James 5:20

Jeremiah says the same: "If you bring forth the honorable from the unworthy, you shall be as My mouth" ("and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you shall be as My mouth") (Jer. 15:19), for everyone who proclaims the words of God becomes …

Some interpret these verses as an apology which the apostle is making for himself that he should so plainly and sharply reprove the Jewish Christians for their many faults and errors. And certainly James gives a very good reason why he was so much concerned to reclaim them from their errors, because in thus doing he should save souls, and hide a multitude of sins.

And then, by such conversion of heart and life, a multitude of sins shall be hid. A most comfortable passage of scripture is this. We learn hence that though our sins are many, even a multitude, yet they may be hid or pardoned; and that when sin is turned from or forsaken it shall be hid, never to appear in judgment against us.

He shall save a soul - Of how much more value than the body! ver. 14. And hide a multitude of sins - Which shall no more, how many soever they are, be remembered to his condemnation.

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Let him know,....

The Greek verb in the middle voice requires this. Pr 10:12 refers to charity "covering" the sins of others before men; James to one's effecting by the conversion of another that that other's sins be covered before God, namely, with Christ's atonement.

JAMES is pre-eminently practical. If he were, indeed, the James who was called, "The Just," I can understand how he earned the title, for that distinguishing trait in his character shows itself in his Epistle, and if he were "the Lord's brother," he did well to show so close a resemblance to his great Relative and Master who commenced His ministry with the practical Sermon on the Mount. We ought to be very grateful that in the Holy Scriptures we have food for all classes of Believers and employment for all the faculties of the saints.

JAMES is pre-eminently practical. If he were, indeed, the James who was called, "The Just," I can understand how he earned the title, for that distinguishing trait in his character shows itself in his Epistle, and if he were "the Lord's brother," he did well to show so close a resemblance to his great Relative and Master who commenced His ministry with the practical Sermon on the Mount. We ought to be very grateful that in the Holy Scriptures we have food for all classes of Believers and employment for all the faculties of the saints. It was right that the contemplative should be furnished with abundant subjects for thought—Paul has supplied them—he has given to us sound doctrine, arranged in the symmetry of exact order. He has given us deep thoughts and profound teachings. He has opened up the deep things of God. No man who is inclined to reflection and thoughtfulness will be without food so long as the Epistles of Paul are extant, for he feeds the soul with sacred manna. For those whose predominating affections and imagination incline them to more mystic themes, John has written sentences aglow with devotion and blazing with love. We have his simple but sublime Epistles, Epistles which, when you glance at them, seem in their wording to be fit for children, but when examined, their sense is seen to be too sublime to be fully grasped by the most advanced of men. You have from that same eagled-eyed and eagle-winged Apostle the wondrous visions of the Revelation where awe, devotion and imagination may enlarge their flight and find scope for the fullest exercise. There will always be, however, a class of persons who are more practical than contemplative, more active than imaginative.

Let him know - Let him duly consider, for his encouragement, that he who is the instrument of converting a sinner shall save a soul from eternal death, and a body from ruin, and shall hide a multitude of sins; for in being the means of his conversion we bring him back to God, who, in his infinite mercy, hides or blots out the numerous sins which he had committed during the time of his backsliding.

Let him know - Let him who converts the other know for his encouragement. That he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way - Any sinner; anyone who has done wrong. This is a general principle, applicable to this case and to all others of the same kind. It is a universal truth that he who turns a sinner from a wicked path does a work which is acceptable to God, and which will in some way receive tokens of his approbation. Compare Deu 12:3. No work which man can perform is more acceptable to God; none will be followed with higher rewards. In the language which is used here by the apostle, it is evidently intended not to deny that success in converting a sinner, or in reclaiming one from the error of his ways, is to be traced to the grace of God; but the apostle here refers only to the divine feeling towards the individual who shall attempt it, and the rewards which he may hope to receive. The reward bestowed, the good intended and done, would be the same as if the individual were able to do the work himself. God approves and loves his aims and efforts, though the success is ultimately to be traced to himself. Shall save a soul from death - It has been doubted whether this refers to his own soul, or to the soul of him who is converted. Several manuscripts, and the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic versions, here read: “his soul.” The most natural interpretation of the passage is to refer it to the soul of the one converted, rather than of him who converts him. This accords better with the uniform teaching of the New Testament, since it is nowhere else taught that the method of saving our souls is by converting others; and this interpretation will meet all that the scope of the passage demands. […]