Books of James & Jude - Additional word's from James - James 5:12, 19-20

Alright, so these are the two verses. I'd like to have someone read, let's just go back to verse 13 in James 5, verses 13-20. If someone could read that, kind of get the context of these two verses. Is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth, and someone should bring him back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner in the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins. Thanks, Ingrid. OK, so our two verses are, my brethren, if anyone among you strays from the truth, And one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. So there's a lot of different ideas out here about these verses. Wow. So let's just look. I actually have, OK. So first of all, who is James addressing in this verse?

So there seem to be two possibilities. First you talk about my brethren, so we know the believers, my brethren or my brothers. So one possibility is one who strays from the truth, because he starts off, he says, if any among you stray from the truth, but then he talks about another person, the one who turns him back. So we've got two people here, two people involved, it seems like. We've got the one who strayed from the truth and the one who turns him back. So who do you think, who is he primarily talking to here? Or is it both? In the context of verse 20, it would seem he's addressing one who is going to turn it back.

And that's what I thought also. It seems like he's encouraging, and in this context, you look at that, and wouldn't you agree, he sought out my brethren, and he says, any among you, well that's another brother, right? And so there's a brother that strays, and then there's a brother that turns him back. So it's fellowship. It's fellowship within the body, it seems like to me, that's going on here.

Some have taken this to be totally, I mean, this is for unbelievers. Actually, the word, unfortunately, for turns a sinner back is convert. And some, I think in the King James, is convert. So people have all kinds of ideas about these two verses. But I think looking at them, The way it's written, and we're going to look at some of the Greek as well here, it looks like it's one believer, a brother is straying from the truth, and that's kind of a key word. Stray is better than wanders, I think. I'll show you why. And then there's a brother who turns him back, who gets him back on the right track. And there's two results of that which are kind of challenging too.

It saves the soul from death. As Jim pointed out very strongly, it's important to put it in the context of where this is in church history, and you're in that early part of developing a complete Christian theology, as it were. And the people there had such strong pull from their culture and tradition that they were tempted to say, well, Greece sounds wonderful, but where I've been raised and where my friends are and where my country is and all those sorts of things would tend to caused them to stray. Right, right. And notice it's, you know, it's straying, it's straying from the truth, right? So the truth, you know, God's word, so a brother is straying from what has been revealed to him. And that's, you know, that's something that, and I think James has kind of already addressed this issue. I'm going to kind of relate this back. So let's kind of get into this here. Okay. So first of all, it's kind of interesting here.

The main, if you look at this, this is one sentence, right? One sentence, the subject is my brethren, and then there's this, marked off by commas, there's this conditional statement, there's an if statement here. So if you kind of skip over that for a second, my brethren let him know. That's kind of the main subject in the verb. My brethren let him know.

And so there's an if statement there. And then the rest of it just modifies that verb. That he who turns a sinner, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's all following that. And that's actually the direct object. It's a big one. So the main part is, my brethren, let him know. So actually, let him know is this word gnosko, which we see quite a bit. There's a couple words for truth in the New Testament. Gnosko is to be taking in knowledge. It translates sometimes to recognize or understand.

So let's look at, and actually what's interesting here, this is just not a suggestion. It's in the imperative, which is the command, and it's something that we're commanded to do on an ongoing basis. We're to be turning, you know, if this is brother to brother, if we see a brother and he's straying off, we're to be pointing him back to the truth. I think this happens naturally. I mean, you know, you're talking with somebody, and if they're involved in something, that's not good. You just do that because you love them. largely what's going on here in this passage.

So let's look at these two other, actually Gnosko only occurs three times in James, so let's look at those two other occurrences. So could someone read James, let's read James 1, 2, and 3. James 1, 1, 2, and 3? James chapter 1, verses 2 and 3. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So we started way back in January, this year, we started with these early verses. And so he says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

And then he says, knowing, and that's where we can also go here, knowing, that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So that's something we're to know. We're to know that. In a way, it's hard. How can we be joyful in the midst of trials? This is a testing for approval, and it produces endurance in your life, an abiding under power. So that's the first usage. And then down in chapter 2 is the next usage, 2.20.

