the Lord dealt with him in the end, and therefore you have seen that the Lord is merciful and full of understanding pity.
Wow! Of all the examples to pick! Have you read Job? I am not sure how long it was from the time God temporarily gave Satan permission to test Job, to the time when it was all over. But I know it was long enough for him to lose one thing after another.
He lost his livestock to marauders, a storm flattened his home, his ten children were all in the home at the time and they were all killed. All of his servants were killed at the same time. His health is taken away and he suffers with extreme boils all over his body. He is given condemning counsel by his so-called friends. His wife encourages him to curse God and die.
But, in all of this Job did not blame God or charge him with unfairness.
So, what I hear James saying is … Job went through it and so can you.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we discover that God tests us within the limits of our specific ability to endure. We all need the patience to wait for Jesus to sort everything out. Until then, James said in verse 9, Don't get into disputes with others in the church.
As we look at the closing verses of this chapter and this book, we discover other things, that, in light of the fact that we too will soon meet the judge, we need to be careful about a number of other things as well.
The first thing to really watch is our language.
He says,
12 It is of the highest importance, my brothers, that your speech should be free from oaths (whether they are "by" heaven or earth or anything else). Your yes should be a plain yes, and your no a plain no, and then you cannot go wrong in the matter.
Always remember that the way God's children live and talk, reflects on God's reputation.
He goes on,
13 If any of you is in trouble let him pray. If anyone is flourishing let him sing praises to God.
Praying is better than complaining. And singing is better than boasting about our status and possessions
What does praying really accomplish? Some have said that it does not change the mind of God, it just changes ours so that it is in line with God's. In other words, there are those who think that praying does not change anything but ourselves.
Let's look closely at this next section. As we wait for Christ to return, and as we live our lives with respect for others in the church, we are also supposed live lives in which our faith is clearly evident.
Here is what James says about what our prayer lives should look like in the church.
14 If anyone is ill he should send for the church elders. They should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name.
15 Believing prayer will save the sick man; the Lord will restore him and any* sins that he has committed will be forgiven.
To some degree we already practice this in our churches, but there are a couple of things that often do not get mentioned.
Notice, if anyone is ill they should send for …
Usually we don't 'send' for the Elders. The Elders normally are already in church and we invite those who want prayer to come forward, or simply lift their hand to indicate they wish for prayer.
Could something is quite lacking in this picture? First, there is little or no privacy in the way we do it. Notice, any sins that he has committed will be forgiven ...
The correct and literal translation of the verse starts this way, And if … he has committed sins etc. What is the difference? We all sin … there is no IF about it, right? Not entirely.
There is something very specific going on here.
A little illustration can help:
Suppose you are living back in the days when doctors made house-calls. You likely would not call the doctor to come out at all hours to your house for something like a sniffle. As a matter of fact, you might wait a bit too long before you bother him with your problem.
But once you determine that something is 'bad wrong' and you make the call, you can expect some particular behavior from your doctor.
He will come into the room where you are lying … he might ask certain others to leave the room so that he can properly focus on your problem, and in the privacy of your room he may do things that hurt you. He may prod here, and ask, Does this hurt? No? What about here? Or here? You say “Ouch! Yes! That's it. You hit it exactly!”
Does the doctor enjoy hurting people? Probably not. Was it necessary? Evidently it was.
Now translate that over to what we are reading in James.
A man (or woman) is at home sick. Is He or she is sick enough to 'bother' a doctor to make a house-call? Or in our present day, is he or she ready to go into emergency? In James' scenario, this means he or she is sick enough to call the elders ... to come to where they are lying, sick.
Either before the doctor gets there, or after he is finished and has gone back home, the elders of James' time would do their thing.
Or, in our time, just before we call the ambulance, we call the Elders. They are the spiritual doctor. The elders want a bit of privacy and when they get it, they begin to probe. Not physically but spiritually.
