Restored III

 As children of God, the last thing we should be is disingenuous when attempting to defend a given position or something we believe that the Bible is clear on. We must allow the Gospel to have the final say even when it compels us to admit we may have been wrong about a particular thing rather than try to explain it away using such roundabout, twisted, and illogical explanations as to cause flashbacks to the infomercials of yesteryear that promised acne free skin, the perfect beach body, and whitened teeth all with one pill and at the low price of a few bucks a day.

If, perchance, someone complained that it didn’t work or that they did not receive the promised results, they would retort that you just didn’t follow the directions. You didn’t do it right. What exactly didn’t I do right? Take one pill every morning upon waking with a glass of water. It wasn’t rocket science. I wasn’t supposed to take it while balancing on one foot or while suspended upside down by my legs. One pill, one glass of water, every day, and the results would beggar belief.

James is explicit in the way he phrases the exhortation: Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back. There are only so many ways you can read this honestly, and one of those ways isn’t that the individual was never in the truth or that they never knew the truth.

Here we are, at a crossroads of sorts. Either we believe the word of God or the words of men, and if we choose to believe the words of men, then trying to explain away this passage will become a cumbersome exercise where we try to convince ourselves that James was wrong because someone once said you couldn’t wander from the truth once you’re in it, and so they must have never been in it in the first place; otherwise, the person would have been wrong. We can’t allow for that particular possibility, now can we, because the person wrote books and was on television, and others came along and taught the same thing, and now there’s an entire movement of people who insist that salvation is likened to a gilded cage you can never leave. You’re locked in, and that’s that, and no matter what you do when you’re in it, you’re still in it, even if it’s against your will.

It doesn’t matter how many people echo this sentiment; we still have to contend with James and the undeniable fact that he said that if anyone wanders from the truth, those who are still in truth must do their utmost to turn them back.

This isn’t splitting hairs. It’s a matter of life and death, as serious as anything we will have to contend with. If someone doesn’t allow for the possibility that they can wander from the truth and so keep vigilant, awake, on guard, and ever aware of the foundation they are standing upon, then no matter how far they stray, they will still convince themselves that they haven’t because they can’t.

James makes it clear that within a given congregation, you are likely to find those who are in the truth and those who have wandered from it, and it is the duty of those who are in it to turn those who have wandered back to the truth.

It’s not an issue of anecdotal evidence, of which there is plenty, but of what the Bible says. Men wander from the truth. For whatever reason, their love for God no longer burns bright, being in His presence no longer satisfies them, and they wander. No, they’re not being snatched out of God’s hand; they remove themselves from under His covering and seek things other than God's will and way to give them purpose.

Jesus Himself said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we will ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. For such a small word, ‘IF’ has significant implications, and it’s one of those words we choose to ignore due to its aforementioned implications.

John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Herein lies the wondrous interconnectedness of abiding in Him, His words abiding in us, and asking what we desire. For if we are in Him, we will desire nothing of this world but more of Him, and He will gladly reveal more of Himself to those who ask because it is His joy to make Himself known to those who are His.

Another word for abiding is to remain or stay in perpetuity. Take what Jesus said, insisting that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, and couple that with what James said regarding someone wandering from the truth, and the picture that begins to come into focus isn’t one of sloppy grace, and an automatic cementing in the truth no matter what the individual does, what he pursues, or how far he wanders from it.

Abide in Christ, remain in Him, and you will not wander from the truth. Chase after fads and spiritual fantasies, spend more time getting sun blindness looking for aliens to come and perform a cavity check than you do in the Word, and yes, you run the risk of wandering from the truth. If that occurs, those who remain in truth have a duty before God to warn you, and whether you respond positively to their warning and return to the truth, or label them unloving for daring to say that messing with astrology, messages in the stars, and soul casting isn’t profitable for your spiritual man is on you. You never know who will receive the truth until you speak the truth to them. Some who will receive it will surprise you, and some who will reject it will likewise come as a shock.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.