Is any sick among you? let him call to [him] the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of [the] Lord;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be one who has committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
The sick believer has called for the elders, and they have prayed over him and anointed him with oil. Two questions now press on every reader: whose faith heals him, and which forgiveness does James promise a sick man?
A reader might credit the elders' office, or the oil. The verse puts the power somewhere else.
It is remarkable. The inspired writer encourages honour to the elders, yet he attaches healing power not to their official place or special skill, but to prayer — prayer made effective through faith. He says, "And the prayer of faith will save (or heal) the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up." What a contrast with the gloomy superstition that sends "a priest" to absolve him and give him the last rites, because it treats his death as certain! For if he recovers, he will need the same hateful parody all over again.
What does it mean to be "saved" here?
It is the prayer of faith, not the anointing, that saves the sick. This salvation, of course, is the delivering of a person from his sickness.
The sick man is the one prayed for, not the one required to produce faith.
Notice that the faith belongs to those who pray — that is, to the elders. The verse says nothing about the faith of the sick man. Still, we may infer that he has some faith in the matter, at least enough to send for the elders, as this Scripture directs. We may also infer, from the words that follow in verse 16, that he would confess his sins, if indeed he has committed any.
Those who pray must also judge whether they can pray in faith at all:
No doubt in every case some spiritual discernment would be needed, to judge whether we could pray in faith. This would involve not only the sin committed, but the circumstances and the motives behind it.
James does not say the sick man has sinned. He says if he has.
The "if" shows that the sickness might not have been sent because of any particular sin.
That single word marks off the one case where the promise rests on solid ground:
Healing is sure in one case only: when the sickness does not come from bodily weakness, as with Timothy, or from the hardship of devoted Christian service, as with Epaphroditus, or from any other natural cause. It comes instead as a chastening from the Lord for some specific sins committed. Once he confesses those sins and puts them away, the chastening stops.
The cross settled a believer's standing before God long before this sickness came.
There are two kinds of forgiveness in the ways of God. Eternal justification, taught in Romans 4 and Hebrews 10, is the blessed portion of those who believe in the power of the blood of Christ. Their sins are no longer counted against them. God took up the question of their sins at the cross. He has finished with them forever, and He will never remember them again. But there is also the government of God. It is the government of a Father — a holy Father, who loves His children too well to let them walk badly.
So when the illness lifts, the discipline itself has ended:
This discipline had shown itself in the chastening — that is, in the sickness. Once the sickness goes, the discipline is over and the sins are forgiven.
One point here turns on grammar.
The true rendering of the clause holds a fine and notable point. The sins stand in the plural; the forgiveness stands in the singular. It is right that each and every sin should be judged in turn; but grace gives the forgiveness in full.
The promise has a setting: the sick "among you", inside the company of God's people.
So this Scripture gives no warrant for a popular system of half-miraculous cures handed out to all and sundry. Sickness among God's people stands on special ground.
Writers note one reason the practice is rare today: the elders of the church are hard to identify. God's power, though, has not changed:
The outward order of the assembly is lost, but the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord are unchanged... it is not godliness to doubt the power of Christ, if God gives faith to use it.
- Prayer heals. Not the oil, not the office, not the ritual — believing prayer heals the sick.
- Their faith, his healing. The faith in view belongs to those praying. The sick man's part is to call for them and own his sins.
- "If" guards it. Sickness may or may not come from a specific sin. Illness is never proof of guilt.
- Forgiveness restored, not first granted. James promises the lifting of a Father's discipline. The cross already settled the eternal pardon.
- Among God's own. The promise belongs inside the company of God's people, at the sick one's call — never a platform for public cures.
Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. [The] fervent supplication of the righteous [man] has much power.
Someone is sick, someone is weighed down by sin, and the verse tells them to open their hearts to each other and pray — with healing promised. It raises three questions at once: who do we confess to, how far does the healing reach, and why does one person's prayer carry weight with God?
This confession runs between believers, and it runs both ways. One writer points out that no office stands in the middle of it:
We may note that it is not confession to the elders that is spoken of. That would have been confidence in men — official confidence. God wants divine love at work in everyone. Confession to one another shows the condition of the church. God wants a church where love reigns. He wants believers so near to Him that they can treat the wrongdoer with the same grace they have found in Him.
Another writer sees the silence about elders as deliberate, guarding souls from superstition:
Scripture carefully avoids urging confession to the elders. I have no doubt this is the far-seeing wisdom of God. He loves souls and hates superstition.
This call does not depend on any official order being in place, so it survives every breakdown:
However ruined the state of God's church may be, we can always confess our faults to one another and pray for one another, so that we may be healed. This needs no official order in place. It does need humility, trust between believers, and love.
