James 5:13-20

Alright, we come to the final section in the letter to James and the main point of the lion's share of this section is really that a God-centered life means that we express all experiences in life as prayer. And that main point is quite clear, even though there are some real interpretive difficulties here in this section that we'll have to wrestle with. So we'll wrestle with some of those difficulties, but I don't want us to get lost in the difficulties and make such a big deal out of those that we forget really the overarching main point. And so in James 5, 13 through 18, James essentially calls us who are mature in Christ to be men and women of prayer that every experience, the good, the bad, the hard, the difficult, the wonderful, every experience in life should be expressed in and through and as prayer. And James mentions in this section three specific experiences to illustrate that. The first is suffering. The second is cheerfulness and then the third is sickness. And it's when we get to sickness that there are some difficulties, but to each of these he offers a prayer-filled response. All right, so let's read James chapter 5 verses 13 through 18, verse 13 says this, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." So our response to difficulty, hardship, adversity, disruption, whatever it is and that suffering can take just a variety of forms. It could be physical suffering. It could be emotional suffering. It could be financial suffering, right? So it doesn't really matter. It's a wide range of things that fits into that word. Is anyone suffering? Let him or her in this case, it could be either one. Let him or her pray. That should be our response to suffering. Is anyone cheerful? In other words, his life going well and are you feeling happy? Then let him sing praises. And so to suffering, we pray. We ask for help. We ask for God to intervene. And when life is good and we're feeling cheerful, our response should be to sing praises. Again, all experiences of life express despair. Then in verse 14, he's now going to address another experience of life and that is sickness. Is anyone among you sick? And then he has specific instructions for what to do with that sickness. And here he gets much more detailed than in the first two. And it's in those details that we have some interpretive difficulties. James mentions in verses 14 and 15, two practices associated with prayer in regards to sickness. The first is calling for the elders and the second is anointing with oil. Let's read so you can hear what James says and then we'll wrestle with what he's getting at. So he says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." And the prayer offered him faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed any sins, they will be forgiven him. Now the first little bit is instead of just saying, "Is anyone sick?" Well then he should pray to get better. James says, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church." That is interesting. But it shouldn't surprise us that James mentions elders, even if this letter is one of the earliest letters in the New Testament and the reason for that is because the idea of elders was widely practiced within the synagogue system among the Jews. And so the church sort of just carried on that practice in their gatherings, in their corporate life. There were elders, mature, wise older men who had demonstrated faithfulness to God and they exercised leadership, oversight, and care for the gathering for the assembly. In the synagogue that was true and the same thing then was practiced both in the church. And so James says, "Is anyone among you sick?" Well then call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. And so the elders are praying for the sick person. Not only that, James says they should do so, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The idea of in the name of the Lord is as representatives of the Lord and under the authority of the Lord. But this idea of anointing with oil is like, "Okay, well why is that? What does that mean?" And it's not like we have a whole lot of detail here. There's presumably in James's practice and maybe the early church practice, there was some connection between anointing and praying for a sick person. And that connection is not specified here, it's just left very broad engineer. We see the same thing for example in Mark chapter 6. In Mark 6 Jesus begins to send out the apostles two by two so they could do ministry on his behalf throughout the villages and towns around him. And so as he sends them out what Mark records is that one of the things they did was they anointed people with oil praying for them so that they would be healed. Some sort of connection between anointing prayer and healing for sick people and got honored that but the exact connection is not specified in Mark 6 and it's not specified here. So we don't really know exactly what the connection is. We don't really understand what the purpose of the event of anointing is. And there's been various conjectures by biblical scholars. One of the most common ones is that the practice of anointing here is merely symbolic of healing. It's symbolic of invoking God to come and act and heal and certain scholars have suggested that. Others have suggested well it could be from medicinal purposes. The reality is in the ancient Near East olive oil was a staple in every home and was used for a wide variety of purposes. All of oil was used for lampfuel, it was used for cooking, it was used when anointing