James 5,13-18

21—The Power of Righteous Praying (5:13–18)

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 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; 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. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. (5:13–18)

This passage has been a battleground for interpreters over the centuries as various groups have used it as a proof text for their particular beliefs. Roman Catholics find in it biblical support for the sacrament of extreme unction. Faith healers of every stripe have used it to teach that all sick Christians are guaranteed healing through prayer. Still others see in it a precedent for anointing sick people with oil.

The passage raises a number of difficult interpretive questions. What kind of suffering does James have in view in verse 13? What type of sickness is in view in verse 14? Why are the prayers of the elders different from those of other believers (vv. 14–15)? What is the anointing with oil described in verse 14? Does the prayer of faith (v. 15) always restore the sick? How does sickness relate to sin (v. 15)? What type of healing is in view in verse 16? Why does James insert an illustration about rain (vv. 17–18) into the middle of a discussion of healing?

The key to answering those questions and properly interpreting the passage lies in understanding it in its context. The Bible is not a random collection of verses that may be interpreted in isolation. To properly understand any passage one must interpret it in light of the paragraphs immediately preceding and following it, the chapter or section it is in, and the book containing it. Context provides the flow of thought in which any given passage of Scripture exists. To ignore context is to sacrifice a proper interpretation; it has well been said that a text without a context is a pretext. Therefore, before attempting to interpret this challenging passage, a review of the context in which it was written is essential and helpful.

James wrote his epistle to Jewish believers who had been forced to flee from Palestine by the persecution recorded in Acts 8:1–4. In 1:1 he referred to them as “the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.” Being both Jewish and Christians, they faced hostility from the pagan culture in which they lived. Knowing that, James opened his epistle with an exhortation to patiently endure trials (1:2ff.). In chapter 5 he returned to that theme. The first six verses described the persecution his poor readers were suffering at the hands of the wicked rich—even to the point of death (v. 6). Verses 7–11 call for patient endurance of trials and persecution (cf. chap. 19 of this volume). James exhorted those about to collapse under the weight of their afflictions to prop up their hearts and resolutely, determinedly persist.

In view of the overall context of the epistle, particularly chapter 5, it is not surprising that James mentions suffering in 5:13. He calls on those who are suffering the persecution discussed in 5:1–11 to pray, since prayer taps the source of spiritual endurance. It would have been surprising if, in a letter to struggling, persecuted believers, James had neglected to mention prayer. A strong commitment to prayer is a prerequisite to enduring suffering and affliction.

The theme of verses 13–18, then, is prayer, which is mentioned in every one of those verses. James’s exhortation to prayer embraces the prayer life of the entire church. Individual believers are called to pray in verse 13, the elders in verses 14–15, and the congregation in verse 16. This section also reflects James’s compassionate pastoral care for his suffering flock; his main focus is on the casualties of the spiritual battle, the persecuted, weak, defeated believers.

As the context and the content of this section make clear, the subject is not physical illness or healing. Instead, its concern is with healing spiritual weakness, spiritual weariness, spiritual exhaustion, and spiritual depression through prayer, as well as dealing with the suffering and sin that accompanies it. To insert a discussion here on physical healing would be incongruous. Nothing in the preceding or following context would prepare James’s readers for that. But a section on how to help the casualties of persecution through prayer fits perfectly into the flow of James’s thought. Specifically, James discusses the relationship of prayer to comfort, restoration, fellowship, and power.

Prayer and Comfort

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. (5:13)

The objects of James’s pastoral care are identified first as the weary, suffering believers. Suffering is from kakopatheō, the verb form of the noun translated “suffering” in verse 10. As noted in the discussion of that verse in chapter 19 of this volume, the word refers to enduring evil treatment by people—not physical illness (cf. its only other New Testament uses in 2 Tim. 2:9; 4:5). James addresses not those suffering from physical diseases, but those being persecuted, abused, and treated wickedly.

