July 6 – James 5:13-20

Main Focus: Prayer and Repentance

James begins this section with those suffering, then addresses the cheerful, and concludes with those who are sick. To be sick is often understood as weakness, even spiritual weakness. However, in this passage it refers to physical sickness. Elders were pastors and overseers, James assumes a sick person could call for “the elders of the church.” Some think that anointing with oil was medicinal or sacramental (as in Roman Catholic extreme unction at death), but it is best seen as a symbol representing the healing power of the Holy Spirit to come upon the sick person.

Verse 15 says the prayer of faith, not the faith of the sick person but the faith of those praying brings healing. Christians who are ill often find personal prayer difficult. This is one of the primary reasons they call upon the elders of the church. James is not teaching that all illnesses will be healed if people would simply call on the elders, or try to make themselves have enough faith, or pray with enough conviction. Healing, when it does come, is always a gift from God, who is sovereign over all circumstances, including sickness and health. It does not follow that lack of faith on the part of the sick person is the reason that the sick person may not be healed. Some interpreters suggest that James is referring to the promise of the resurrection rather than physical healing.

Interestingly, James implies that not all sickness is connected to specific sins, though James seems to expect that some sickness is. Verse 16 teaches that sometimes confession in the community is needed before healing can take place, since sin may be the cause of the illness. Pray for one another is directed to all the readers of James’s letter and indicates that he did not expect prayer for healing to be limited to the elders. The righteous will have great power in prayer, as God grants their requests. Elijah illustrates how a man with a nature like ours could have the powerful prayer life of “a righteous person.”

As way of conclusion in this short letter, James calls the community to action in helping those who have fallen into the ethical sins dealt with in the book. Therefore, this closing section acts as a summary of various sins and their solutions. The righteous saints must be vigilant in spotting anyone who wanders from the truth, namely, by not living in accord with the word of truth as written in this letter. When we live into this we save one another from spiritual death (cf.1 John 5:16-17). Timely intervention brings forgiveness from God. The person who saves the sinner in this case is the person who restores the one who has fallen. Ultimately, of course, only the Lord saves a person. The one who restores the person will cover the many sins of the one who had strayed, for the one who returns from the way of error receives forgiveness. Again, only God can cover sin, but Christians can be agents of God’s forgiveness.