Commentary - James 5:13-18

Bird's-eye view

In this closing section of his letter, James provides intensely practical instruction for the church in how to conduct herself through the various providences of God. Life in this fallen world is a mixed bag; there are times of suffering and times of cheer, seasons of sickness and seasons of health. James addresses each of these conditions with a corresponding spiritual discipline. The suffering are to pray, the cheerful are to sing, and the sick are to call for the elders. This is covenant life in shoe leather.

The central point here is that our lives are to be lived out before the face of God, within the community of the saints. There is no room for stoicism in suffering or for privatized glee in blessing. Everything is to be brought into the light. The passage climaxes with a call for mutual confession and prayer, linking our horizontal relationships directly to our vertical relationship with God. The effectiveness of this whole enterprise is then illustrated with the potent example of Elijah, a man just like us, whose prayers shut and opened the heavens. James wants us to see that this kind of radical godliness is not for a spiritual elite, but for the righteous man who takes God at His word.

Outline

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

James begins with two foundational scenarios of the Christian life: suffering and cheerfulness. Notice the utter practicality. He does not ask, "Is anyone among you a theologian?" but rather, "Is anyone suffering?" The Christian faith is not a philosophy for the detached mind but a way of life for embodied souls. For the one who is suffering, the directive is simple: let him pray. This is not a suggestion for one possible coping mechanism among many. It is a command. Affliction is to be met with petition. God in His providence brings hardship into our lives precisely to drive us to our knees. He troubles the waters so that we will look to the One who can calm them. The alternative is to grumble, to become bitter, or to seek solace in worldly distractions, all of which are forms of idolatry. The righteous man, when afflicted, speaks to his Father.

The second scenario is the flip side of the same coin. Is anyone cheerful? The world's response to good cheer is to throw a party, to indulge the self, to post about it online. The Christian's response is to sing praises. The Greek word here is psalletō, which means to sing psalms. Our joy, like our sorrow, is to be God-directed. When God blesses us, when our hearts are light, the proper response is to return that joy to Him in worship. This keeps us from the sin of pride, and it acknowledges the Giver of all good gifts. Both prayer in suffering and praise in cheerfulness are acknowledgments of God's sovereignty over every circumstance of our lives.

v. 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.

James now moves from the general states of suffering and cheer to the specific and often acute trial of sickness. What is the procedure? It is not to first consult WebMD. It is to call for the elders of the church. This is significant. The sick person has the initiative; he is to "call for" them. But the ministry belongs to the elders, the recognized, ordained leadership of the local body. This is a corporate, ecclesiastical act. This is not a freelance, charismatic free-for-all. Healing is a ministry of the covenanted community under its appointed leadership.

The elders are to do two things: pray over him and anoint him with oil. The prayer is primary. The anointing is the tangible sign that accompanies the prayer. In Scripture, oil is often a symbol of consecration, of setting something or someone apart for God's purposes (e.g., priests and kings). It can also have medicinal connotations. But James is not prescribing a first-century medical treatment. The anointing is done "in the name of the Lord." This is the key. The act is a physical expression of the prayer, a symbolic setting apart of the sick person for the Lord's special attention and care. It is an acted-out prayer, entrusting the individual entirely to the mercy and power of Jesus Christ.

v. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Here is the promise. The "prayer offered in faith" will save the sick. The word for "save" here (sōsei) can mean physical healing or deliverance, which is its primary sense in this context. The Lord will "raise him up." This is a powerful promise, and we must handle it carefully. The "faith" here is not a blind presumption that God must heal in every instance. Rather, it is a steadfast trust in the character and promises of God. It is a prayer that aligns itself with the will of God, confident that He is good and that He is able. This is the kind of faith that recognizes God's sovereign prerogative to heal or not to heal, according to His perfect wisdom. Yet, the clear expectation of the text is that such prayers for healing are often answered affirmatively.