They ask questions that could sound a bit hurtful. They are looking for the 'root' of the problem. So first, they need to rule out one cause of sickness, and that might possibly be some underlying sin that has been covered up. And so they ask a few questions. Like, How is your personal walk with God? Your prayer life? Your thought life? Etc. etc. The truth is, most of the time it is none of these, but James says IF it is, IF they have sinned, it can be confessed and they can receive forgiveness. That would take care of that part.
But once they have ruled that out, (or if certain sin has now been confessed) they will anoint him with oil and pray for him.
If we were to 'do it this way', we would see some drastic changes within our churches. In the privacy of their own homes we would see deep rooted sinful practices addressed and cured. We would see the healing hand of God raise people up. And besides this, we would see Elders who were doing an aspect of an Elder's work that is largely overlooked .
We would see a decrease in the number of people who would 'bother' the Elders for a spiritual 'sniffle'. And knowing that there would be some essential probing, that would be enough to discourage those whose requests would be relatively trivial.
James says that the 'prayer of faith' will raise the sick.
To illustrate real faith James talks about Elijah.
17 Do you remember Elijah? He was a man as human as we are but he prayed earnestly that it should not rain. In fact, not a drop fell on the land for three and a half years.
18 Then he prayed again, the heavens gave the rain and the earth sprouted with vegetation again.
Pray – prayer actually does change things. What about the foreknowledge of God? Since God has seen the outcome of all things, how can prayer change what God has already seen?
To better understand the foreknowledge of God it can be helpful to list other attributes of God.
What are they? Foreknowledge is only one of them.
God is love, He is eternal, Holy, Unchanging, almighty (or omnipotent), all knowing (or omniscient), present everywhere (or omnipresent), just to name a few.
But here's a question, since God is ‘almighty’ … is He using His full power to the max at all times? No.
Can He stop using His power whenever He wants to? Yes. We believe that God has the power to heal, so, could He heal everyone in the world in one second of time? Yes. Could He remove all sickness from the earth in one quick action? I think we would have to answer, Yes. Obviously He has decided not to for now. Which means He can limit His own power. There are some things He can do … but has chosen not to. And even if and when God limits His own power, He is still ALL mighty.
So when we define 'Omnipotent', we do it like this
God can do anything.
But when we define 'Omniscient' we say
God knows everything
But something is a little off here. To be consistent we need to say it this way:
God CAN do anything and God CAN know anything
This would mean that God can choose not to look ahead at certain things.
We have no choice but to believe what we read in the word … yes, God has foreknowledge as one of his attributes … but we also believe, according God’s word, that prayer changes the outcome of things. This would not be possible if God has already seen the outcome before we prayed.
(Case in point – the predicted death of king Hezekiah. 2 Kings 20:1-11)
Prayer is effective. Praying in the will of God is effective. Praying in faith is effective.
Elijah is given as an example. His prayer was effective. Was he praying for something he wanted for himself? No. He was praying according God’s will for Israel. We are to pray according to God’s will for His present kingdom.
In light of what James has just been saying about the Elders coming and praying, and if sins that needed confessing were discovered and dealt with, he adds these final words,
19 My brothers, if any of you should wander away from the truth and another should turn him back on to the right path,
20 then the latter may be sure that in turning a man back from his wandering course he has rescued a soul from death, and in so doing will "cover a multitude of sins".
Reconciliation in the body of Christ can be such a rewarding thing. We are called to that ministry. Elders in particular are called to a ministry that will affect the spiritual health of the body. And, in this case, even the physical health.
This ministry, says James, can be a ‘life-saving’ ministry. This means it can even affect judgment day.
James has shared so much with us. He has said, “Count it all joy when you are called on to suffer various trials.”
He said a crown of life awaits.
He has scolded the rich or well-to-do in the church for taking advantage of those needing work. He has encouraged the down-trodden to wait for the Judge who will sort it all out at the end.
He has shown us the importance of guarding our tongues and our attitudes.
And to sum everything up, he has reminded us that the Judge is at the door!
