James 5:13–20 (ESV) — 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.
This dense paragraph brings us to the conclusion of James. For all the questions this passage might evoke, one thing is certain: James thought of the mature believer as someone who lived within a praying community. This concept is a natural outcome of James's perspective that action-inducing faith is the pinnacle of Christian maturity. In short, if faith is all James says it is, then, of course, the person full of faith will pray. Just as one of the best-known attributes of fire is heat, one of the best-known attributes of faith is prayer, so it makes sense James would conclude with some comments on the praying community.
To James, a community of faith will be a community of prayer, and that community is what he described in this passage. He imagined people who endured hardship crying out to God from their positions of pain. He saw others celebrating the victories and joys of life by praising God. But he looked beyond individuals to an entire church (5:14). Elders should be ready to pray (5:14). We should be ready to confess to one another (5:16). It's as if James saw a living organism moving and operating in cohesion, with each individual member of the larger church playing its part in the praying community.
This is one aspect of life the mature believer understands. They can say and recognize, My spiritual health, or lack thereof, does not impact me alone. If I want to be a person of spiritual maturity, like Jesus, I need to pursue a praying community. Even when it is awkward or difficult, I will recall the way my Lord invited others into his time of prayer in the garden—talk about awkward and difficult!—but he kept at it. I also want to cultivate a praying community in my church and relationships. I want to be one of many who cry out to God!
So, what are some ingredients to this praying community?
Prayer Inspiration (13-14)
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.
In these sentences, James highlights a handful of the reasons we might be driven to prayer. It's as if James looked at the kaleidoscope of human experience and observed that every facet of life could lead us back to some form of prayer. In England, they say that all trains lead to London. Just as the smallest train stop in the farthest outpost could eventually get its passengers to the heart of England, so can every event or emotion known to man get us to the Father's house in prayer. All roads lead to prayer, James thinks, because, for the person of faith, all roads lead to God.
In a handful of punchy sentences, James tells us that we can pray when suffering, when cheerful, when sick, or when caught in sin. Suffering, which James mentioned first, is a broad term denoting hardship or distress in the external, emotional, or spiritual dimensions (5:13). James wrote to a people under some type of duress or persecution, but he left the door open for any believer who finds themselves feeling the heat of any fiery trial of life. Suffering can drive us to our Lord in prayer. While praying, we look for his relief, but also his perspective, endurance, and grace as we live through hardship.
For the cheerful person—the individual who has a reason to rejoice—their prayer should take the form of praise (5:13). The fact is that life with and in God is not all persecution and taking up the cross to die—there are immense joys that come with following our Lord. When some reason for rejoicing comes into our lives, we should imitate ancient Israel when they sang on the opposite shores of the Red Sea, fresh in victory and flush with a future and a hope because of God's great work. We should give honor and glory and praise to God for the cheer he has brought into our lives.
The person who is sick should also pray (5:14, 15). The word James used to describe the sick could mean physical sickness, but it might also mean spiritual or emotional weakness and weariness of some kind. So James is alluding to (a) spiritual weakness, (b) physical illness, or (c) both (5:14). In favor of the spiritual weakness view is James's promise that the sick would be saved or raised up, even healed (5:15-16). Because the New Testament nowhere else universally promises healing from sickness and every Christian for the last two thousand years has eventually succumbed to physical death, it is tempting to think James is talking about spiritual weakness. However, in favor of the physical sickness view is that the gospels used the word for 'sickness' that James used for physical sickness, and James's words are closely tied to the gospel records, so this might be the more natural reading of the passage. More on this later.
Finally, the person entangled in sins should also pray (5:15). James even hints that some—though certainly not all—sickness is a result of sins, whether as a natural consequence of living for the flesh (i.e. liver failure due to drunkenness) or as the supernatural hand of God as he tries to correct the sinning believer's course in life. Through simple confession, along with a prayer of faith from the pastors, a person can come into a time of spiritual refreshment with the Lord (5:15-16). The point I'm making here, however, is that James saw sins as an occasion to turn and cry out to the living God, to turn from the pigpen and run back to the Father (see Luke 15).
What about you? Do the occasions of life drive you to these various forms of prayer? Do temptations drive you to ask for his help? Do trials cause you to lean more seriously upon him? Do times of great success and happiness stir praise for God within you? Do you involve God in the major illnesses and bodily limitations of life?
Prayer Results (15-16a)
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. 16a Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
We must also consider the results of prayer that James mentioned. He did not think of prayer as an exercise in futility or a religious experience that led to absolutely nowhere. Nor did he think the only real outcome of prayer was some inner peace or sense of calm. James believed that prayer somehow draws an active God into the affairs of our lives and souls.
