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 (James 5:14-15).
A while ago I left a "cliff hanger" at the end of one of my posts. I'd like to come back to it now. So what about this passage? How should we interpret it? If we call for the elders of the church to come and pray over us and anoint us with oil, will we be healed? Will our sins be forgiven (again) at that time, too? As believers, haven't our sins already been forgiven us past, present and future, though?
We saw at the beginning of the book that James was writing to the twelve tribes of Israel, which immediately tells us that this epistle must be interpreted in light of Paul's epistles. The Book of James is filled with practical exhortations for the kingdom saints during the first century, which would then also place it in the future for those saints enduring the coming Tribulation. The links between the Book of James and the earthly ministry of Christ are undeniable, during which time people were still under the Law. As brought up before in previous blog posts, James acknowledged that the Gentiles were exempt from keeping the Law of Moses. But it is important to remember that James recognized there was one order for the Jews (they were still under the Law) and another order for the Gentiles, who were members of the Body of Christ (See also Acts 21:24-25). During the transitional period in Acts, both programs of God were in operation simultaneously.
In this passage James asks, "Is anyone among you sick?" If so, "he must call for the elders of the church." The elders being spoken of here would have been the spiritual leaders of the assembly at that time. When called, these elders were to visit the bedside of the sick and pray over them, anointing them with oil. Anointing with oil in biblical times was often done for medicinal purposes, as seen in the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:34). This was a very common practice in the east.
James, however, seems to connect the need to anoint the sick with oil with the time when Jesus Christ was on the earth. It was said of those who labored with Him, "And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them" (Mk 6:13). Notice how the anointing was closely associated with the miraculous healing of the sick? It is also significant that the anointing with oil was to be done in the name of the Lord. It appears that God used the physical element of anointing to convey the healing, whereby restoring the sick believer.
The "prayer of faith" also looks back to the earthly ministry of Christ when our Lord promised those who proclaimed new revelation at that time, namely that the kingdom was at hand: "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt 21:22). Salvation and physical healing often went hand in hand during that time as James suggests when he says, "...and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick..." The lame man at the gate of the temple was immediately healed when Peter took his hand. He went into the temple with Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God. But as we read further in Acts we see that it was through faith in Jesus Christ that the man was healed. In other words, he had trusted Christ and was restored as a result of his faith (Acts 3:16). That's why Peter says, "...the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all."
We must be very, very careful to remember that James was ministering during a time in which miracles were quite common (Acts 8:7, 9:34, 10:38, 28:8). What James records here does not apply to us now. (See also Supernatural Activity.) James wanted his countrymen to know that, if they prayed in faith believing, God would answer their prayers and heal their sick.
James goes on to tell them, "...and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him." Our bodies are prone to sickness and disease, and most sickness is due to the frailty of our flesh, not the result of personal sin. But, there are times when that may be the case. If someone is living a promiscuous lifestyle and contracts a venereal disease, that person is suffering the consequences of his sin.
In Jerusalem, by the sheep market, there was a pool called Bethesda. A great number of sick people frequently gathered there, hoping to be healed. From time to time an angel of the Lord would stir the waters of the pool and the first to step into the water after it was stirred was miraculously healed.* Of course, many were unable to reach the water in time, such as the man who had been ill for 38 years. But Jesus had compassion on that man and healed him, instructing him to take up his pallet and walk. Later, when our Lord found the man worshipping in the temple, He told him: "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you" (See Jn 5:1-15). It seems obvious that this man's sin had been the cause of his illness.
The man who was sick with the palsy is another example of how sickness and sin were sometimes connected. There were so many people pressing in to hear the Lord that the friends of this man lowered him through a hole in the roof so they could have an audience with the Lord. When He saw their faith, he said to the man, "...your sins are forgiven you" (Lk 5:20). And the Lord healed him.
Although James was writing to Hebrew believers under a different economy and before salvation by grace through faith alone was widely known, there are still many practical instructions in this book that we can apply in our own lives, such as those about temptation, the tongue, worldliness, riches, etc. All Scripture is for us (2 Tim 3:16-17)! But, not all Scripture is about us or addressed directly to us. That's why it's so very important to study with understanding, "accurately handling the word of truth" (2Tim 2:15).
*The last clause in verse 3 and all of verse 4 are not in the earliest manuscripts and were probably added later by someone other than John. If verse 4 wasn't written by John, there was probably a superstition that when the spring bubbled, the first one in would be healed. And since, as this passage shows, the healthier always got in first, the superstition probably wasn't often put to much of a test. If an angel did move the water, perhaps it was to show the impotency of the Law to save — The crippled man was there 38 years! — and how Christ was far superior to the Law.
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