For someone to read that? But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Okay, right. So actually, Doris, you had, what was the word you, read the very first part of verse 20 there, again, for me. Verse 20? Yeah. Yeah, but wilt thou know, O vain man. Oh, okay, right. Sorry, that's fine. Will wilt thou know. Okay, so that's our word, know. Or mine has recognize. So it's the same word.

So we're to know or to recognize mind has foolish fellow that faith without works is useless so that's the second thing he wants us to know and then the third thing he wants us to know and it's a command is is that my brethren, let him know, and then it's the rest of that direct object. He who turns a sinner from the error of his ways who will save his soul from death and cover him up to his sin. So three times he's talking about something he wants us to know. And this is the third one. And I think this is a pretty important one in terms of realizing that that's part of what the body of Christ is all about. That's what's part of the interaction between brothers in the body of Christ. So that kind of starts it off there.

And then we're going to kind of look at the if statement for a while, and then we're going to look at the direct object there, that whole last part. So any questions about this kind of main central part? OK, good. All right, so let's go on. So now we're going to look at the if statement. The if statement, it kind of sets up the ground rules or the conditions for the dialogue. And there's several, if you're a Greek scholar or whatever, there's several classes of if statements. And this if statement is what they call third class.

It presents a condition that's uncertain. So it may be that he strays from the truth, but he may not stray from the truth. what you'd expect. We don't want our brothers and sisters straying from the truth. We don't want to stray from the truth. But that can happen. And it's a likely possibility. So that's the context there.

So there are really two parts to that. Part one is, if any among you stray from the truth, that kind of sets it. And the second part is, and one turns him back. So we've got the one straying from the truth and the one who turns him back. So that's the two parts. We're going to look at each part of those. Alright, so let's look at the first one. If any among you stray from the truth. Okay, we've kind of already answered this.

Any among you, in the context, just by the way it's stated, it starts with my brethren, it's a brother, it's a brother in the Lord. And once again, just kind of look at the subject and verb. And it's interesting, it really helps out if you, and there's some helps that are available.

Hal used to, I mean Doris remembers this and others, he would get up here and he would diagram the sentences, right? And that would drive people crazy. Oh, Hal, what are you doing, you're diagramming sentences. I didn't like English to start with, and why are you doing that?

But actually it's pretty helpful. It's even more helpful for me as somebody else has already diagrammed it. So it's my diagram. But what I do, I go and I look at their diagram. I don't have to agree with it. I'm not sure I can disagree in many cases. I took the class from Hal, but I didn't learn as much as I should, I guess. So anyway, to make a long story short, it helps out to identify the subject verb and so on.

So actually in this statement, any among you is a subject. Strays is a verb, and from the truth is a prepositional phrase. So what does that all mean here? So strays is a verb. Verbs are important, right? So this is why I think wander is not the best. If you have wonder, like the King James has wander, I think strays or maybe error is better.

And it's actually in the passive voice. And what that means is that you're being acted upon. So what's happening is, and this is just so much what James is talking about back in chapter one, what happens, right? Your brother, a trial comes along, right? And it may be a trial of error conceivably. And you go off. You're attracted by the world, the flesh of the devil. And so I think it's very much in line with being led astray. And the Lord doesn't want us to do that. He doesn't want us to be led astray. And it's happening to us.

So there's a couple of verses that I want to look at. They're actually back in chapter 1 again. That's why I said chapter 1 kind of links back to this. So actually, all those verses are together. But let's just read the 16 first. Or I'll read 16 first. So James chapter 1, verse 16. It uses our word here, strays.

It says, do not be deceived, my beloved brother. So basically, it's the same word. It says, basically, do not be led astray, my beloved brother. So that's what James, he doesn't want us to be led astray, right? So now let's read the verses before that. 13-15. And this is the temptation process. Remember the picture we had of the stair step? Hal's favorite stair step?

13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil. and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one of us is tempted when he is carried away, enticed by his own lust, and when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

So I think this verse really helps us out. Because it uses some of the same words. It uses death in it. And so we're going to have to struggle with what death is he talking about here? That's kind of key. So I think this is kind of pointing back to what we saw at the very beginning of James. This being led astray or deceived. James doesn't want us to go down this path of being led astray or deceived. And then I just basically said, and we already kind of answered this, what are they being led astray from? And right in the context, it's from the truth, right?

