13 Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.

19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20 consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

Today’s passage has sometimes been misused by people who say that Christians should never get sick, or that if they have enough faith they will always be healed. That is not what James is saying, and it’s not what the Bible teaches.

So, what is he saying? Well, he starts by encouraging us to pray in every situation in life. But from verse 15 on, the key is to notice how much he talks about sin, forgiveness, and bringing back someone who is wandering away from the truth. Through the whole letter, James’s biggest focus has been on the double-minded Christian – the person who keeps going back and forth on whether they believe (1:6-8), the person whose faith is just empty words (2:14-19), the person who is in the church but wants to be friends with the world and who lives for their own desires (4:1-4). That person is in perilous danger unless they repent.

This last section is a final call to do everything possible to bring people like this to repentance. The sick person in verse 15 is someone who is afflicted in some way because they are double-minded and wavering in their faith – just like Israel in the time of Elijah. James reminds us of 1 Kings chapters 17 and 18, when Elijah prayed for drought because the Israelites couldn’t decide whether to worship the Lord or Baal. That led to his famous confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, when Elijah pleaded with the people: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). Then, after God revealed his power, the people recommitted themselves to him – and Elijah prayed again for rain.

So James’s promise is not guaranteed healing from every sickness. It’s that if someone is afflicted because of double-minded faith, if you can bring them to genuine confession, then through your prayer and their repentance they will be restored – most importantly, spiritually restored and forgiven, and even physically restored.

So, what should we take from this passage? First, if you trust in Christ, your prayers are SO much more powerful than you imagine! “The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail” (v16) – and James is talking about the ordinary believer, who is righteous through Christ. So pray always, pray with confidence, because God loves to answer the prayers of his children.

And second: Let’s burden ourselves in prayer for those we know who have wandered from Christ or are shaky and wavering in their commitment to him. Is there someone you know like that? Pray for them now. Ask God to bring them back – and ask him to give you the boldness and love to reach out to them, to gently warn them and urge them back to Christ.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.