Therefore you also, Christian, if you ever turn back a person caught in the nets of delusion and impiety, who has fallen into the pit of sin, do so with comforting counsels, moderate reproofs, and fitting rebukes.
If, I say, you turn such a person from delusion to piety and from evil to virtue, know that you too will be crowned by God, like the prophet Elijah.
For you have saved your brother’s soul from future torments, that is, from eternal death. You have covered the multitude of his sins by completely destroying their operation, or rather, by making them as though they did not exist.
Thus Saint Mitrophan interprets this saying.
His fellow bishop, Saint Theophylact, together with Oecumenius, speaks thus. What the divine James says, God earlier said to Jeremiah: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before My face. If you bring forth the precious from the unworthy, you shall be as My mouth. They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them,” that is, you shall not commit sins like theirs (Jer 15:19).
Therefore the person who announces and preaches the words of God to others becomes truly the mouth of God. As the Lord said: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt 10:20).
Thus, according to this interpretation and according to the word of God, if the one who brings the worthy out of the unworthy becomes the mouth of the Lord, then certainly he who turns a sinner from his false way will save his own soul from death.
He will also cover a multitude of his own sins, for the conversion and salvation that he obtained for his brother.
Therefore one Father counsels and says that when you hear a teacher benefiting Christians by his teaching, but neglecting the works of salvation, do not condemn him bitterly. The benefit he brings to others will make up for the deficiency of his good works.
Thus we also, brethren, when reading and hearing this epistle, should first strive to live a good and virtuous life, keeping the Lord’s commandments. Then we should apply ourselves to the correction of our brethren.
When we see them sinning, let us exhort them with humility and brotherly love, so that they may turn to repentance. For their conversion we also shall receive remission of sins from the Lord, who said: “If he hears you, you have gained your brother” (Mt 18:15).
May we be counted worthy of the promised good things in the Kingdom of Heaven, through the prayers of Saint James, the brother of God and first hierarch of Jerusalem, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To Him are due all glory, honor, and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and His consubstantial Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Saint John Climacus says: “Do not be a harsh judge of those who teach great virtues in words, when you see that they themselves are lazy in good practice. For the lack of action is often made up by the benefit of that teaching. We have not all acquired all things in equal measure. Some have excellence more in word than in deed; in others, on the contrary, deed is stronger than word” (Step 26, On Discernment).
The same John also says that those who once fell into sins, but afterwards repented, are tormented by assaults from the sins they committed. Such people may teach others, but they cannot rule.
They themselves, being ashamed of the words by which they teach others, are moved toward virtue. Not only this, but by teaching others how to avoid sin, they themselves may be delivered by God for the sake of the salvation of those to whom they spoke.
“If some, tormented by habits previously acquired, are able to teach others even by a simple word, let them teach, but let them not rule. Perhaps one day, ashamed of their own words, they will begin active virtue. Thus in them too what I have seen happen to some stuck in mire will come to pass. Having experienced its uncleanness, they told passersby how they had fallen into the mire. They did this to warn them, so that they too would not sink by going the same way. For the salvation of others, the Almighty delivered them also from the mire of sin” (ibid.).
Thus this saint makes clear that one who teaches others profitably not only makes up for the lack of his own good works, but is also delivered from sins.
This is the same meaning as: “he will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins,” as Saint James says.
Then John, the lamp of discernment, makes his word fearful. He adds that those who, by free choice and from the whole heart, give themselves over to pleasures and passions, and are not caught by human weakness, cannot rule. They cannot even teach by word, but should keep silence.
“If those suffering from passions voluntarily give themselves to pleasures, then let them show their teaching by silence. For Scripture says: ‘Jesus began both to do and to teach’” (ibid.).
David had already spoken of such people: “But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare My statutes and take My covenant in your mouth, while you have hated instruction and cast My words behind you?” (Ps 49:16-17).
Afterward the Lord also said: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least,” that is, fallen, according to Saint Chrysostom, “in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5:19).
THEOSIS