Because of his conviction that God responds to prayer, James spoke with certainty when talking about the results of prayer, especially for those who are sick. He didn't offer up any possible outcomes for the person who prays when suffering or praises when cheerful, but for the sick person who initiates with the elders and invites them to anoint him with oil and pray for him, James said that the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up (5:15). And if there is a sin connected to the sickness, James added that he would be forgiven (5:15). Additionally, after encouraging the church to confess their sins to one another, James said that they would be healed (5:16). So, in sum, what you have here are some astounding results of prayer—saved, raised up, forgiven, and healed.
I realize that, for many of us, our first instinct is to find the qualifiers to such bold promises—and such qualifiers do exist. For instance, James said that the prayer of faith on the part of the elders would save the sick. "Save" is a broad word that can mean heal, rescue, or deliver, so perhaps James is alluding to the spiritual work God does when we cry out to him. Another qualifier might be that the sick are, as I mentioned earlier, someone who is merely weary or exhausted in life, especially in a spiritual sense—elder prayer can lift them up.
But for the purposes of our church, I wonder if finding qualifiers and explainers is really what we need to be doing. Perhaps we would be better served by simply offering pastoral prayer to anyone in serious illness or spiritual fatigue (which we do already offer). I don't fully understand the mechanics of it all. Not everyone will be healed on this side of eternity, so I don't know who will get healed and who won't. I don't know if the oil James mentioned was the modern medicine of his day or simply symbolic of God's Spirit.
But my hunch is that James was talking about physical sicknesses, local church elders, and anointing oil that symbolized God's Spirit. I also suspect he thought that something powerful would happen—sometimes physical healing but always spiritual strengthening—whenever the prayer of faith is uttered. And, if our outward man is truly perishing, as Paul said, don't we all need spiritual strengthening, even for the physical ailments that enter our lives? So pastors should be ready with oil to lift up and pray for those who are experiencing serious illness or radical spiritual fatigue—and this group of pastors is ready.
Perhaps believers in the modern world need a nudge in this direction. We are blessed with incredible medical advancements and technology, but they can tempt us to take our eyes off God. We must remember that every medical advancement ultimately comes from God—he made the body with the capacity to heal, he embedded medicines for us to develop and uncover in the raw materials of this earth, and he told us to fill the earth and subdue it. According to Genesis, this chaotic creation was made for us to rule over for the benefit of all, and every good medical discovery or invention has been an extension of that original commission. But amid all our medical progress, we must keep our eyes firmly fixed on God. And with all the bureaucracy and soaring costs in our modern healthcare systems, perhaps it would be wise for Christians to, in a fresh way, turn directly to God a bit more with their sicknesses.
But, again, James is willing to wade into the promised results of prayer, not only for the spiritually weary or physically ailing but for those who have something to confess and are in need of a fresh supply of forgiveness. James is ready to say that God will meet his people in prayer and that there is no problem whatsoever in being an expectant people when we cry out to God. In fact, expectancy is likely what drives us to real, serious, thoughtful prayer in the first place. If you don't expect much, your prayers will be of the passive and weak kind, but James is looking for a people who intelligently and decidedly bring all the concerns and joys of life to God, expecting he will give them just what they need. Faith.
Prayer Example (16b-18)
16b 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.
So we have considered some elements of life that might drive us to prayer. We have also set our hearts on the outcomes and results we might expect if we pray. However, it helps immensely to have examples to follow, so James turned to 1 Kings for the story of Elijah (5:17). James wants us to know that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, and the prophet Elijah can serve as an excellent case study of that particular truth (16b). Elijah was one of Israel's greatest prophets, serving as a prototype for many prophets who would come after him. He had a long and illustrious prophetic career, but what James gives us here are the highlights: there was a time Elijah prayed for a drought, then another time he prayed for that drought to end, and God heard both prayers. Powerful.
But how did a man like Elijah pray such powerful prayers?
First, Elijah prayed biblical prayers. He lived during the reign of one of Israel's most wicked kings and queens, Ahab and Jezebel. They conspired together to introduce the worship of the god Ba'al to God's people and land, and soon the national worship had shifted from Yahwen to Ba'al, a god of good weather, meaning he was a god of produce or a god of money. People wanted prosperity, and they thought Ba'al could give it to them. Elijah, however, remained loyal to God, and as he read the law, particularly Deuteronomy, he discovered that God had promised a number of consequences for the persisetent worship of other gods. One of those consequences was drought, so Elijah began praying for one to come upon God's rebellious land and people. All that to say, we must imitate Elijah and allow the Scripture to shape our hearts, drives, and desires so that we begin praying for the things God has promised or values. Biblical prayers.
Second, Elijah prayed tough prayers. Who prays for a drought? Who asks for something painful and hard to come upon God's people? Someone like a prophet, a person who is so close to the heart and feelings of God that he is able to feel God's heartbrokenness. This closeness to Yahweh enabled Elijah to pray for even hard things if that's what it took for God's people to snap out of their rebellion and turn to him. They needed to know where the rain came from—not Ba'al, but Yahweh—so he prayed a tough prayer. All that to say, we must imitate Elijah and pray for God to do even very hard things if it helps his people return to him. Tough prayers.