So that fits very well back with the first early verses in James, about being tempted, drawn away, and Hal's little picture of this little stair step, and then finally you take the bait, you sin, and that brings forth death, and we have to define what that death is, and we have to define what this death is here as well. So you kind of see what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to tie it back to the early part of James.

I think it's warranted. Now some have gone off on a different path on this verse, but I think staying with how James is trying to interpret it based on what James has done before, I think it fits very well with what he's taught us before in chapter 1. Okay, I'm going to move on. Let's go.

So the second part of the if statement, and the one who turns him back. Now, actually, like in the King James, I believe, or maybe in others, they'll have converts. The one who turns them back, converts. Well, I think that can give you the wrong, personally, I think it can give you the wrong impression. Because you think, well, is he talking about an unbeliever here? I think it doesn't fit. And literally, the word turn, so basically, who is the one that turns back? And I believe it's a believer. But some would disagree with that. They'd say, well, I think it's an unbeliever. Well, turns back.

And once again, if you do a subject verb, basically, turns as a verb, turns back as a verb. Epistrepo, to turn about or towards, to cause to return from error. So in this case, it's in the active voice. The one, the other brother, is actively desiring and turning back to the truth, basically.

What's interesting is this word, turns back, is translated many times return. Many times it's used in a salvation sense. I really could not find, and I didn't look exhaustively, most of the cases of this is used in the salvation sense. So I can kind of see why a person might say, well, that word turns back is used for salvation many times.

I'm going to interpret that the same way here. So let's look at that verse right there, 1 Peter 2.25. Can someone read that verse for us?

1 Peter 2.25. Where you were a sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. So what do you think about that? Is that talking about... Let's go back and actually read back a little bit farther here. So if you go back here, let's just go back from that verse and let's go back here.

21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps. 22 Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while he was being reviled, he did not revile in return. 23 While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept on entrusting himself to him who judged righteously. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but you now have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." So it seems like in that context it's salvation. So anyway, to make a long story short, there are not too many.

I couldn't find one offhand. I haven't looked exhaustively. So I'm taking it in the local context. It seems like in the local context, it's turning a brother back from straying from the truth, not salvation. That's my point. But there are not a whole lot of verses that is used in that sense outside of this verse, and maybe none other. I didn't actually look at every single one.

So hopefully it isn't too much of a question mark in our minds. Okay, so let's go ahead. Verse 20 now. So basically, we have my brother, let him know that, now we're going to look at the that part. So two things in that. Okay, so here comes one of the interesting questions.

Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death. So why call, if you look back, that's referring back to the person that strays from the truth, why is he called a sinner, do you think? Is that justified? Aren't we saints? Yeah, usually a sinner refers to an unbeliever.

Right, right. But maybe he's just not acting like who he is. Okay, I like that, I like that. So actually, James has used the same phraseology before, and that always helps. So let's see what he said before. He called a believer a sinner. And if you think about it, when we sin, We're a sinner, right? But that's not our position, right? That's our condition. So that's key. You can see how, if you may notice a position and condition, it would be very, very difficult to wade through this.

Look at James 4, verse 8. So can someone read that James 4 verse 8? Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So is that talking to believers or unbelievers? Well it starts off, if you go back to verse 7, he says, Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And then he continues on, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded so so I think when we cover that before we we treated that as being a believer right those passages so I'm just kind of pointing out the heat that James has used and here's kind of the thing I think the owl is pointing out that you know he's looking at the bottom line if you act like a sinner I'm going to call you a sinner right I mean that's kind of James's whether he's not looking at He's not doing the whole Pauline thing and saying, well, you're actually seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

That hasn't been revealed yet. He says, if you act like a sinner, I'm going to call you a sinner. Now, that doesn't mean that your position is a sinner. You're a saint, but you're acting like a sinner. So I think that's, to my mind, what he's talking about here.