As an antidote to their suffering, James exhorts them to pray. As noted above, prayer is essential to enduring affliction. God is the ultimate source of comfort, leading the apostle Paul to describe Him as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor. 1:3–4). Similarly, Peter wrote, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). From the stomach of a great fish the disobedient prophet Jonah prayed, “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7). The present tense of the verb translated he must pray suggests a continual pleading with God in prayer; it could be translated “let him keep on praying.” When life is difficult, when believers are weak in faith, weary with persecution, and crushed by affliction, they must continually plead with God to comfort them. That is a basic spiritual truth, but one often forgotten. In the words of the beloved hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,”

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Ev’rything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Those who manage to maintain a cheerful attitude in their suffering are to sing praises. Cheerful is from euthumeō and describes those well in spirit, or having a joyful attitude—not those who are physically well. The suffering and the happy, the wounded, broken spirits and the whole, rejoicing spirits are both to pray. The one is to plead with God for comfort, the other is to sing praises to God for comfort given. Psallō (sing praises) is the verb from which the noun translated “psalm” derives (cf. Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 5:19). Praise and prayer are closely related; praise is actually a form of prayer (Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2). Both are essential for the spiritual strength of those undergoing persecution.

Prayer and Restoration

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; 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. (5:14–15)

Here is the most misunderstood and disputed portion of this passage. At first glance it appears to be teaching that sick believers can expect physical healing through the prayers of the elders. But such an interpretation is out of harmony with the context. And as noted in the previous point, the suffering James has in view is evil treatment, not physical illness.

It is true that, apart from the present verse, astheneō is translated sick eighteen times in the New Testament (e.g., Matt. 10:8; 25:36, 39; Mark 6:56; Luke 4:40; John 4:46; Acts 9:37). But it is also used fourteen times to refer to emotional or spiritual weakness (Acts 20:35; Rom. 4:19; 8:3; 14:1–2; 1 Cor. 8:11–12; 2 Cor. 11:21, 29; 12:10; 13:3–4, 9). Significantly, in all but three (Phil. 2:26–27; 2 Tim. 4:20) of astheneō’s appearances in the epistles it does not refer to physical sickness. Paul’s use of astheneō in 2 Corinthians 12:10 is especially noteworthy, since it there describes weakness produced by the sufferings of life—in a similar context as its usage in the present verse.

Translating astheneō “weak” here in keeping with its predominant usage in the epistles allows us to view this verse in a different light. James moves beyond the suffering believers of the previous point to address specifically those who have become weak by that suffering. The weak are those who have been defeated in the spiritual battle, who have lost the ability to endure their suffering. They are the fallen spiritual warriors, the exhausted, weary, depressed, defeated Christians. They have tried to draw on God’s power through prayer, but have lost motivation, even falling into sinful attitudes. Having hit bottom, they are not able to pray effectively on their own. In that condition, the spiritually weak need the help of the spiritually strong (cf. 1 Thess. 5:14).

That help, James says, is to be found in the elders of the church. They are the spiritually strong, the spiritually mature, the spiritually victorious. Weak, defeated believers are to go to them and draw on their strength. They are to call (from proskaleō, “to call alongside”) the elders to come and lift them up. It is the same thought that the apostle Paul expressed in Galatians 6:1: “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” The wounded, exhausted, broken sheep are to go to their shepherds, who will intercede for them and ask God for renewed spiritual strength on their behalf.

This is an important—and largely neglected—ministry of the church’s pastors and elders. The apostles acknowledged its priority when they said, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). But in today’s church, weak, struggling believers are often handed over to so-called expert professional counselors—who often have little power in prayer. Those who have been defeated in the spiritual battle do not need to hear opinions of human wisdom; they need to be strengthened by the power of God through their leaders’ prayers.

