LIVING THE PRAYERFUL LIFE
JAMES 5:13-20
INTRODUCTION
Let’s open our Bibles to James chapter 5. We have come to the concluding passage of this New Testament letter. It is worth repeating, one last time, by way of introducing this last portion of Scripture, that the primary concern of James as he is writing to these early Christians scattered abroad by persecution is the character of true, saving faith. How does a real believer live? That is the question we have been seeking to answer over the course of our study of this epistle. We have answered that question in a variety of practical ways, and have centered on the truth that faith without works is dead. We have seen the pragmatic issues of trials, obeying God’s word, treating people fairly, watching how we talk, and choosing our passions wisely. Now, the growing list of all the practical issues that James has addressed to this point has been missing an important component. There have been hints of this issue here and there, but to this point it has gone largely undiscussed. It is the subject of prayer. Prayer is one of the most rudimentary disciplines of the Christian life. It is also one of the most neglected disciplines. Now, it is not my purpose today to guilt you into praying more often. I will leave such convictions to the Spirit; but I want us to see the fundamental importance of prayer and the astounding influence it can have in our lives. That prayer is the main thought of our passage is relatively clear. We see the word in various forms in every verse from verse 13 to 18. We read, “Let him pray.” “Let them pray.” “The prayer of faith.” “Pray for one another.” “The prayer of a righteous person.” “He prayed fervently.” and “He prayed again.” I emphasize this because this passage is often hijacked by those who seek to use it to support their own unbiblical ideologies; stripped of its contextual meaning, and misapplied in a variety of harmful ways. So as we seek to understand what James is writing here let us remember that his subject is prayer; and that he addresses this subject within the larger historical context of the letter. Take a look with me then, at James 5 beginning at v.13:
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.
Now I would like us to see four different situations of life that James encourages his readers to bathe in prayer, if you will. The first one is found in the very first question of v.13. James tells his readers to pray during times of suffering.
PRAY DURING TIMES OF SUFFERING (V.13)
He asks a question in v.13:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
One of the first things that a new believer in Jesus Christ finds out after a short time in the faith is that life can still be a drag; meaning Christians can be tired – they can be weak – they can hurt – they can suffer. For many Christians that wake up call is shocking because so often God is portrayed as a supernatural lottery machine who also happens to guarantee immunity from all trouble or sickness; so when they see that Christians do not always have health, wealth, and happiness they are taken back. The clear testimony of Scripture is that God does in fact promise us health, wealth, and happiness – but not in this life. Does he have the ability to give us those things in this life? Absolutely. Does he sometimes choose to give us those things in this life? Yes, he does. But the Bible reminds us that our true promise of health will be realized when our mortal bodies have been made immortal, and that our wealth is measured not in dollars and cents but by the eternal riches and joy that will be found in the presence of Christ for eternity. In fact sometimes quite the opposite of health and wealth is promised to us in Scripture. Jesus said in John 15:20:
If they [the world] persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
And Paul followed up on this in 2 Timothy 3:12 when he wrote:
...all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
We are promised persecution. We are told that we will suffer. Paul told the Philippians that it had been granted to them to suffer for the sake of Christ. Peter told his readers that it was better for them to suffer for doing good, if that was God’s will, than to do evil. It is actually God’s will at times, that we suffer. So he went on to say, “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” The Christian life will have its ups and downs, its good times and bad; it won’t be all bad – but God certainly never promises that it will be all good. So James acknowledges that there will be those who are suffering in the church. Perhaps they were suffering because of what the ruthless rich of vv.1-6 had done to them. Perhaps they were suffering because they had left all of their possessions when persecution came and they scattered. The reasons were probably many; just like our reasons for suffering are many. And James calls us, just as he called them, to pray.
Now before we go any further, let’s stop for a moment and consider what prayer is. Wayne Spear in his book Talking to God: The Theology of Prayer defines prayer as “human language that is addressed to God.” He writes that it “is the means by which we express the affections, needs, and desires that arise from” our relationship with God. It is a way that we express our gratitude, our worship, our adoration, our pain, our needs, our wants, our worries. It is the primary way we communicate with God. It is so primary, in fact, that Paul told the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing – to pray continually without ever stopping. And I would argue that prayer is usually, if not always intentional. It is not always verbal – meaning we don’t always pray out loud, but it is always intentional. You don’t just accidentally pray. Prayer occurs when you set your mind on communicating with God. So let’s insert this knowledge into v.13 so the picture can become a bit clearer. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him set his mind on communicating with God concerning his suffering.” The command is similar to 1:5 when James writes:
If any of you lacks wisdom [regarding trials], let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
During times of suffering we are to pray to God. In fact prayer is the intended result of our suffering. God allows us to suffer certain things in order to drive us to dependency upon him. So we are to ask him for wisdom regarding why we are suffering. We are to ask him for comfort because he is the God of all comfort. We are to cast our cares upon him because he cares for us. We are to express ourselves to him while holding to the principles of his word because he hears our prayers; and if he hears our prayers we know he answers them according to his will. Let me encourage you: if you are suffering through a situation; small or great – set your mind on communicating with God about it, because if you persist you will find that he hears you. I cannot tell you how he will answer, but I can promise he will answer. The testimony of Scripture is clear; and you will find your experience conforms to that testimony. Well, what is the second situation James calls us to bathe in prayer? He not only calls us to pray during times of suffering, but to pray during times of joy.