God says to us through the writer of the book of Hebrews, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, Heb 9:27
Judgment day is coming. What is the saying … the only sure thing in life is death and taxes? The second coming of Christ is called our ‘blessed hope’. The apostle John prayed ‘Come quickly, Lord Jesus”. The Thessalonian believers were said by Paul to have been ‘waiting for God’s Son from heaven. Paul says in Romans 8:23 that we wait ‘eagerly’ for the redemption of our bodies.
So which is it? Do we wait ...in apprehension for the judgment … or do we wait expectantly to see Jesus? A verse in particular that stands out in my mind is 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
The Apostle Paul (or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews) wrote Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Heb 13:17. We are left wondering what exactly the writer means when he says leaders might have to give an account before God … with grief.
What should be our attitude with respect to judgment day? This is what Paul said, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2Timothy 4:8
Paul had a wholesome attitude regarding judgment day. He looked forward to it. But he gave some cautionary advice to the Corinthians. no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1Co 3:11-15
It would seem the key to anticipating judgment day is to 'lay up your treasures in heaven' as Jesus instructed us to do.
Well, no matter what we say about it … it is a fact of life --- expect it!
In this final chapter James give us a list of things to keep in mind in light of God’s coming judgment day.
He now addresses those in the church with money and influence … and a poor record of generosity.
1 And now, you men of affluence, is the time for you to weep and wail because of the miseries in store for you!
These believers' attitudes seems to have been one of superiority, simply because they were better-off than others in the congregation. As a matter of fact, some of these well-off believers were ‘doing a favor’ for those who have showed up with just the clothes on their backs. They have given them employment. That was nice. But now they ‘had them over a barrel”.
These workers were in no position to argue or demand what was rightfully theirs. It sounds like these employers were very casual in their attention to paydays and in keeping with what was originally promised to the workers. And these employers are Christians … church members!
Let's read on …
2 Your riches are ruined, your fine clothes are moth-eaten, 3 your gold and silver are tarnished. Yes, their very tarnish will be evidence against you, and they will burn your flesh like fire. You have made a fine pile in these last days, haven’t you?
4 But look, here is the pay of the reaper you hired and whom you never paid, and it cries out against you! And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts himself.
5 Yes, you have had a magnificent time on this earth, and have indulged yourselves to the full. 6 You have picked out just what you wanted like soldiers looting after battle. You have condemned and ruined innocent men, and they are powerless to stop you.
The pastor of the Jerusalem church is writing to Christians who have fled from Jerusalem as far as Asia minor. They have settled there. They may wish that pastor James would just mind his own business. But no, scorching words from their former pastor have been etched into our Bibles and have been here for everyone to read for centuries. How embarrassing.
How will these Christian 'businessmen' respond? Will they repent? Hopefully they will, but in the meantime James says to the ones whose pay-cheques have been shorted,
7 But be patient, my brothers, as you wait for the Lord to come. Look at the farmer quietly awaiting the precious harvest of his land. See how he has to possess his soul in patience till the early and late rains have fallen.
8 So must you be patient, resting your hearts on the ultimate certainty. The Lord’s coming is very near
Have you ever been cheated, jilted, disrespected, abandoned or whatever by a Christian in your church circle? You have tried to make it up. They have been confronted … they have not repented nor changed their attitudes … and so you have just tried to let it go.
James is telling you to be patient. It will all work out in the end. That can be a bit hard to take. We would really like it to be sorted out here, before Jesus returns. That may never be possible. But James is giving some very solid advice here. Let it go. Vengeance is the Lord's, He will repay.
So he tells those who have been cheated,
9 Don’t make complaints against each other in the meantime, my brothers — you may be the one at fault yourself. The judge himself is already at the door.
Well there's a thought … we may also be at fault? We may have to confess all those bad, ugly thoughts that went have gone through our minds for years.
James says the Judge is at the door. He may have expected the Lord's return way back then. Or he may have in mind the brevity of life – like grass that today clothes the field, but tomorrow is dried up. Life is like that. Before we know it, it has 'gone and slipped away'.
James realizes, I think, that many of us do not like to be told things like, Be patient. God will sort everything out. And so he says what many of us parents have said to our kids ... “You are not alone. Others have faced this very same thing, and they were able to do it”
He tells us about some of those 'others'.