The anointing with oil in the name of the Lord done by the elders is not a reference to some symbolic ceremony. Aleiphō (the root form of the verb translated anointing) is not used in the New Testament to refer to a ceremonial anointing. Noted Greek scholar A. T. Robertson comments, “It is by no means certain that aleiphō here … means ‘anoint’ in a ceremonial fashion rather than ‘rub’ as it commonly does in medical treatises” (Word Pictures in the New Testament [reprint, 1933; Grand Rapids: Baker, n.d.], 6:65). Richard C. Trench agrees: “[aleiphō] is the mundane and profane, [chriō] the sacred and religious, word” (Synonyms of the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983], 136–37). Aleiphō in the New Testament describes anointing one’s head with oil (Matt. 6:17; cf. Luke 7:46), the women’s anointing of Jesus’ body (Mark 16:1), Mary’s anointing of the Lord’s feet (John 11:2; 12:3), and anointing the sick with oil (Mark 6:13). Perhaps the best way to translate the phrase would be “rubbing him with oil in the name of the Lord”; it literally reads “after having oiled him.”

It may well have been that the elders literally rubbed oil on believers who had suffered physical injuries to their bodies from the persecution (cf. Luke 10:34). Medical science was certainly in a primitive state and there were few trustworthy doctors. It would have been a gracious, kind act on the part of the elders to rub oil on the wounds of those who had been beaten, or into the sore muscles of those made to work long hours under harsh treatment.

Metaphorically, the elders’ anointing of weak, defeated believers with oil conveys the responsibility for elders to stimulate, encourage, strengthen, and refresh (cf. Luke 7:46) these people. Speaking of Israel, Isaiah wrote, “From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil” (Isa. 1:6). Lacking godly leaders, the people of the nation had not had their spiritual wounds treated. David expressed God’s gracious, compassionate, spiritual restoration of him in these familiar words: “You have anointed my head with oil” (Ps. 23:5).

The elders’ ministry of intercession and restoration is to be done in the name of the Lord. Any truly biblical encouragement must be consistent with who God is (which is what His name represents). To do something in the name of Christ is to do what He would have done in the situation; to pray in the name of Christ is to ask what He would want; to minister in the name of Christ is to serve others on His behalf (cf. John 14:13–14).

The blessed result of the elders’ comfort and ministry of intercession is that their prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. Again, sick is misleading and not the best translation of kamnō, which in its only other New Testament usage (Heb. 12:3) clearly does not refer to physical illness. As has been noted, James speaks here of a spiritual restoration of weak, defeated believers. Nor does sozō (restore) necessarily refer to physical healing; it is most commonly translated “save” in the New Testament. The idea here is that the elders’ prayers will deliver weak, defeated believers from their spiritual weakness and restore them to spiritual wholeness. Those prayers, of course, are but a channel for God’s power; it is the Lord who will raise up the weak. Egeirō (raise up) can also mean “to awaken” or “to arouse.” Through the righteous prayers of godly men, God will restore His battered sheep’s enthusiasm.

James’s note that if one of the spiritually weak believers has committed sins, they will be forgiven him provides further evidence that this passage does not refer to physical healing. The Bible nowhere teaches that all sickness is the direct result of an individual’s sins. Spiritual defeat, however, is often both the cause and result of sin. When that is the case, the antidote is to confess those sins to God and obtain His forgiveness. “I acknowledged my sin to You,” wrote David, “and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin” (Ps. 32:5). David’s son Solomon echoed that comforting truth: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (Prov. 28:13). In the familiar words of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If sin has contributed to or resulted from the spiritual weakness and defeat of a fallen believer, that sin will be forgiven him when he cries out to God for forgiveness. The elders can encourage him to confess, help him discern his sins, and join their prayers for his forgiveness to his. That is an essential element of their ministry of restoration.