So should we ever refer to ourselves as sinners or no? Not in the light of what we have in Paul's epistles, we're saints. But James calls us a sinner, and twice he calls us a sinner. And I know, I mean, if we sin... So can we call somebody a sinner? I mean, if you're a believer and you commit something, you sin and you go to jail, Then you're a sinner.

Then you're a sinner, but don't go to jail, you're not a sinner right now. This whole idea of using words is so important to put in context. Because I just was over in 1 John chapter 3. Right. Whoever abides in Him, capitally, does not sin. Right. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. I know. He who practices righteousness is righteous. He who sins is of the devil.

And so, there, if you only read that section, you would be in a mental dilemma. And you'd say, well, the Bible is full of contradiction and error. And that's what people do. They pull out a verse, and they say, look at this verse. How can you believe this? Well, let's take a look at what John's message is and who he's writing to and what he's trying to get across. And he's talking about our position in Christ. So you're right. I know. So that's why it's key. If you don't have position and condition understood, you're going to have a very difficult time Actually a couple of years ago we did First John. The same group of folks. Actually it's on the website. Did Jeremy do it? Jim wasn't here, I don't think, at that point. Anyway, we did that, and there's challenging verses in that. We had some real tussles with that one. I think this is consistent.

James has used the word for believers, calling them sinners, because they strayed from the truth. That's why he's calling them He's not looking from the bigger perspective that we're seeing with Christ and the heavenlies. If you're a believer in sinning, I'm going to call you a sinner. That's how I look at it. So that kind of clears up the sinner part. So now, there are two statements here. We'll save his soul, so he said, he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways.

Actually, I didn't have a chart in this, but error, this word error, right here, error and strays are the same root word. This is a verb and this is a noun, but they are the same word. So it's basically like, what did we say the arrow was? What did we say stray was?

It's still to be led astray, to wander, which is not the best. Strays is that you're being kind of sucked in, so to speak, wanders. I'm just kind of, well, I don't know. Strays, if I'm not a little stronger, that you got caught up with something. Strays is like you're a sheep and you see a clump of green grass over there out of the pasture. Whereas wander, you don't know where you're going. You just sort of know a particular goal in mind. Well, strays also implies to me temptation. That's what James talked about in the beginning.

You're tempted, you're drawn away from Christ to some other thing you think is the truth, but it's not the truth. But that's an interesting way of reading that. If anything among you strays, He who turns a sinner from the strays of his ways. He who turns a sinner from the strays of his ways. Actually, strays is the same word. This is a noun form, that's a verb form. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death.

Okay, now here we go. We actually kind of covered this before. And it uses death back in chapter one. So what kind of death is being spoken of here? And rather than have you just sit. So let's eliminate one right off the bat. If you take this as for unbelievers, then that would be a view. This is not eternal death, right? There can't be eternal death.

So the other two possibilities is that is actually a believer going home to be with the Lord. Physical death, right? Like in Corinthians, Ananias and Sapphira. Remember, they physically died because they lied to the Holy Spirit. And God gives us that example of a believer sinning to the point where he'll take them home. It could be that death. Many have translated it that way. They'll say, well, that's physical death. I have less of a problem with that.

And then the third possibility is what we saw back in chapter 1, where it says, remember in chapter 1 it said, But each one is tempted when he is carried away enticed by his own lust. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

So that's loss of fellowship, right? Loss of fellowship with the Lord. What we call spiritual death. So in this context, I camped on that one. If I go back to chapter 1 and he talks about death in chapter 1 and it's loss of fellowship, because if you turn away from the truth, you're not fellowshipping with the Lord.

So if he who turns a sinner, a sinning believer from the error of his ways, will save his soul from that death, separation, from fellowship, and then the last part will cover multitudes of sins. We're going to talk about that too. So that's my approach. I looked at the field of commentaries of some. I found one unbeliever, physical death, And then, did anybody agree with me? No. Anyway. Just James. Just James. James agrees with James.

I'm standing on that. So I believe that's lots of fellowship here. And the last part here is we'll cover a multitude of sins. Okay, well cover is this word, I'm not sure I can pronounce it, calopto, to envelop, to wrap around the shell or plaster, cover over. Of course, that's kind of the physical meaning. So let's look at 1 Peter. There's a very similar phraseology here in 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4a.

