If you set out on a caravan journey across a particular state and determined in advance that everyone would stick to a single interstate highway on the journey, would it be obvious if someone in the caravan wandered off of that highway? Of course it would! With everyone on the same direct path, it would be quite apparent when someone was not. And it would be quite easy to point out to the wanderer where the interstate path was for them to return.
James says, “If anyone among you wanders from the truth…” (Jas. 5:19). The path to heaven and the path to pleasing God is as obvious as traveling a single interstate highway. God describes that way as “the truth.” Not “a truth” or an indefinite “truth,” but “the” singular, defined, knowable, followable “truth” found in our Bible! By studying the Bible (the only source of “truth,” John 17:17), it is obvious when someone is not on “God’s truth.” Our responsibility is clear: Be one “who turns a sinner from the error of his way” (5:20). May God help us to have the courage to reach out to ones who have wandered from God’s truth and point them back.