Troublesome Topic: DOES JAMES 5 MIX FAVORS AND TRUE PRAYER?

James 5:13

Translation

Is anyone among you enduring malicious hardship?

He should pray.

Is anyone cheerful? He should make music.

Paraphrase

Is anyone in your fellowship of believers going through an exceptionally hard time? He should commit it to God in prayer. Is anyone in your fellowship of believers feeling exuberant? His response should be to give praise to God through singing.

James 5:14

Translation

Is anyone among you feeble?

Let him call for the elders

of the church to come to him, and let them pray over him, anointing

him with oil

in the name of the LORD.

Paraphrase

Is anyone in your fellowship who professes to be a believer not living in God’s strength but is continually feeble and frail as a result of continued sin in his life? He should call for the leaders of the congregation who are grandfathers to come to him so he can confess the spiritual reasons for his physical ailments, and they should pray for him to be restored to spiritual health, covering him with a symbol of the Holy Spirit according to the expressed will and purpose of THE SOVEREIGN RULER OF ALL THINGS.

James 5:15

Translation

And the prayer of the faithful

[elder] will deliver

the one who is weary and sick, and the LORD will raise him up;

even though

he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

Paraphrase

and the prayer of the grandfather who is faithfully living for God’s glory will be used by God so that the person who is sick and worn out will be delivered from his condition of physical weakness as proof that he has been delivered from his condition of spiritual weakness, and THE SOVEREIGN RULER OF ALL THINGS will raise him from a condition that is undesirable spiritually and physically to a desirable condition, and forgive his sins.

THREE WAYS TO INTERPRET THIS PASSAGE

The first way is to assume that praying for sick people to get well is true prayer and will always be answered with a “Yes”. But the text does not use words like “sick” and “heal” but rather words like “feeble”, “deliver” and “restore”. This method stubbornly holds to an interpretation which flies in the face of other parts of Scripture

as well as life’s experiences.

The second way is to assume this passage is intended to convey general truths that are often true even though it sounds like it is making absolute statements that are always true. It should therefore be understood as saying that God will usually, or often, deliver and restore the sick to good health. But there is nothing in the text itself to commend this method to us. This interpretation says, “here is what the text says, but it cannot be true, therefore I choose another way to interpret it.” This is dangerous because it makes each of us the arbiter of truth and we can make the text say whatever we want it to say, which leaves open the possibility of any interpretation being valid.

The third way to interpret this passage is to focus on the way the text brings in spiritual elements such as the need for forgiveness from sin and the qualities of righteousness and faithfulness in the lives of the elders. It then takes the next step which is implied but not stated clearly, namely that the person suffering from exceptional weakness is in that condition because of his own sinful actions.

Notice the condition in view is described in verse 14 as “feeble, frail, having no strength”. Does that mean “physically sick” or “spiritually weak” or both? Probably both. Sickness is not always caused by sins, but in this passage there is a strong connection between the spiritual and the physical conditions. I have read the work of ten commentaries on this verse and several of them feel strongly that sin is the cause of the sickness in this passge, while all the others acknowledge the possibility that such is the intended meaning. Therefore, it is quite likely that this is a picture of a person whose life is characterized by spiritual, physical, emotional and relational weakness because he is living in continued, unconfessed sin. He pretends to be a believer and has joined the meetings of believers, but he is not enjoying the wholeness that should come from following Jesus with full commitment (unless God has chosen to send him sickness for some reason other than his sin – but usually such teaching moments only last as long as it takes for us to learn the lesson).

The spiritual overtones of this passage become perfectly clear in verse 15 for there are several factors that point to the spiritual side of things.

The restoration of physical health is a proof that the person has finally repented and has been restored to spiritual health and closeness to God.

I Cor 11:30 is another case in which people were suffering long term illnesses due to a condition of unrepented sin in their lives. Paul specifically said that their sin was the reason that some of them were “weak and sick”. Here Paul uses the same word, “weak”, that we find in James 5:14.

It may seem odd that this text mentions only the prayer of the faithful elders, not the prayer of the repentant man; it is actually both that brings restoration, the role of repentance and confession being obvious and assumed.

James 5:16

Translation

Therefore, acknowledge the sins to one another, and wish

for one another that you all may be healed. Being active and effective, the supplication of a righteous one

prevails much.