Did somebody read that? be hospitable to one another, and above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins." So here in that verse he says love covers a multitude of sins. In this verse he says if you turn a sinner from the error of his ways, a sinning believer from the error of his ways, that will cover a multitude of sins.

So I thought what was in view here So what's the process in turning back to the Lord, right? And I thought the one that we always think about, that always comes into that, what happens when you realize that you strayed from the truth? What do you do? You agree with God about the truth, right?

1 John 1.9, you agree with God. If we confess our sins, be faithful and just, forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from a little bit of unrighteousness, all unrighteousness.

And so I take the all that connect up with the multitude. The Lord doesn't say, OK, you get that one, but the rest of them, you've got to come back seven. He says, no. When you come to me and confess your sins, the slate is cleaned. So I connect that back up with a multitude of sins. I think it really helps to understand that we'll cover a large number of sins. We'll cover a large multitude of sins.

The process that is described in 1 John 1.9 of agreeing with God about our sins is in view here of the returning a sinner, a sinning believer from the error of his ways. Once that is confessed and put on the table, He starts with a clean slate with the Lord. He's in fellowship again, and walking with the Lord. So I think that's in view.

It's very interesting when you brought up that parallel passage of 1 Peter. Then my mind immediately goes to 1 Corinthians 13. And in that chapter from Paul, love suffers long, is kind, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. And so, if you put together all three of these, in James, in 1 Peter, and then Paul in Corinthians, you get the idea that I'm not going to a brother who is straight from the truth and say, You've got a problem and I'm here to help you fix it. No, not at all, not at all. Well, that's... No, I know, actually many times I'm here...

I know I'm naming names, but if I were a Southern Baptist, you'd be in big danger. No, I agree. I spent my life with Southern Baptists. I love them dearly. No, I think that's absolutely right. That's wonderful. I just think it all ties together. It does.

And that's what the idea of a brother coming to a brother in love and concern for him and turning him back to the truth. And you can see that just by sharing a verse. You say, brother, have you read this verse? You think about this in light of what's going on in your life. Maybe you say, you go back to the early part of James, you say, boy, you realize we're tempted? a temptation and you explain the temptation process to him. That we're drawn away and we experience loss of fellowship with the Lord and you explain that to him. You don't have to say one word about what's happened in his life. The Holy Spirit can use that because you shared the truth from God's Word. To me this verse ties all the way back to the beginning of James.

And then lastly I just had Actually, my only objection with Uyston this time, I usually like Uyston, he has wanders in here. My brethren, if anyone among you, another believer, I would say strays or errs from the truth, and anyone brings him back, let him know, let him be knowing. That's an idea, there's our verb there, it's a continuous action. Let him be knowing that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways shall save his soul from death and shall cover a large number of sins." So I like a lot about what he did there. What Wyss tries to do is he tries to bring out the mean from the Greek and put it in English. other questions or thoughts and we're going to finish early today.

I think you should just tell them, yesterday, when you were working on this, and you went to the gym, and you put on one of Mark's old t-shirts from various ministries, and on the back it said, be the one. So Bonnie is proofreading this, and she says, you're saying be the one, so I turned my back, and I said, be the one. You have to have that old t-shirt to wear over to the gym, that's funny. I thought I'd be good today in wearing it. over the top.

So, the Lord wants us to be the one. To show our brother. And you do it in love. Because love, I think it's wonderful. God is so gracious. Even though we have these wonderful truths, we don't have to hammer him, beat our brother over the head, or sister over the head with these truths. We do it in love.

We come alongside, and maybe they don't want to talk to us. So you wait for an opportunity to talk to them. Can you go over again what cover up a large number of sin means? I mean, does it mean like, they're just, we're protecting them from everyone knowing about it? Let's go back. Okay, that's good. Thanks, Ingrid. Let's go back there. Okay. It's this word to envelop, to wrap around, cover, and it actually says, remember the one, the parallel verse was that love covers a multitude of sins.

You think of 1 John 1.9.

