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Commentary: James 5:13-20

James 5:13-18
¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is 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. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The Three Basic Conditions of Life
You can essentially boil life down to three states of being. You’re either suffering, cheerful, or sick. You might think that this is a grossly over simplified way of looking at things but take a moment to really consider it.

- Suffering: What kinds of things fall under suffering? How about things like: adversity, affliction, agony, anguish, difficulty, discomfort, distress, dolor, hardship, misery, misfortune, ordeal, passion, torment, torture, bad break, bad news, bummer, catastrophe, rotten break, tough break, sickness, sorrow, tribulation, trouble, woe…that should cover a good bit of the things that you experience in “suffering” throughout your life.

- Cheerful: What kinds of things fall under cheerful? How about things like: bouncy, bright, chipper, contented, enthusiastic, glad, good-humored, good-natured, hearty, hilarious, hopeful, jolly, joyful, light hearted, lively, optimistic, peppy, perky, upbeat, vivacious, zingy, resilient, whimsical, dynamic, eager, energetic, zestful, gracious, kind, lovable, pleasant, pleasing, righteous, warm-hearted, winning, radiant…that should cover a good bit of the things that you experience in “cheerfulness” throughout your life.

- Sick: What kind of things fall under sick? How about things like: ailing, bedridden, confined, debilitated, declining, diseased, feverish, frail, hospitalized, ill, impaired, incurable, infected, laid up, nauseated, queasy, suffering, under medication, unhealthy, unwell, weak, migraine, sinus headache, cancer…your imagination can fill in the rest.

James is a master at understanding the human condition. He looks at our three basic states of being (suffering, cheerful, and sick) and gives us an example of how we should respond to God in each of them. The biggest of these that he emphasizes is prayer. Yet he does not leave it at this. He also tells us to sing praises to God. Singing and prayer…it’s as though they almost go hand in hand. The point being that there are appropriate, and necessary, responses to God. Do we illustrate these responses in our lives? If not, this may be a very clear-cut indication that our relationship with God is nothing but a convenient façade that helps us wear the expected public face of a Christian. Someone will say, “Just because I don’t sing praises to God doesn’t mean that I’m not a Christian. I’m just not much of a singer and I’d rather not do it in public because frankly I’d be a little embarrassed to do such things in front of other people. Also, it doesn’t seem like a natural response for me whether I’m alone or with other people. I don’t feel like I’m worshipping when I sing I just feel silly because I know that I’m no good at it.” People may say the same thing about praying in front of other people. You hear things like, “I just get too nervous when I have to pray in front of other people.” You also hear things like, “I’m just not a very outward person…I’m more of an inward person so most of my relationship with God is something more unseen in areas like singing and praying.” Do you hear the inherent problem with all of these objections? They center on “me, me, me and a little more me”. What they really reveal, and I want to be clear that I’m stating my opinion, is the shackle that sinfulness places upon our responses to God. If you do not feel that singing is an honest response of worship for you then don’t do it. Abstain from singing because you don’t want to offer anything false to God. But by the same token, don’t let that become the crutch you stand on for the entirety of your life as the representative of some kind of free pass that gets you out of responding to God in biblical ways. I don’t know or understand how any Christian could spend the expanse of their lives never singing praise to God, or bowing down before God, or weeping at the beauty of the grace of the cross, or praying to God earnestly and fervently on a regular basis. Listen my beloved family in Christ, I can understand not doing some things for a time (like singing or taking communion or giving an offering or being baptized). It is better that you understand what you do, and do it in full honesty, rather than to do it with no ounce of understanding. This is how “false or dead faith” manifests itself. We do not want to become a mindless sheep following the actions of our fellow sheep. Instead, we should follow only the voice of our shepherd. Our shepherd is the Lord, God. Be patient and still so that you would know how to respond to God when He moves you. Study His word so that you would have an un-clouded perspective on how to respond to him. Listen carefully to the words of the biblical authors as they teach you what humility is, what suffering is, what grace is, and what worship is. Cease to allow your tongue to hold you captive in your responses to God. Don’t let your abstinence from worship be a result of language like, “I don’t feel comfortable doing this or that.” Such reasons only speak about you and your comfort zones. Do you truly believe that God is okay with you failing to respond to Him in worship because your comfort zone never allowed you to do it? Hopefully your immediate answer is, “Well, no of course not.” If so, then consider what it is that truly holds you back from singing, praying, giving an offering, taking communion, making a decision for baptism, and crucial essentials like PUTTING YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST! If the reasons are mostly about you and your personal reticence then you have poor reasons. Get your nose in the Bible, get your tail to a gathering (house church or Sunday service) and begin tearing down those walls of restraint that are held up largely by the pursuit of unrighteousness.