kings or anointing prophets. It was used for a variety of purposes and one of the purposes it was used for was medicinal. You see that in the case for example of the parable Jesus tells about the good Samaritan and he anoints the wounds with oil and wine and that's to bring healing. So it was used that way so they're suggesting maybe it's for medicinal purposes possibly but it seems like that would make more sense if there were physical injuries wounds rather than just general sickness. Maybe that's the case. One particular scholar, a friend of mine actually suggests maybe it's just purely pragmatic. Since oil was used on a daily basis like skin lotion you would anoint your face, anoint your hair, right? You would anoint your hands. It was like your skin lotion and people would use it on a daily basis in the dry, arid climate to make sure their skin was softened and protected from the dry air. Maybe that it's just purely pragmatic. You anoint the person with oil as a demonstration of your confidence that God is going to heal. The reality is we don't know. James doesn't tell us the exact connection and why to anoint with oil. And so we're left to kind of speculate and guess. The pragmatic question for us is, well should we continue to do this? Was this just something that was done in the early church because it fit their culture? And is it something therefore that we should set aside? Or is it something that we should continue to do? Pastorally, I have actually been in situations where we have practices. We have put a little bit of oil on someone's forehead and as pastors and elders we have prayed for that person. And so pastorally, here's my approach to this. I don't think there's anything magic about the oil. There's nothing super spiritual, powerful about the oil. In fact, when you read James, it's very clear that it's the prayer that makes the difference not the oil. And so I don't think we have to use oil. We don't have to anoint someone with oil when we pray for them if they are sick. Having said that, if a person wants to be anointed with oil because of this passage and in some way that encourages them, then I am more than happy to do that. Because as long as they understand there's nothing magical or super spiritual or super special about the oil and being anointed with oil and being prayed for by the elders doesn't guarantee a certain outcome. As long as people understand that, I am more than happy just to follow what this text says because there it is and it might encourage some people. So James says, if you're sick, call for the elders of the church, let them pray over you, and join you with oil. And then in verse 15, James says, "And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick." And that phrase "offered in faith" means not just like really whipping up, trying to believe really hard, but it means like in faith and faithfulness, in loyalty to Yahweh, in loyalty to God. It's very much like what we saw in James chapter 1 where that we're asking for wisdom and we ask in faith. It doesn't just mean trying to believe really hard. It means with confidence in God that's demonstrated in the loyalty of our life and faith and faithfulness to God. So the prayer offered in faith and faithfulness will restore the one who is sick. who is sick. And this sounds like an unqualified prayer promise. If those elders are faithful and they pray, then God will heal this person. I think we need to be careful making it at unqualified prayer promise. We don't have blank checks in the Bible, right? God is never guaranteed He's going to heal every sick person. You even see that for example, in Philippians chapter 2 where a coworker of Paul who has sent from the church at Philippi to bring Paul a gift while he's in prison in Rome, gets sick and almost dies. Paul has the gift of healing, but he doesn't heal him. And Paul is concerned for him. It says he almost had sorrow upon sorrow because he thought he was going to die. There's no unqualified promise anywhere in the Bible that if you pray for a sick person, they will get better. All right. And so even though this kind of sounds that way here, let's not read it that way. There's lots of qualifications given elsewhere in the New Testament that helps us understand it. And even here, it's this prayer offered in faith and faith. Well, so it's qualification. But there are others as well. Not only that, the word translated "restore" here is the Greek word "sodzo," which is the general word for "save." So the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick. In what sense? Save them in the here and now. Save them in the hereafter. Probably more focused on the here and now than the hereafter. And yet, immediately James goes on to talk about sins. And so notice what he says, "The prayer offered in faith will restore or save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up." Like, raise him up to complete health. Raise him up on the last day could be either. And so let's keep our mind focused on ultimate healing that God will bring ultimate healing for the sick person. And that may mean physical healing now. That may mean ultimate healing in the resurrection. We don't always know the Lord's mind and the Lord's will on some of this. But notice where James goes. And he says, "If he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." And that phrase, and if, is a conditional clause in Greek, which is suggesting not that there is a direct connection in every case between sickness and sin. But that sometimes it's