James 5:14-16:
Is any sick among you? 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;
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Notes on James 5:14-16:
This command is so plain and obvious that it takes a theologian to explain it away. The sick are to be healed! The seriously ill can be raised up by having the elders come and pray the prayer of faith. This is what to do IF there is any sick among you so that there WON’T be any sick among you.
There is an IF referring to IF any among you are sick. (Today, James might have to ask, “Is any among you not sick?”) There is no IF about the results, though. The prayer of faith SHALL save (heal) the sick person and the Lord SHALL raise him up. The people involved have to believe what God said about this.
This passage has to be one of the most disobeyed passages in Scripture! Most people who get so sick that they can’t make it to church never call for the elders of the church, and most church elders don’t make themselves available to pray “the prayer of faith” over the sick or even believe in doing so, preferring to pray for patience, guidance of the surgeon’s hands, or whatever. A sick person should not expect that the elders will just know supernaturally to come to the hospital or his house. God doesn’t expect that; He expects the sick person to obey Scripture and notify the elders!
One good question that might have occurred to you is, “How can your sins be forgiven when you are prayed over and anointed with oil when so many Scriptures say that you are already forgiven for all your sins when you get saved?” If you are already forgiven, it would not make sense that your sins are forgiven when you are anointed with oil by the elders. One attempt to explain this would be that if sin were responsible for your sickness (which can happen), the underlying sin is forgiven so that you can be healed. But that still leaves us with a contradiction if our sins are already forgiven because we are in Christ, and there are too many Scriptures to ignore that say we are already forgiven as believers (Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 1:14, Colossians 2:13, Colossians 3:13, 1 John 2:12). I think a better and more obvious explanation is that the phrase in question refers to a sinner who calls for the elders. His sin will not block his healing if he calls for the church elders, as God will consider his sins forgiven for the purpose of healing. Of course, this does not mean that you can be saved by being anointed with oil by elders; this cannot refer to the forgiveness for all sins that you receive when you receive Christ.
This presupposes that James is talking to sinners as well as saints, but he clearly does that in his letter. He addresses rich oppressors (James 5:1-6), prideful boasters (James 4:13-16), people who lust, murder, covet, fight and war (James 4:2), adulterers (James 4:4), sinners and double-minded people (James 4:8). So the “you” who are “among you” must include sinners. This is an example of God’s mercy to sinners, that if they are willing to go to the church elders, they can be healed. I have seen plenty of people healed who did not know Jesus when they came to be healed. Seeing God’s goodness through their healing sometimes resulted in them confessing Him as Lord after they were healed. God is still good and merciful to the worst of sinners.
Since we’re opening cans of worms already, we should also deal with what James was talking about when he said that we should confess our faults to one another. The word used there is used elsewhere to describe transgressions, and one Greek manuscript actually has the word for sins in that verse. (That is one challenge when we say, “The Bible says this in the Greek” – in some cases there are different manuscripts where the Greek wording itself can actually differ slightly.) So this is talking about confessing sins.
Does this mean that we should go into a confessional and confess our sins to a man? No, I believe that James is talking about being real with each other about our shortcomings, not admitting guilt to a designated person in a closet-sized room who can’t even be seen by the person making the confession. If I had my way, people would go into a “confessional” and declare, “I confess that Jesus’ blood has already purchased my forgiveness! I confess that I am the righteousness of God in Christ! I confess that I don’t need to do penance for my sins when Jesus has already paid the price for them! I confess that I myself am a saint and a priest!” (And so on.) I realize that such biblically accurate “confessions” would wear out the confessor’s welcome in that booth in short order, but that could be a good thing.
One thing is clear – this verse cannot be telling a believer that he needs to confess his sins to other people to be forgiven, especially in light of the other Scriptures on forgiveness cited above. It certainly cannot be used to support the idea of confessing your sin to a “priest” (all believers are priests in the New Testament anyway!), as this would be a one-way conversation between you and the “priest,” while James says to confess your sins to one another. (The Roman Catholic church, in error, actually does try to use this verse to support confessionals.) Have you ever heard of a confessional booth where the so-called priest also confesses HIS sins to YOU? If not, that priest’s confessional booth can’t be what James is talking about here. If it were, you would then ask, “In what ways have YOU been sinning lately? Let’s hear it all!”
However, there is a benefit to being real (and accountable) to other believers about our sins, as in many cases, Satan will talk a person into keeping his sin to himself, in which case he won’t be able to get any help from anyone else to overcome it!
The fact that James said, “…if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him…” proves that not all sickness is a consequence of a specific sin. Of course, ALL of us still sin, and there is no IF about that, so that can’t be what James was talking about. Here, the context would seem to be about specific sins that had resulted in sickness. The “if” shows that this person might NOT have committed a specific sin that led to the illness.