James then adds a crucial qualifier: "and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." This links physical malady with spiritual condition. Now, we must not make the mistake of Job's friends and assume all sickness is the direct result of a specific sin. Jesus Himself corrected that notion (John 9:3). However, some sickness is. The Corinthians were weak and sick, and some had died, because of their sinful approach to the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). When a believer's sickness is tied to unconfessed sin, the ministry of the elders, which involves prayer and likely pastoral counsel, will bring that sin to light. True healing must deal with the root cause, and so the prayer of faith addresses both body and soul. Repentance opens the door to forgiveness, which in turn can open the door to physical restoration.

v. 16 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.

The word "Therefore" connects what follows directly to the preceding point about sin and sickness. Because there is often a link, James broadens the principle. "Confess your sins to one another." This is a radical command in our individualistic age. He does not say confess your sins to God in the privacy of your own heart, though that is certainly necessary. He says confess them "to one another." This is not a mandate for the Roman Catholic confessional booth, where a priest mediates forgiveness. This is a call for mutual transparency and honesty within the body of Christ. We are to be a community where sin can be brought into the open, confessed without hypocrisy, and met with grace and prayer.

This mutual confession is tied to mutual prayer, and the goal is healing. The healing here is holistic, it can be physical, but it certainly includes the spiritual and relational healing that comes from restored fellowship. When we cover our sins, we cannot prosper (Prov. 28:13). When we bring them into the light, we find mercy and restoration. James then provides the engine for this entire process: "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." The word for "effective" is energoumenē, from which we get our word "energy." It speaks of powerful, active, fervent prayer. And it is the prayer of a "righteous man", one who is in right standing with God through Christ and who is walking in obedience. This is not a special class of Christian, but what every Christian is called to be.

v. 17 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.

Lest we think such powerful prayer is reserved for spiritual giants of a bygone era, James immediately gives us the example of Elijah. And the first thing he tells us about Elijah is that he was a man "with a nature like ours." He had the same passions, weaknesses, and frailties. He got discouraged and ran from Jezebel. He was not made of different stuff than we are. This is a profoundly democratizing statement. The power is not in the man, but in the God to whom the man prays.

Elijah "prayed earnestly", literally, he prayed with prayer. This is a Hebraism emphasizing the intensity and fervency of his petition. He asked God to do something massive, something that would affect an entire nation's economy and well-being: to stop the rain. And God answered. For three and a half years, the heavens were shut. This was a direct assault on the Baal worship of his day, as Baal was supposedly the god of rain and fertility. Elijah's prayer was a theological thunderclap.

v. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.

The story doesn't end with judgment. After the confrontation on Mount Carmel, Elijah "prayed again." He got on his knees, put his face between them, and interceded for the rain to return. And again, God answered. The sky grew black with clouds, and a great rain came. The land, which had been barren, once again produced its fruit. The same man who prayed for the curse also prayed for the blessing. This demonstrates the breathtaking scope of what God is willing to do through the prayers of His righteous servants. James's point is clear: if God would do this for a man just like you, what might He do through you if you would but pray in righteousness and faith?

Key Issues

Application

James is not writing a theological treatise for us to file away. This is a field manual for the church. First, we must see that our lives, in both their highs and lows, are to be lived coram Deo, before the face of God. Suffering should automatically trigger prayer, and cheerfulness should automatically trigger praise. This is the simple rhythm of a God-centered life.

Second, we must recover a high view of the church's role in our personal trials, especially sickness. The first instinct should not be to isolate, but to integrate; not to hide our weakness, but to call for the elders. This requires humility from the congregation and faithfulness from the leadership. The church is God's appointed hospital for sick souls and bodies.

Third, we must take sin seriously, which means we must take confession seriously. We have cultivated a culture of privacy and individualism that is antithetical to the life of the body described here. We need to build relationships of trust where sins can be confessed "to one another" without fear of gossip or self-righteous judgment. This kind of cutthroat honesty is the necessary prelude to deep, corporate healing.

Finally, we must believe in the power of prayer. The example of Elijah is not in the Bible to impress us, but to embolden us. He was a man like us. His prayers were mighty because he served a mighty God. We are so often practical atheists when it comes to prayer. We treat it as a last resort or a pious formality. James calls us to see it as the primary means by which a righteous man engages with the world, a tool that can, in the hands of God, shut and open the very heavens.