A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

VOLUME 2 NO. 8                                            APRIL 10, 2005

BRINGING THEM BACK

BY STEVE NIEMEIER

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”  (James 5:19-20)

Have you ever thought about what this passage is asking us that are “faithful” to do?  James is telling us that we should have contact with those that have known the truth and fallen away in order to teach them and try to turn them back to the Lord.  We are to go and bring back the erring one.

Evidently James did not understand what Paul had written in I Corinthians 5:9 or II Thessalonians 3:6 or II Thessalonians 3:14 or did he?  Paul mentions in II Thessalonians 3:15 that we are not to count a brother who has been withdrawn from or marked, as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.  Admonish means to warn him as a brother in Christ.

What are we to do then?  We can not associate with one who has been “marked” or, can we?  James is telling us that we should go and try to turn an erring brother back to the Lord and yet Paul is telling us not to associate with one who is walking disorderly.  Is there a contradiction here?  I do not believe so although many of our brethren stress the part of no association they seem to forget the part about admonishing and bringing back.

Certainly James is stressing the need to teach an erring brother that he is in error.  This may take time to do.  Paul is not instructing us not to take this time to teach.  He is instructing us not to uphold this erring brother in what we refer to as “keeping company with him” or “fellowship.”  Basically Paul is telling us not to socialize and maintain the same relationship with this disorderly onE as we did when they were striving to be faithful to the Lord.

The key here is that when we are faithful to the Lord there should be a relationship with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that we would miss if we fall back into sin.  Unfortunately, many congregations are struggling to develop this type of relationship that we are to have as children of God through Jesus Christ.  While we are limited to what we can do as a collective group, our limitations as individuals have broader boundaries.  Home Bible Studies are a thing of the past.  Having fellow brothers and sisters over for a meal is a thing of the past.  Meeting on a week night or weekend to eat at a restaurant or just to get together is a thing of the past.

We are not to be a part of the world (I John 2:15-17; Romans 12:2) but we are letting the activities of the world engulf us.  As we do that, an erring brother may not “miss” the relationship of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because he may have never experienced this relationship.  A relationship we see in the scriptures that we might use as an example is that of Jesus and His disciples.  They worshipped together, ate together, fished together and associated on a daily basis.  Certainly one that was “marked” from that association would have missed something.

Brethren it takes time and effort to develop the type of relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ that would be missed if one is “marked.”  Let us take time to develop this type of relationship as it will make our duties easier when we go and teach an erring brother in order to bring him back to the Lord.

Yes, James and Paul were on the same page concerning an erring brother.  The question is are we?