Third, Elijah prayed as a normal man. James declared that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, an admittedly tough truth to concede (5:17). When we read the biblical accounts, Elijah feels nothing like us. He seemingly appeared out of thin air in Ahab's courts with a ready-made rebuke and promise of rain. He lived for a time by a brook where ravens brought him food each day. He wore funky outfits of animal skins and leather belts. He multiplied flour and oil for a widow and her son. He raised a widow's son back to life. He called down fire from heaven. He parted the Jordan River. And he ascended to heaven by a whirlwind in a chariot of fire. How could he be a man with a nature like ours?
Though the biblical record presents him in these ways, Elijah was still an ordinary human. He felt weakness, succumbing at times to fear, doubt, or discouragement. He battled the emotional struggles of isolation and loneliness. He grew tired of the constant war with Jezebel and her Ba'al movement. He needed God's intervention and strength to continue on. Even though he was a wild man, he was a normal man with a nature like ours. James seems ready to take our attention off the one praying and onto the target of his prayers. Elijah was a heavyweight among God's people, but he was only an instrument. He did not defeat Ba'al, God did.
Prayer Community (19-20)
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.
James closes his letter with an interesting exhortation to the praying communities to whom he'd spent a full letter pouring out his heart. It is an address about people in the church who wander from the truth (5:19). James believed in evangelism, but this is not an evangelism address. James would have loved the idea of going to the highways and hedges to invite any and everyone to God's banquet, but here he envisioned mature believers, the kind of people he's just described in his letter, getting to work and rescuing immature and wandering Christians. To do so would save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins, James said (5:20).
What you have in this brief charge are two new characters. James, our author, is not a new character, and neither is the church that he wrote to, but now we have wanderers and rescuers. The wanderers were those who had drifted from the truth and into deception. The rescuers were those who would bring back those who had wandered.
And as we consider the apostolic word of James, who will we be? Inevitably, there will be times when we wander. Perhaps we just begin drifting from church engagement as life turns in on itself, and we allow our worlds to get small—my routines, my family, my career, my retirement, and that's about it! Or perhaps we become tempted to disbelieve the Scriptures and devise our own "easier" doctrinal positions. Either way, I encourage you to prepare an advance directive. Invite the solid believers in your life to confront you if you ever begin to wander. Before you enter into error while still on track, cultivate relationships in the praying community that will serve as guard rails to help you when you falter.
And to that end, you might need to become willing to be a rescuer. This is not a work that can be done exclusively by the pastors of a congregation, but by those who are in the flux and flow of life with the wanderer. The right approach is not to be a legalist who ostracizes and condemns. The right approach is not to be so uncomfortable with confrontation that you remain silent and refuse to reach out. The right approach is not to be a coward who approves actions and beliefs that are hurting the wanderer. The right approach is to bring back a sinner from their wandering.
Paul knew this, which is why he wrote: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness" (Gal. 6:1). On balance, the Bible teaches that we should not become hyper-aware sin hunters, but when someone we know and love is "overtaken" (CSB) by a habitual, damaging, and enslaving pattern in their lives, mature believers respond with a Jesus-like rescue mission. They know that sin can sink in its hooks to the point it becomes difficult to break free, so they do what they can, as the Spirit's instruments, to set the captive free.
What a fitting conclusion to the book of James. His profile of Christian maturity ends with a mature Christian working to rescue an immature Christian. The mature believer has endured trials, has gained wisdom, and handles finances well, and now they are equipped to set their minds on others. Rather than live a life curved in on itself, they are outward in orientation, constantly thinking about how they can aid others. They are a person of faith, a person of conviction, a person who serves. They are like Jesus.
Study Questions
Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)
- According to James 5:13-20, what are the different circumstances that should lead a believer to prayer or praise?
- What is the role of the elders in praying for the sick, as described in James 5:14-15, and what are the outcomes promised for those prayers?
- How does James use the example of Elijah’s prayers to illustrate the power of prayer within a community?
Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires) 4. How does the idea of being part of a praying community impact your sense of connection to God and others? 5. When you experience suffering or joy, how do you feel about turning to God in prayer or praise? What challenges or encourages you in this area? 6. How do you feel about confessing your sins to others? Does this passage encourage you or make you uncomfortable, and why?
Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions) 7. How can you begin incorporating more intentional prayer into your life, especially during times of suffering, joy, sickness, or temptation? 8. What are practical ways you can be part of building a praying community in your church or small group? 9. Based on this passage, what steps will you take to ensure that you are available and willing to help those who are wandering from the truth?