The word "therefore" ties the confession back to sickness. On this reading, the illness in view is traceable to particular sins:
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another... that you may be healed." This shows clearly that the sickness in view comes from specific sins. When the sins are confessed and judged, grace steps in, and God in mercy heals.
Commentators differ on how far "healed" reaches. Some widen it beyond the body:
So it is fitting for believers to confess their offences to one another, as matters that need prayerful help. The healing here may be mainly recovery from illness. But spiritual recovery is just as necessary.
The verse is not permission to tell anyone anything. Its wording sets limits:
But this is limited to two cases. One is a Christian who has wronged someone, going to that person to ask forgiveness. The other is a burdened heart opening up to some "righteous man" whose prayers it wants... It does not teach a Christian confessing to an unbeliever. It does not teach confessing in a group meeting where many present may not be believers at all.
Even within those limits, applying it calls for judgment:
Every general rule has its exceptions. More than that: every principle needs wisdom in how it is applied. Nothing removes that need.
One writer questions the older wording "the effectual fervent prayer... avails much" as saying nothing at all:
To say that an "effectual" prayer accomplishes much says nothing new. If it is effectual, then of course it works... The key points of the Scripture are probably these. (a) The one praying is a righteous man. (b) His prayer is energetic — not a half-hearted, lazy performance, but the prayer of someone who means it... (c) Prayer of this kind really does have much power.
The power is not in the words but in the standing and nearness of the one praying:
The man who is righteous in practice, by grace, is near to God. He has nothing to settle with God about his own sin. Unsettled sin would keep his heart at a distance. His heart is free instead to come near to God, in keeping with His holy nature, and to pray for others.
Because of this, character and answered prayer cannot be separated:
The power of prayer is never separate from the character of the man who prays. Yet God is compassionate, and He can hear any man in his hour of desperate need.
- Confess — confession goes "one to another," never to an official. Confession to elders would put trust in men instead of letting love work among all.
- Mutual — this needs no office and no order. It stands even when everything else has broken down. All it asks is humility, trust between believers, and love.
- Healed — where sickness follows specific sins, confession and self-judgment open the way for God to heal in mercy. Writers differ on whether spiritual recovery is also in view.
- Careful — it covers wrong done to another. It covers a burdened heart opening up to one whose prayers it wants. It does not cover telling a mixed crowd.
- Righteous — the power belongs to the man with nothing unsettled between himself and God. His heart is free to plead for others. Prayer's power is never separate from the character of the one praying.
Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months;
James backs up his call to pray by pointing to Elijah, and insists that Elijah's nature was the same as ours. The verse also tells us something the Old Testament never records. The long drought under Ahab began with a private prayer, not a public announcement.
The comparison is not an aside. It is why James brings Elijah in at all.
First, the Holy Spirit encourages us to pray. He does it by reminding our hearts that Elijah, who did such wonders, had the same nature as ours. It is as if He said, "There is an example for you; see what is open to you!"
What set him apart was not his make-up but his walk.
James reminds us that Elijah "was a man with a nature like ours." Like us, he was surrounded by human weakness and human frailty. What a comforting lesson this can teach us! We too, like him, can be men of power, if we, despite the evil around us, walk in the awareness that God is the living God.
Elijah appears in 1 Kings without introduction, announcing the drought to Ahab. James supplies the missing scene.
Verse 17 is especially interesting. The Old Testament never mentions that he prayed it might not rain, though it gives us full details of how he prayed for rain at the end of the three and a half years in 1 Kings 18. The opening verse of 1 Kings 17 brings him in abruptly, telling Ahab that it would not rain. So this verse in James gives us a glimpse of scenes before his public appearance — scenes of private and personal dealings with God. Though he had the same nature as ours, he was righteous, and he burned with passion for the glory of God. So God heard him, and he knew he was heard. That assurance let him tell Ahab confidently what God was going to do.
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Elijah's power in public started on his knees in private. And what looks like a cruel prayer makes sense once you see what he saw.
Prayer in private was another great secret of his power in public. He could stand before the wicked king because he had knelt before the living God. His was no mere formal prayer that achieves nothing, but an earnest prayer that achieves much. A terrible prayer to have to put up to the living God about the people of God! Yet Elijah looked at the condition of the people and could see no recognition of God anywhere in the land. He judged it better for them to suffer the years of drought, if this would turn them to God, than to enjoy prosperity in defiance of God and go on to a worse judgment. Zeal for God and love for the people lay behind this solemn prayer.
He did not invent this prayer. It matched what God had already said He would do if Israel turned to other gods.
Prayer that God accepts must rest on the Word of God. The prophet no doubt remembered Deuteronomy 11:16-17: "Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and then the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain." With such words before him, the distressed prophet cried out from the depth of his heart, "O God, stop the rain!"