11 Remember that it is those who have patiently endured to whom we accord the word "blessed". You have heard of Job’s patient endurance and how the Lord dealt with him in the end, and therefore you have seen that the Lord is merciful and full of understanding pity.
Wow! Of all the examples to pick! Have you read Job? I am not sure how long it was from the time God temporarily gave Satan permission to test Job, to the time when it was all over. But I know it was long enough for him to lose one thing after another.
He lost his livestock to marauders, a storm flattened his home, his ten children were all in the home at the time and they were all killed. All of his servants were killed at the same time. His health is taken away and he suffers with extreme boils all over his body. He is given condemning counsel by his so-called friends. His wife encourages him to curse God and die.
But, in all of this Job did not blame God or charge him with unfairness.
So, what I hear James saying is … Job went through it and so can you.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we discover that God tests us within the limits of our specific ability to endure. We all need the patience to wait for Jesus to sort everything out. Until then, James said in verse 9, Don't get into disputes with others in the church.
As we look at the closing verses of this chapter and this book, we discover other things, that, in light of the fact that we too will soon meet the judge, we need to be careful about a number of other things as well.
The first thing to really watch is our language.
He says,
12 It is of the highest importance, my brothers, that your speech should be free from oaths (whether they are "by" heaven or earth or anything else). Your yes should be a plain yes, and your no a plain no, and then you cannot go wrong in the matter.
Always remember that the way God's children live and talk, reflects on God's reputation.
He goes on,
13 If any of you is in trouble let him pray. If anyone is flourishing let him sing praises to God.
Praying is better than complaining. And singing is better than boasting about our status and possessions
What does praying really accomplish? Some have said that it does not change the mind of God, it just changes ours so that it is in line with God's. In other words, there are those who think that praying does not change anything but ourselves.
Let's look closely at this next section. As we wait for Christ to return, and as we live our lives with respect for others in the church, we are also supposed live lives in which our faith is clearly evident.
Here is what James says about what our prayer lives should look like in the church.
14 If anyone is ill he should send for the church elders. They should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name.
15 Believing prayer will save the sick man; the Lord will restore him and any* sins that he has committed will be forgiven.
To some degree we already practice this in our churches, but there are a couple of things that often do not get mentioned.
Notice, if anyone is ill they should send for …
Usually we don't 'send' for the Elders. The Elders normally are already in church and we invite those who want prayer to come forward, or simply lift their hand to indicate they wish for prayer.
Could something is quite lacking in this picture? First, there is little or no privacy in the way we do it. Notice, any sins that he has committed will be forgiven ...
The correct and literal translation of the verse starts this way, And if … he has committed sins etc. What is the difference? We all sin … there is no IF about it, right? Not entirely.
There is something very specific going on here.
A little illustration can help:
Suppose you are living back in the days when doctors made house-calls. You likely would not call the doctor to come out at all hours to your house for something like a sniffle. As a matter of fact, you might wait a bit too long before you bother him with your problem.
But once you determine that something is 'bad wrong' and you make the call, you can expect some particular behavior from your doctor.
He will come into the room where you are lying … he might ask certain others to leave the room so that he can properly focus on your problem, and in the privacy of your room he may do things that hurt you. He may prod here, and ask, Does this hurt? No? What about here? Or here? You say “Ouch! Yes! That's it. You hit it exactly!”
Does the doctor enjoy hurting people? Probably not. Was it necessary? Evidently it was.
Now translate that over to what we are reading in James.
A man (or woman) is at home sick. Is He or she is sick enough to 'bother' a doctor to make a house-call? Or in our present day, is he or she ready to go into emergency? In James' scenario, this means he or she is sick enough to call the elders ... to come to where they are lying, sick.
Either before the doctor gets there, or after he is finished and has gone back home, the elders of James' time would do their thing.
Or, in our time, just before we call the ambulance, we call the Elders. They are the spiritual doctor. The elders want a bit of privacy and when they get it, they begin to probe. Not physically but spiritually.