Paraphrase

Here are my conclusions: First, be willing to confess your sinful condition to others in your fellowship; second, ask God for the favor of physical health for all those who have repented as proof of that repentance, third, realize that God listens more carefully to the petitions of those whose lives adhere to His holy standard and responds to them, making their petitions very effective at things like restoring spiritual and physical health.

THE PETITIONS OF A RIGHTEOUS ONE

This passage places a strong emphasis on the petitions of a person who is faithful and righteous. God listens to those who are close to Him, whose hearts beat right along with His heart, who feel His burdens with Him. What’s more, such a person will be more likely to discern when the cause of illness is sin and when it is not.

This reminds us of the time God told Job’s friends they needed to repent and that He would grant them forgiveness based on two things – their blood sacrifices and Job’s prayer for them (see Job 42:7-9). Then there was the time that the friends of a paralytic man tore a hole in the roof of a house to let their paralyzed friend down to Jesus, and Jesus healed him because of the faith of the friends (Mark 2:1-12).

This does not mean that the prayers of the righteous are the only thing needed to bring repentance to a sinner. It does mean that the condition of the heart of the one praying makes a difference. That is one reason the feeble person was instructed to call for the elders of the church who should be the most spiritually mature people in the local body of believers.

This is followed in verses 17 & 18 by the example of a righteous man whose prayers God listened to – Elijah.

The next lesson on Prayer is: ARE MOST OF OUR PRAYER REQUESTS TRUE PRAYER?

Footnotes

1

This is a compound Greek word coming from “bad, evil, malicious” and “to suffer, to endure”.

2

This is the major Greek word for “pray”. It comes from two words, the preposition “towards” and the verb “to wish, to want, to will”. The preposition toward implies a reciprocity between you and the person you are moving toward. This interaction is of the nature of exchanging something, and that idea is strong enough in this preposition to cause some to render it with the word “exchange”. So in prayer we are exchanging something with God. What do we exchange? Our will. The other part of the word “pray” is “to wish for, to want, to exercise the will”. Thus prayer is when we approach God to exchange our will and our wishes for His will and His wishes. God does not receive our will and wishes, but we should receive His.

3

This word comes from a root meaning “to rub, to touch lightly”, which was used to mean “to play an instrument”. It was also used of singing, which is likely the intended meaning here.

4

This word’s primary meaning is “feeble, frail, lacking strength”. Its secondary meaning is “sickly, ill”.

5

The system of leadership in the early church was a carry-over from the leadership seen in the Old Testament, it was primarily grandfathers being the leaders of their small clans.

6

Anointing did not truly cover the person in oil, but it was a picture of covering.

7

Oil represented the spirit, i.e. the Spirit of God.

8

The word for “faith” comes from a root word meaning “persuaded, convinced.” It can and often does mean “faithful, loyal, persistent”, as well as “faith, belief.” Here I think it is best to render it “faithful” for the following reasons. It is used as a noun, not an adjective. It does not have the form of an adjective, nor does it agree grammatically with anything else in the sentence as a Greek adjective must do. It has an article as both nouns and some adjectives do in Greek. But as a singular noun with an article it must mean “the faithful one,” on in this case, “the faithful elder”. Someone who is faithful is close to God and can tell when God is speaking to him. He knows the mind and heart of God, at least to some degree, and thus he knows if this person is genuine in their repentance and he knows if God wants to heal him from his physical infirmities.

9

This is the word “save” which can also mean “to rescue or deliver”. This gives this passage a spiritual element. But only God can save so I have chosen to use “deliver” instead of “save” in this context.

10

Notice the text does not use the word heal but rather raise him up. It may mean, “raise him up from his sick bed,” but it is also a picture of things that are not physical sickness. Many have translated it “restore” which is acceptable and which also points to a variety of possibilities, not just restoring to good health physically.

11

The little Greek word used here can mean “if” or it can mean “even though”. I think the latter fits the context best, which shall be seen more fully in the next verse

12

See I Cor 12:9-10 and James 4:3.

13

This word means “to wish for, to desire as an act of the will.” It is sometimes rendered “to pray” but it is a weak form of pray compared to the other Greek word which means to exchange my will for God’s will. I think it refers to asking God for a favor.

14

There is a healthy tension here. While none of us adhere to God’s holy standard perfectly, the Bible calls followers of Jesus “holy ones”. The point here is that God listens to those who are close to Him, and He knows who they are because He sees the heart.