Prayer and Fellowship

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. (5:16a)

Therefore marks a transition in the flow of thought. Turning his attention from the sins of those believers who have been defeated in the spiritual battle, James addressed the congregation as a whole, exhorting believers to continually confess their sins to one another and not wait until those sins dragged them into the depths of utter spiritual defeat. The inspired writer was well aware that sin is most dangerous to an isolated believer. Sin seeks to remain private and secret, but God wants it exposed and dealt with in the loving fellowship of other believers. Therefore James called for mutual honesty and mutual confession as believers pray for one another.

Maintaining open, sharing, and praying relationships with other Christians will help keep believers from bottoming out in their spiritual lives. Such relationships help give the spiritual strength that provides victory over sin. And they also provide godly pressure to confess and forsake sins before they become overwhelming to the point of total spiritual defeat.

The purpose for the mutual prayer that James called for is that believers may be healed. Iaomai (healed) does not necessarily refer to physical healing. In Matthew 13:15 it symbolized God’s withheld forgiveness of Israel’s sins (cf. John 12:40; Acts 28:27). The writer of Hebrews also used it metaphorically to speak of spiritual restoration (Heb. 12:12–13), while Peter used it to describe the healing from sin Christ purchased for believers on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24). James uses it to refer to God’s forgiveness, making the repentant believer spiritually whole again.

Prayer and Power

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. (5:16b-18)

By way of encouraging both elders and Christians to this kind of intercession for those in spiritual weakness, James reminds them that such prayer is effective. Effective translates energeō, from which our English word “energy” derives. The prayer of a righteous man (cf. 4:3; Ps. 66:18; Prov. 15:8; 28:9), James notes, can accomplish much (literally “is very strong”). Weak prayers come from weak people; strong prayers come from strong people. The energetic prayers of a righteous man are a potent force in calling down the power of God for restoring weak, struggling believers to spiritual health.

To further demonstrate the power of righteous prayer and provide an illustration that captures the essence of his discussion, James turns to one of the most popular Old Testament figures. Elijah, he reminds his readers, though a prophet and man of God, was a man with a nature like ours. The Bible records that he was hungry (1 Kings 17:11), afraid (1 Kings 19:3), and depressed (1 Kings 19:3, 9–14). Yet when he prayed earnestly (lit. “he prayed with prayer”), incredible things happened: It did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. Elijah’s prayers both created and ended a devastating three-and-one-half-year drought (cf. Luke 4:25). While 1 Kings 17 records the drought, only James gives its duration and links it to the prayers of Elijah.

The story of Elijah and the drought would certainly be a strange illustration if James had physical illness and healing in view throughout this passage. Certainly there are numerous clear biblical illustrations of healing he could have drawn from. But the picture of rain pouring down on parched ground perfectly illustrates God’s outpouring of spiritual blessings on the dry and parched souls of struggling believers. And He does both in response to the righteous prayers of godly people.

The significance and application of this critical call to intercessory prayer on the part of elders in behalf of struggling believers has been manifested repeatedly through the years in my ministry with great blessing. My fellow elders have made themselves available to our congregation every Sunday morning and evening before and after services, as well as at all other necessary times to meet with the weak and wounded for strengthening prayer.

One of the most memorable experiences of this ministry occurred when a student came to see me. He had been studying for ministry, came from a strong Christian home, was very skilled as a student, and had all the characteristics for leadership and effective service to the Lord. But he had often lost the struggle to some recurring temptations and had suffered some rejection and unjust criticism. He was struggling and losing. He confessed to me that he had lost the will to read the Scripture and had no heart for prayer. Finally, he sought me out to pray with and for him, that through my prayers God might grant him the power and victory he longed for, but had no heart to pursue.

I asked him to kneel with me side by side, using two chairs. I will never forget what he did. As I knelt with my arms and head down on the chair, he laid himself, not on his chair, but across my back, placing all his weight on me. This was a humble gesture of the dependence he was placing on me to be his strength. Tearful prayer and confession were followed by much joy as God heard my prayer, and in the days to follow he testified to strengthening grace. He completed his course nobly and went on to serve the Lord.