They ask questions that could sound a bit hurtful. They are looking for the 'root' of the problem. So first, they need to rule out one cause of sickness, and that might possibly be some underlying sin that has been covered up. And so they ask a few questions. Like, How is your personal walk with God? Your prayer life? Your thought life? Etc. etc. The truth is, most of the time it is none of these, but James says IF it is, IF they have sinned, it can be confessed and they can receive forgiveness. That would take care of that part.
But once they have ruled that out, (or if certain sin has now been confessed) they will anoint him with oil and pray for him.
If we were to 'do it this way', we would see some drastic changes within our churches. In the privacy of their own homes we would see deep rooted sinful practices addressed and cured. We would see the healing hand of God raise people up. And besides this, we would see Elders who were doing an aspect of an Elder's work that is largely overlooked .
We would see a decrease in the number of people who would 'bother' the Elders for a spiritual 'sniffle'. And knowing that there would be some essential probing, that would be enough to discourage those whose requests would be relatively trivial.
James says that the 'prayer of faith' will raise the sick.
To illustrate real faith James talks about Elijah.
17 Do you remember Elijah? He was a man as human as we are but he prayed earnestly that it should not rain. In fact, not a drop fell on the land for three and a half years.
18 Then he prayed again, the heavens gave the rain and the earth sprouted with vegetation again.
Pray – prayer actually does change things. What about the foreknowledge of God? Since God has seen the outcome of all things, how can prayer change what God has already seen?
To better understand the foreknowledge of God it can be helpful to list other attributes of God.
What are they? Foreknowledge is only one of them.
God is love, He is eternal, Holy, Unchanging, almighty (or omnipotent), all knowing (or omniscient), present everywhere (or omnipresent), just to name a few.
But here's a question, since God is ‘almighty’ … is He using His full power to the max at all times? No.
Can He stop using His power whenever He wants to? Yes. We believe that God has the power to heal, so, could He heal everyone in the world in one second of time? Yes. Could He remove all sickness from the earth in one quick action? I think we would have to answer, Yes. Obviously He has decided not to for now. Which means He can limit His own power. There are some things He can do … but has chosen not to. And even if and when God limits His own power, He is still ALL mighty.
So when we define 'Omnipotent', we do it like this
God can do anything.
But when we define 'Omniscient' we say
God knows everything
But something is a little off here. To be consistent we need to say it this way:
God CAN do anything and God CAN know anything
This would mean that God can choose not to look ahead at certain things.
We have no choice but to believe what we read in the word … yes, God has foreknowledge as one of his attributes … but we also believe, according God’s word, that prayer changes the outcome of things. This would not be possible if God has already seen the outcome before we prayed.
(Case in point – the predicted death of king Hezekiah. 2 Kings 20:1-11)
Prayer is effective. Praying in the will of God is effective. Praying in faith is effective.
Elijah is given as an example. His prayer was effective. Was he praying for something he wanted for himself? No. He was praying according God’s will for Israel. We are to pray according to God’s will for His present kingdom.
In light of what James has just been saying about the Elders coming and praying, and if sins that needed confessing were discovered and dealt with, he adds these final words,
19 My brothers, if any of you should wander away from the truth and another should turn him back on to the right path,
20 then the latter may be sure that in turning a man back from his wandering course he has rescued a soul from death, and in so doing will "cover a multitude of sins".
Reconciliation in the body of Christ can be such a rewarding thing. We are called to that ministry. Elders in particular are called to a ministry that will affect the spiritual health of the body. And, in this case, even the physical health.
This ministry, says James, can be a ‘life-saving’ ministry. This means it can even affect judgment day.
James has shared so much with us. He has said, “Count it all joy when you are called on to suffer various trials.”
He said a crown of life awaits.
He has scolded the rich or well-to-do in the church for taking advantage of those needing work. He has encouraged the down-trodden to wait for the Judge who will sort it all out at the end.
He has shown us the importance of guarding our tongues and our attitudes.
And to sum everything up, he has reminded us that the Judge is at the door!