¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; ¹⁵ and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 

James 5:14-15 (NASB) 中文 

Prayer for sick

James now continues the thought he started in v14 (included again for context from last post). When we are sick, we should call on the church elders also to pray. In v15, he explains the key to the answer – faith. 

As we focus on v15, we see James mentions a “prayer offered in faith”. What does he mean? It could mean there are prayers that are not offered in faith. By the context, we cannot expect that kind to be answered. But the prayer offered in faith (and really what all prayer should) is grounded in who God is – our powerful, reliable, loving Father – and a desire to see His will done that He may be glorified. 

Does this mean that whenever an elder prays, all who seek such prayer will be healed? Some would think so but reality would dictate otherwise. The truth is there would be more healings if 1) the sick would seek to ask and 2) the prayers offered were done in faith.

Restored (saved)

Now what does James mean by “restored” (saved in the ESV) and “raised”? Is he talking about salvation of non-believers? The context would indicate otherwise. James is writing to believers in the body, “If any of you…”, not to non-believers. So what does he mean?

Assuming He is talking to followers of Christ who are sick, we should recognize that some sickness is due to sin. (1 Corinthians 11:30) It can be a way that God uses to draw our attention to the sin in a dramatic way – maybe when other methods (like conviction from the Spirit of God) don’t. Other sickness is not due to a specific sin on the part of the sick. This is why James says, “and if they committed sin” – so both cases are covered. 

Raised

Now does raised mean raised from the dead? Does the prayer of faith of an elder in the church bring about a future resurrection after death? Absolutely not (1 Cor 15:22). Jesus along is. Resurrection is part of the package deal of salvation by grace through faith in Christ (Eph 2:8-9). So is this talking about raising believers who have died of a sickness back to life? Probably not. It’s a call to the sick to seek healing. Raised would then most likely mean, raised from their sickness, from their sick bed. 

So putting these two together, it seems that James is talking about both physical healing and spiritual. Or, you might say, physical healing that could have a spiritual component. If the sickness is due to sin,  the prayer of faith could bring forgiveness… as the sin is confessed. We will see this in the next verse.

RЯeflection

• The call to us is what? When we are sick, do we pray and call the elders to pray? Do we pray in faith? Do we ask the Spirit to search our hearts (Psalm 121) to show us our sin, if there be any related to the sickness?
• When we pray, do we pray in faith? “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)