The reason I do 1 John 1.9 is to say the Lord convicts me, the Holy Spirit convicts me of a sin. It could be a single sin. But when I come to Him, that verse says that He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

And that's the key part. So I connect the all unrighteousness here with the covering a multitude of sins. So that turning a sinner back, that one act, will cover, once he agrees with the Lord, will cover every sin at that point in his life. Oh, okay. I was thinking it was more like you're hiding them. No, no, no. They're dealt with because you've agreed with God about your sin. The sin he's convicting you about. But there may be many others that you don't even know about or don't even remember. And the Lord is so gracious that he He deals with you right there at that point, and you can move on. If he didn't do that, then he'd say, OK, you've got to come back to Marvel. The next day, he'd be coming back.

Like Ingrid brings up, when we think of cover over, we think of something like putting on makeup to cover a facial flaw or something like that, and the flaw is still there. To me, it's a little bit awkward because We talk about verses where it talks about God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west.

He remembers them no more in verses like that. This idea of using a verb to wrap around makes it sound like there's still They're still hiding underneath there, right? They're still going to poke their heads out or something. Sounds like the Old Testament, where the sins are just covered. Well, I think it's the definition that you wrote down there, to envelop, wrap around as bark. I mean, that seems like they're still there, but they're just wrapped around.

Yeah, I know, and that's a good point. That's a good point, and actually it's used, like I said, in 1 Peter 4, the same word is used, that love does that, covers a multitude of sins. There is, however, the parallel that we use sometimes, that we say in terms of our position in Christ, when God looks at us, he doesn't see us as a sinner, he sees us as enveloped, as it were, in the righteousness of Christ. So a person could get theologically wordy about this. I see your point, that's a good point. But the picture I believe is in view is that the multitude of sin have been dealt with by Christ. Go ahead. Just one thought on this. Sometimes when you buy something you say, well is that covered too? I like the idea of payment. I have a question on 15 in the last week. It says, if he has committed sins he will be forgiven. It says in the prayer of faith, will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sin, he will be forgiven.

So is that a fellowship thing also? This is a brotherhood. Right, right. And I think that's in the same kind of idea. That's where, you know, remember when Jim covered it and kind of talked about the fact that, you know, that he's sick and it probably most likely is spiritual. It's not exclusively that, but it most likely is spiritual sickness. He has some calls for the elders, right? And it says, and if, and that's another case where he may have committed sin, and most likely he's committed a sin, and they will be forgiven. It's a believer in the Lord, right? And it's a conditional thing, and I think it's the same, they've no idea, fellowship.

Yeah, when you say that word sin, I think many people, including myself, often think of an overt act of some kind. But the very fact that you're doubting God, that you're not taking Him as Word, that's the main sin, is to not believe in what God has said about who He is and how He acts and what He will do. All of those things are where we in our physical lives have trouble because all these things that are spiritual are things that we can't handle and deal with in the normal way that we like to do it. And so I think that the sin that usually comes about is mental, emotional, is something about our thoughts and our feelings that lead us to wander rather than something where I think we'll go out and rob a bank today.

Right. Yeah. No, I agree. Right. Yeah, that's true. Many times your thoughts are the things and, you know, in your mouth, as you talked about, those are the things that I find that are my, you know, I just kept my mouth shut. Whenever I tell my friends I'm going to be quiet they say yeah right and the sky is going to fall too.

Well that's the last verses in James so next week we're going to do a quick review. We're going to go back over chapter 5 as we do. I'll just develop some questions about this, hopefully try to highlight some of the things we've covered. And then Jim's going to do, we had one kind of class and we kind of left for a special topic in James. So I said, Jim, you've been doing all this, he's done a great job comparing James versus Paul. I said, why don't you put something together on that? So he's going to do that. And then we'll start in June after that. So that's kind of the plan. Okay, well, great. Let's close then.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior, Lord. We thank you that you've provided your wonderful grace, Lord, that we can trust you in all things and you've graciously bestowed your Spirit upon us, Lord, to guide us in the truth And Lord, to show us to convict us when we've turned away. Many times in our minds, and many times with our voices, Lord, or what we say. And we thank you for that ministry of the Spirit to convict us, or actually better, convince us of our sins, Lord, and that you're faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.