possible that there is a connection between sickness and sin. Some sicknesses are the result of sinning. We see that directly in the New Testament. We've seen that in life. Like somebody who, for example, has cirrhosis of the liver because they had a drinking problem. There is sickness that is connected to a lifestyle choice issue, right? And so if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, verse 16 says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." Notice how verse 16 broadens out the confession and the prayer from just the elders to now one another, to your fellow believers, to your fellow Christians. Like, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." And so James is inviting us to be a people within the church who are open with our brothers and sisters. We have trusted companions who we confess with and they pray for us to be healed. Healed of our sin, healed of our sickness. And so there is a physical need for healing. There is a spiritual kind of healing from our sin that we need to experience. And so James is inviting us to be a family that recognizes that and prays for each other that way. And so confess your sins to one another. And pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. The powerful prayer of a righteous man or a righteous woman is accomplished as much. In fact, the possibility of the word "effective" is better translated like when it when working like almost like an adverb like the working prayer of a righteous person. In other words, James is calling his people to put your prayer into practice and begin to grow in prayer and pray for one another because when righteous people pray and they work at their prayer lives, things happen. It accomplishes much. And that's James's point is that God's people ought to be marked by praying. And as they are praying, things begin to change. Things happen. God listens and responds and does things. And so in verses 17 and 18, James gives a biblical example from Israelite history that his audience would have been well familiar with. The story is found in 1 Kings chapter 18. James writes this in verse 17. He says, "Elygia was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years in six months." And so there was a drought in Palestine for three years in six months in response to Elijah's prayer. First thing to notice here at the beginning of verse 17 is the emphasis on Elijah's ordinaryness. Again, James is calling his original audience and us regardless of who we are to be people of prayer. And so he emphasizes Elijah's ordinaryness. He was a man with a nature just like ours. He wasn't anything special. He was just a human being. And he prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain for three years in six months. Now verse 18, James goes on and says, "And then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." And this is a simple example that James wants to use to encourage us to be people of prayer. So that's the really the final major section in the letter to James, James 5, 13, 3, 18. And again, even though there are some interpretive difficulties within it, the major point is clear that one of the marks of a God-centered life is expressing all experiences of life as prayer, that mature believers and God-centered believers are men and women of prayer. And they pray regularly. They pray habitually. They pray about all sorts of things. They pray alone. They pray together. They pray for each other. Prayer is at the heart of their life. And so may you and I be men and women as we grow in Christ who are marked by a life of prayer. Now with that, James has just a couple more verses, real kind of almost a prop wrap up of the letter. But the final two verses are just a call to helping each other really live a genuine God-centered life, a genuine God-focused kind of life. And so the final appeal in the book of James is really this. James 5 verse 19 and 20 says, "My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns the center from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." And so the implicit appeal at the end of James is that we would be sensitive to each others and we would recognize that, man, sometimes we get off track. Sometimes we walk away from God and we at least should be willing to make the effort to not let somebody just walk away. And so he says, "If someone strays from the path and one of you turns him back, just know this, that if someone turns a center from the air of his ways, he will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." And so it's an encouragement to us to be a men and women who really challenge each other and encourage each other to be faithful to God. And with that, James wraps up his letter, abrupt ending, but it's this call that we should all be focused on each other to helping each other be faithful to God. Thanks for checking out the listeners' commentary on the letter to James. I pray that it was helpful to you, not only in understanding the letter, but in your walk with God and your walk with Christ. And if you found it helpful, then would you consider sharing it with your friends? Would you just let people know about the listeners' commentary, post it on social media, send an email or text to a friend that they should check it out as well, and also would you consider donating to continuing to create this commentary? The only way I can make this commentary available for free is through the generous gifts of people like you. And so if you are able to, would you donate generously to this work? God bless.