A Brief Word About Calling for the Elders of the Church
¹⁴Is 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.

Many people in Christian culture, particularly people in areas like Meigs county, feel that it is a pastors duty to visit all sick people in the hospital. Where does this idea come from? Is it biblical or is it something born out of small church, small town tradition? First let me say that there is nothing wrong with a pastor going and visiting someone who is sick (either at home or in the hospital). It is not, however, a pastors biblical duty to do this. In fact James says something quite contrary in 5:14. Who does James say that the sick should call upon? The elders (plural) of the church. Also notice that it is the sick who “call upon the elders”. This is different from the way that many of the people in our county feel. It is often believed that when the preacher is informed that someone is sick, the preacher should immediately go and visit that person. Again I ask the question why? James says it is the sick who should call upon the leadership of the church. It doesn’t seem to me that the Bible supports the idea of assuming that when someone is sick elders and/or pastors should flock out to that individuals sick bed. The sick seem to be able to determine if they need this kind of help. If they are sick then they should call upon the leadership of the church for help in prayer. Namely, the sick should call upon the elders. For those of you out there ready to respond, make sure you base your answer upon firm biblical principles. What then is the elders responsibility? To go to that person, pray over them, and (in James day) anoint them with a certain kind of oil. In some churches, even in this area, the elders do precisely what James says here in verse 14. They even go so far as to anoint the sick person with oil.

It is obvious that James expected some form of leadership to have been developed within the early Christian church. Otherwise, how could he assumingly say, “call for the elders of the church.” First you have to assume that there is a plurality of elders to call upon. James says this as though it is a common and expected thing. I say this because this letter isn’t addressed specifically to one church. It likely went out to many churches. Therefore, James no doubt intended some universal things to be assumed among the churches that would receive this letter. One of those things seems to have been the assumption that a plurality of elders would be in place at whatever churches were receiving this letter. The fact that the explicit duties and qualifications of an elder are not exclusively listed in this letter shows that whoever was receiving the letter was (or should have been) well aware of what elders were, how you became one, and what you were supposed to do as an elder. Elders do have specific functions and James is merely giving us a concise glimpse into one of those responsibilities.

The Power of a Righteous Prayer
James 5:15-18 speaks about the effect prayer can have on a life. However, these verses are also greatly misinterpreted by many readers. So let’s break them apart one at a time.

Verse 15
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The first thing we have to clarify in our heads is our concept of “saving”. When we think about saving someone from a sickness we often equate that with healing. But should we? Could not death also be what saves someone from a terrible sickness? For example, if someone battles with cancer for 10 years and finally succumbs people tend to say, “It’s better that he/she no longer has to suffer. They’re free from all that now.” The reason I say this is because I want us all to be very careful about how we see prayer answered. You may pray for someone to be healed and that prayer may well be answered, but not in the fashion that you wished it to be answered. You see God understands “saving” in a much different way. After all, consider how he saved humanity…God extended grace to us through a death on a cross. If you think about how we generally conceive of saving someone, the way God did it kind of seems upside down. Fortunately, because we trust in the sovereignty of God, we know that it is not at all upside down. Therefore, we must not attempt to force our perspective on the Bible. It is easy for us to look at the Bible and make it say what we want it to say. In the case of verse 15 many people want it to mean this: “If we pray, in faith, for so and so to be healed then it will happen the way we desire to see it happen. Their sickness will disappear and they will re-enter everyday life with us as a standing miracle to God’s merciful compassion.” Yet we must know that this may not always be the fashion in which God responds to our prayer. The sick person may be saved and raised up by God, but it may not be according to our desire because, as any Christian should know, God’s desire trumps our desire every time. I will elaborate on the second sentence of verse 15 while I’m covering verse 16.