Also, this passage has been misapplied by the same people who inhabit confessionals to refer to the unbiblical practice of “extreme unction” (also known as “last rites”) where a dying person is anointed with oil to be saved from his sins. These would more accurately be called “last wrongs.” Oil has never saved anyone, and when James said that the prayer of faith would “save” the sick, that word is used for both physical healing as well as the more general thought of “salvation” and here must refer to healing as opposed to being saved from hell, which can only be accomplished by calling on the risen Jesus as Lord. No minister or anointing ritual can confer the new birth on anyone. While there can be differences of opinion on some of James’s points, James was most definitely not talking about so-called last rites, because instead of dying, the sick person is supposed to be raised up when the prayer of faith is prayed!
See also:
The Baseball Diamond of Healing
Forever Settled
You Are Holy and Worthy to Receive Healing
Sickness as Chastening and Judgment in the New Testament
Your Authority over Sickness
Different Ways to Get Healed
Prayers God Won’t Answer
What Every Elder is Commanded to Believe
Healing and Consecration
Do You Really Believe in Healing?
YOU Can Be Healed
Do the Math
What’s Better Than Healing? Health!
Saved!
Healing – a Gift from God
Descent into Stupidity
Paper Roadblocks to Healing
What 1 John 1:9 Really Means
What Can You Do for Comatose or Delirious People Who Cannot Believe God for Themselves?
I Have a Headache. Therefore, I Am Sick. Should I Call for the Elders of the Church, as James 5 Says?
Should We Anoint the Sick with Oil When We Lay Hands on Them?
Must We Use OLIVE OIL to Anoint the Sick?
Is It Important to Use ANOINTED Anointing Oil When We Anoint the Sick?
Should We Wait Until We Sense The Anointing to Lay Hands on the Sick?
Why Are So Few People Healed of the Common Cold and the Flu?
Does Sin in My Life Stop Me from Getting Healed?
If I Get Seriously Ill, Should I Tell Other People?
Should a Christian Go to a Healing Shrine?
Objection: Jesus Redeemed Us from Disease, but the Fulfillment of That Won’t Come Until We Get Glorified Bodies
Objection: James’s Command Makes It Clear That We Should Expect to be Sick, Then Healed, Then Sick, Then Healed, Not Always Healthy
Objection: We Are Supposed to Glory in Tribulations and Count Them All Joy (Romans 5:3, James 1:2-4)
Objection: Laying Hands on the Sick Is Not Part of the Great Commission
Objection: God Works in Mysterious Ways, His Wonders to Perform. We’ll Never Know Why God Lets Some People Stay Sick.
Objection: Anointing with Oil in James Is Intended to Be Medicinal
Objection: Elders Should Anoint the Sick with Oil But Leave the Results to Our Sovereign God
Objection: Today Doctors Have Replaced the Ancient Practice of Faith Healing
Objection: We Are Promised Tribulation in This World
Objection: God’s Healing Covenant in the Law of Moses Was Only for the Jews
Objection: Paul Told Timothy to Drink Wine Instead of Believing God for Healing
Objection: Signs Were Only to Follow Those Who Were There to Hear the Original Apostles
Objection: Mark 16:18 Speaks Collectively – Only Those Who Actually Have Gifts of Healings Can Heal the Sick by Laying On of Hands
Objection: James Said to Say, “If the Lord Will, We Shall Live.” This Proves That We Cannot Claim Long Life.
Objection: Mark 16:9-20 Was Not in Some Early Manuscripts
Objection: God’s Healing Covenant in the Law of Moses Was Only for the Jews
Objection: God ALLOWS Sickness, But Never More Than He Gives You Grace to Endure
Objection: Throughout Scripture God Heals Those Whom He CHOOSES to Heal
Objection: God Wants You to Bring SUPPLICATIONS and REQUESTS to HIM (Philippians 4:6), Not to “Take Authority” Yourself
Objection: James Set Patient Endurance of Sickness as the New Testament Standard for Believers (James 5:10-11)
Objection: James 5 in Context Speaks of a Believer Who Has Sinned and Spiritual Healing
Objection: The Word HEALED in James 5:16 Clearly Refers to SOULISH Healing
Objection: James’s Command Was for the Dispersed Jews, Not All Christians Throughout Time
Objection: James Said That the Prayer of Faith Would SAVE the Sick, Not HEAL the Sick
Objection: The “Raising Up” of James 5:15 Is Not Necessarily Physical
Objection: Before We Pray for a Healing in Faith, We Must Pray to See If It Is God’s Will in This Case
Mistake: Spiritual Laziness