Sermon Tone Analysis

13 Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

14 Is 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.

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.

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.

17 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.

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

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

13 Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

14 Is 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.

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.

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.

17 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.

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

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

The gift of speech is a marvelous blessing, if it is used to the glory of God.

As we have seen, James had a great deal to say about the tongue; and this chapter is no exception.

He mentioned some of the lowest uses of the tongue: complaining (James 5:9) and swearing (James 5:12).

But he also named some of the highest uses of the tongue: proclaiming God’s Word (James 5:10) and praying and praising God (James 5:13).

Prayer is certainly a high and holy privilege.

To think that, as God’s children, we can come freely and boldly to His throne and share with Him our needs!

Seven times in this section James mentioned prayer.

The mature Christian is prayerful in the troubles of life.

Instead of complaining about his situation, he talks to God about it; and God hears and answers his prayers.

“Taking it to the Lord in prayer” is certainly a mark of spiritual maturity.

In this section, James encourages us to pray by describing four situations in which God answers prayer.

Prayer for the Suffering (James 5:13)

The word afflicted means “suffering in difficult circumstances.”

The phrase “in trouble” is a good translation.

Paul used this word to describe the circumstances he was in as he suffered for the Gospel’s sake (2 Tim.

2:9).

As God’s people go through life, they often must endure difficulties that are not the results of sin or the chastening of God.

What should we do when we find ourselves in such trying circumstances?

We must not grumble and criticize the saints who are having an easier time of it (James 5:9); nor should we blame the Lord.

We should pray, asking God for the wisdom we need to understand the situation and use it to His glory (James 1:5).

Prayer can remove affliction, if that is God’s will.

But prayer can also give us the grace we need to endure troubles and use them to accomplish God’s perfect will.

God can transform troubles into triumphs.

“He giveth more grace” (James 4:6).

Paul prayed that God might change his circumstances, but instead, God gave Paul the grace he needed to turn his weakness into strength (2 Cor.

12:7–10).

Our Lord prayed in Gethsemane that the cup might be removed, and it was not; yet the Father gave Him the strength He needed to go to the cross and die for our sins.

James indicated that everybody does not go through troubles at the same time: “Is any merry?

Let him sing psalms” (James 5:13).

God balances our lives and gives us hours of suffering and days of singing.

The mature Christian knows how to sing while he is suffering.

(Anybody can sing after the trouble has passed.)

God is able to give “songs in the night” (Job 35:10).

He did this for Paul and Silas when they were suffering in that Philippian jail.

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God” (Acts 16:25).

Praying and singing were important elements in worship in the early church, and they should be important to us.

Our singing ought to be an expression of our inner spiritual life.

The believer’s praise should be intelligent (1 Cor.

14:15) and not just the mouthing of words or ideas that mean nothing to him.

It should come from the heart (Eph.

5:19) and be motivated by the Holy Spirit (Eph.

5:18).

Christian singing must be based on the Word of God (Col.

3:16) and not simply on the clever ideas of men.

If a song is not biblical, it is not acceptable to God.

Prayer for the Sick (James 5:14–16)

I do not think that James gave us a blanket formula for healing the sick.

In the churches I have pastored, the elders and I have prayed for the sick, and sometimes God has given healing.

But other times, He has not seen fit to heal the person.

I recall two cases within one week of each other: the one lady was restored in an almost miraculous way, but the other one had to enter the hospital for surgery, and eventually the Lord called her home.

What are the special characteristics of this case that James is describing?

The person is sick because of sin (vv.

15b–16).

The Greek text says, “If he has been constantly sinning.”

This parallels 1 Corinthians 11:30, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (have died).

James has described a church member who is sick because he is being disciplined by God.

This explains why the elders of the assembly are called: the man cannot go to church to confess his sins, so he asks the spiritual leaders to come to him.

The leaders would be in charge of the discipline of the congregation.

The person confesses his sins (v.

16).

In the early church, the believers practiced church discipline.

First Corinthians 5 is a good example.

Paul told the believers at Corinth to dismiss the sinning member from the assembly until he repented of his sins and made things right.

The little word “therefore” belongs in James 5:16—“Confess your sins therefore to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (literal translation).

The word faults in the Authorized Version gives the impression that the man’s deeds were not too evil; they were only faults.

But it is the word hamartia that James used, and this word means “sin.”

It is the same word used in James 1:15, where the subject is definitely sin.

The person is healed by “the prayer of faith” (v.

15).

It is not the anointing that heals, but the praying.

The Greek word translated “anointing” is a medicinal term; it could be translated “massaging.”

This may be an indication that James suggests using available means for healing along with asking the Lord for His divine touch.

God can heal with or without means; in each case, it is God who does the healing.

But what is “the prayer of faith” that heals the sick?

The answer is in 1 John 5:14–15—“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”

The “prayer of faith” is a prayer offered when you know the will of God.

The elders would seek the mind of God in the matter, and then pray according to His will.

As I visit the sick among my congregation, I do not always know how to pray for them.

(Paul had the same problem; read Rom.