Verse 16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James ends verse 15 with a bridge into verse 16 by saying, “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Confessing your sins in personal prayer is difficult enough. Confessing your sins to one another is even more difficult. Yet it is in this way that we can be healed and forgiven of our sins. The confession of sin reveals much about the character of an individual. The one who has no sin to confess about might seem as though they have no sin. We know this is not true. What is most likely happening is that they are keeping their sinfulness to themselves. This runs contrary to what the Bible, particularly this passage of James, tells us to do. You might ask, “Why confess your sins to one another? Is it not good enough to confess your sins to God?” It is good and cathardic to confess your sins to God. However, you should also be able to reveal the sinfulness of your heart to others. But why? So that you could be strengthened and encouraged by one another. God gives us the opportunity to fellowship for a reason. God is well aware that it is of great value for us to have relationships in our lives that seek to glorify Him. When we are confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another, we not only strengthen and encourage one another…WE GLORIFY GOD. We are putting on the banner of the meekness of wisdom and the beautiful tapestry of humility. In this posture we confess our sinfulness and reveal our greater desire to see sin die daily in our lives so that we could be steadfast servants of God, pursuing his righteousness for the sake of His glory.

You’ve often heard it said, “There’s power in prayer.” While I would agree with that, I also feel that we must add something to that statement. Essentially we must say what James says in the second sentence of verse 16. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I find it interesting that James says “righteous person”. Remember back in chapter 1 James said, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man and unstable in all his ways.” People who never pray often pray when they are at a desperate moment in their lives. Sometimes it seems as though their prayer is answered. Other times it seems as though their prayer is ignored altogether. It seems strange that people who do not make a habit out of pursuing righteousness with their lives sometimes seem to get what they pray for. The question we must ask is this, “Is God genuinely answering their prayer or is He doing something else that we cannot see or understand?” The reason I bring this up is because if you’re thinking about things like this it may be easy for you to think of prayer as nothing special or exclusive to either the righteous or the unrighteous. What I do know is that James is making a very clear distinction in verse 16 that it is the prayer of the righteous, not the unrighteous, that has great power as it is working. While things sometimes seem to work out for the unrighteous, it does not mean that prayer is necessarily working in a powerful way for them. Let’s consider the example James gives us in verse 17 and 18.

Verse 17 and 18
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

Elijah was a great prophet of God. In many ways he is one of the most “famous” characters from the Bible. You don’t even have to know much about the Bible to have heard of Elijah. Yet James points out that Elijah had the same nature as any of us walking around today. Elijah wasn’t bionic or anything like that. He wasn’t Superman. He was no different than you or I in our basic nature. The difference between Elijah and many Christians is that Elijah was more concerned about pursuing righteousness rather than his own selfish will. Sure, Elijah had some not so great moments but don’t we all? If you want to read the fascinating story that James is referencing here go to 1 Kings 17 and begin reading.

James uses Elijah as an example of how the “prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” What you notice in the story of Elijah (if you’ve read the account in 1 Kings) is that Elijah was doing only that which was according to the word of the Lord. When in Elijah told of the drought in 1 Kings 17 he was doing it in accordance with the word of God. When Elijah prayed for rain in 1 Kings 18 it was in accordance with the word of God. Elijah’s prayer was effective because he was righteous and he was righteous because all that he did was in accordance with what God had commanded him to do.

Bringing Home the Wayward
¹⁹My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

There are two interpretive dangers that I want to make sure we avoid in these verses.