What God's people have lost since the beginning has not changed the Lord Himself.
James recalls the example of Elijah, a man with the same nature as ours. Yet in answer to his prayer it did not rain for three years and six months. The church has lost its outward order, but the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord are unchanged. He may let us feel that, through the sin of the church, we are not as we were at the beginning. Still, where God gives faith, His answer will never fail.
Prayer with that kind of power does not appear overnight.
This can only come from long inward dealing with God, from much secret communion, and from a close walk with Him. Not all are called to be Elijahs, but all may seek grace to become diligent in prayer and intercession.
- Same nature. Elijah's power was never in his make-up; he shared our weaknesses, so the door he went through stands open to us.
- Secret first. The public word to Ahab was the second half of the story — James shows us the private praying that produced it.
- Word-shaped. He asked for what God had already said He would do. Prayer God accepts rests on God's own Word.
- Love behind it. He asked for drought out of zeal for God and love for a people heading toward worse than famine.
- Answer certain. He knew God had heard him, and told Ahab so — and where God gives faith, His answer still never fails.
and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth.
Elijah's story in 1 Kings gives us the drought and the downpour, but James adds what the history left out: both came in answer to a man's prayer. This verse is the second half of that pair, and it raises the question of what made such praying so effective.
1 Kings records the sentence Elijah announced from God. It does not record the praying that came first.
What we have here is not the solemn sentence the prophets announced from God. It is the inner work in the soul that came before it, and for that we depend entirely on this letter.
The gap in the older record is worth pausing over.
Our chapter does not tell us that Elijah prayed the first time. Much later, in the letter of James, the Word reveals it to us. God remembers these prayers, records them, and can reveal them at the right time. None of the prayers of His beloved fall to the ground.
One man's praying brought the drought down, and then lifted it.
He was "a man with a nature like ours," yet he had such power with God that God sent both judgment and blessing in answer to his cry. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." But this kind of prayer only grows out of long inward exercise, much private time with God, and a close walk with Him. Not everyone is called to be an Elijah, but everyone may seek grace to become diligent in prayer and intercession.
There is a danger in reading about a man like this.
We tend to treat such men as exceptions so that we can excuse ourselves. Sadly, we then shut ourselves out of the blessing that was theirs because of what they were. The very record that tells us of his faith also tells us of his weaknesses.
The second prayer was not a hopeful guess. God had already committed Himself on this exact matter.
Solomon had asked that, if heaven was shut up, and there was prayer and confession of Jehovah's name and a turning from their sin, rain should be given. The Lord had told Solomon that He had heard his prayer. The people had confessed Jehovah's name and had openly rejected Baal by killing his prophets. So Elijah prayed with full confidence that God would make good His word in mercy, just as He had already made it good in judgment. Again it was a question of asking God to fulfil His own word.
That places the power somewhere other than in the praying itself.
Yet we must not think that the power was simply in his prayer. His prayer was subject to the Word of God, and that is where the power lies, as Elijah himself says, "I have done all these things at your word."
The drought had a purpose. The rain came once it had done its work.
God afflicted the people with drought so that they might learn that the God they slighted was the only source and fountain of all their blessings. Once they had learned this, in God's gracious way, the affliction would cease. God always removes chastisement when it has done the work He sent it to do. And the servant who has stood faithfully for the truth against those who oppose it becomes, in the same measure, a channel of God's mercies to His people.
Elijah's servant looked and saw nothing. The instruction was to look again.
If we pray and watch, and still have to say with Elijah's servant, "There is nothing," what more can we do? Elijah gives a very definite answer to this question. He says, "Go again seven times." In other words, we must persevere. The apostle urges us not only to pray, but to keep alert in prayer "with all perseverance." We cannot hurry God. We think of what suits us; God thinks of what is for His glory and our profit.
That leaves a question for our own day. Writing about the church, Darby weighs what has changed against what has not:
The external order of the assembly is lost, but the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord are unchanged. He may let us feel that, because of the sin of the assembly, we are not what we were at the beginning. Still, where God gives faith, His answer will never fail.
- Same record. 1 Kings never records the praying behind the drought; God remembered it and revealed it through James, proof that no prayer of His people is lost.
- Same man. Elijah shut and opened heaven, yet his nature and weaknesses were ours — so his example removes our excuses instead of supplying them.
- Same ground. He asked God to make good God's own promise, so the power lay in the word he prayed on, not in the praying.
- Same patience. "Go again seven times" — the fruit came, but only after looking and finding nothing, again and again.
- Same God. The church has lost much since the beginning, but His power, love and faithfulness are unchanged; where He gives faith, the answer never fails.