(1) An Alternate Road to Salvation?: If you look at verse 20 you might be inclined to say this: “If I bring back a sinner from their wandering I will save my soul from death, meaning that if I steer this person back to the truth then I can save my soul through my righteous works…meaning that I don’t need the grace of Christ.” Well, obviously that’s a severe perversion of what James says in verse 20. But I can promise you that it has probably been said by someone, somewhere, at some time. You’ll notice that James doesn’t talk about Christ very much. In fact, the only reference he makes about Christ comes in the early stages of chapter 2 when he says, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” When he speaks about holding our faith in Christ I believe that he means that we should never forsake the fact that faith in Christ is our only hope of salvation. James never denies this fact in his letter. Some people assert that James lack of emphasis on this fact makes his whole letter very shaky. I disagree. I believe that one of the reasons that James did not go into great detail about Christ and what Christ accomplished on the cross is because it wasn’t necessary. Let me explain what I mean by “wasn’t necessary”. When he told his audience “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” I think you have to assume that those people reading/hearing the letter would have known who Jesus was and they also would have known what he had accomplished. Therefore, those hearing or reading the words of James were most likely well informed about the basic principles of salvation through Christ…ergo…they didn’t need more instruction on that principle. What they needed encouragement in was holding the faith that they had in Christ. So James is helping them understand how to be steadfast, how to be pursuers of righteousness, and how to become doers of the word so that the fruit of their lives will show that their faith is alive and not dead. So when James says, “…whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death,” he’s not saying that this is a way, apart from Christ, that you can bestow saving grace upon yourself.

(2) The Credit Card Christ: Another incorrect way that verse 20 could be viewed is like this: “If I wander away from the truth and someone convinces me to come back to it, then I will save my soul from death. Not only that but I will also cover a multitude of sins by making this decision. So what that means is that I can take some time being a good, loyal Christian and then, when I start to feel the need to break free again, I can go out, pursue unrighteousness for a while and then come back to the truth. I can do this over and over again just as long as I always come back to the truth. If I continue to come back to the truth my soul will continue to be saved from death and the multitude of sins that I’ve be piling up will be, for the most part, covered.” Again, this is a disgusting perversion of James 5:20. Many Christians in the world today don’t really feel the true weight of sinfulness. They tend to have what I’ve heard referred to as a credit card mentality. What that means is this: With credit cards you can often max one out and then simply go get another and continue spending money that you don’t have. You can continue this cycle until finally you have to do something drastic like declare bankruptcy. There is a belief amongst a startling number of Christians that this is how salvation works. They believe that we can be good Christians for a while and then we’ll start to wander away from the truth (in the old country churches I believe they call it “backsliding”). Then eventually we’ll realize that we’ve “backslid” and we’ll say things like, “I really felt like the Lord was about to kick me to the curb…it’s a good thing I straightened up when I did.” So we’ll go on being good for a little while longer and then eventually we’ll start to wander away from the truth again. Maybe one of those times we wander away so far that we feel that God really has washed His hands of us and that it’s up to us to get our lives straight and for God to receive us into grace once again. Some might even get re-baptized to signify their new start in the Lord. That’s credit card faith. We max out our chances with God, then we get a new start (usually with some kind of a public re-dedication). What’s sad is that this is a popular belief yet I can’t find anything biblical to support it (and I know I’m not alone in that proclamation). To such people I believe that James might be more inclined to say that their lives reflect that of someone who has no genuine love for the ways of God. The actions of their lives could be proving that their faith is in fact dead.

I believe that what James is really driving at in verses 19 & 20 could be summed up like this: If you wander from the truth and come back to it (in unbridled submission to God) then you will illustrate that your faith is being shown by your works. You are showing with your life that you are cleansing your hands as a sinner, you are purifying your heart as a double minded person, you are being wretched with mourning and weeping, your laughter is turned to mourning and your joy disintegrates into gloom as you feel the full weight of your sinfulness upon you. Then you confess your sins to both God and someone you trust as an upright person who pursues righteousness with every fiber of their lives. You pray that you may be healed. You pray that you may be forgiven. You kill that which is earthly within you. You die to your selfish desires. You rejoice in God. You glorify Him. You sing praises to Him. You pray to Him. You respond to Him in whatever way He calls you. You serve Him steadfastly in whatever way He calls you. Your joy becomes only that which comes from Him. Your greatest joy is the name of Christ and the work of the father exalted above all things. In this way you show, through the meekness of wisdom, that your faith is alive….alive in Christ, the Lord of glory!