PRAY DURING TIMES OF JOY (V.13)
The second question he asks in v.13 is:
Is anyone cheerful? And his response is: Let him sing praise.
We almost don’t have to be told to pray to God during suffering. We sort of instinctively do it. Praying during times of joy, however, is different. When things are going well: that’s when we tend to neglect the discipline of prayer. But James calls his readers to praise God when they are cheerful. Praise is a type of prayer. Singing praise to God is a form of the communication we defined prayer as. It is communicating to God your gratitude and worship. Now this type of prayer is just as important as prayer during suffering. Why? Because just like prayer enables us to lean on God, who is greater than our troubles; it reminds us to give proper glory to God, who is the source of all of our blessings. Praise is that type of prayer that gives credit where the credit is due.
Now if there is one book of the Bible that gives us great insight into how to sing praises to God it is the Psalms. That should surprise no one. In fact, that verb translated “sing praise” is ψαλλέτω (psalleto) which is related to the noun from which we get our English title “Psalms”. The Psalms exhort us to praise the Lord for just about every reason on just about every occasion; but the Psalms that pertain to our context here in James are those that call us to praise the Lord when we are cheerful coming out of times of suffering. That’s the order here in James. He asks if anyone is cheerful with the implication that this cheer, this happiness, comes from having just come through a time of suffering – suffering through trials and temptations being a major theme in this letter. One of the Psalms that was likely on the lips of James’ readers is Psalm 30:4-5 where David writes:
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
The idea there is that we are to praise God and give thanks to him because our trials and sufferings don’t last forever, and times of great joy shortly follow those times of hardship. And the spectrum covered here in v.13 includes all times of life. In fact, some scholars view this verse as a merism, which is a grammatical way of expressing totality by highlighting extremes. For instance in Psalm 139 the psalmist says that God knows when I sit down and when I rise up. He’s not saying that God only knows when we sit down or stand up, he’s saying that God knows all of our actions. We uses merisms all the time. If we’ve searched everywhere for something we’ve lost, we say that we’ve searched high and low for it. You get the picture. So James is saying, “Are things bad? Pray. Are things good? Pray.” And he means to encourage prayer all the time.
Nevertheless, he does go on to point out more specific situations during which we are to pray. The third is found in vv.14-15:
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. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.
James tells his readers to pray for those who are sick.
PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ARE SICK (VV.14-15)
Now: these few verses have been used to promote all sorts of strange and bizarre teachings – unbiblical teachings. Such teachings arise when the overall context of James is ignored and when the overall context of Scripture as a whole is ignored. I suppose the easiest way to explain the meaning of these verses is to first tell you what they do not mean. These verses do not mean that if someone is sick and an elder in the church prays for them they will automatically be healed. They do not mandate that we go around anointing sick people with oil. They do not promise healing as a result of faith. Consequently they do not say that those who do not recover from sickness are somehow lacking faith. So if they do not mean these things, what do they mean?
First we have to understand what the words “sick” mean. I say “words” because “sick” in v.14 and “sick” in v.15 are different Greek words. They are synonyms, but they are different. In v.14 James uses the word ἀσθενεῖ, which can mean “to be ill”, “to lack strength”, or “to be weak”. In v.15 he uses κάμνοντα which means “to be wearied from constant work”; and so when it is used with ἀσθενεῖ it refers to the weariness that comes from physical suffering. So that makes some sense in our context doesn’t it? It seems a little strange that James would randomly insert a section on healing and sickness; but if we understand what kind of healing and sickness is in view then things become clearer. The primary concern is with physical weakness rather than physical illness – weakness that is the result of all the persecution these Jewish believers were enduring. This is illuminated even more when we understand what James called for the elders of the church to do for these physically wearied people. They were to pray over them and to anoint them with oil. Now don’t be confused by that word “anoint”; it literally means “to rub”, “to lather”, or “to smear”. So we’re not talking about some sacramental anointing like a little cross on the forehead or anything like that. In fact, in the first century oil was often used to soothe physical infirmities. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the Samaritan cared for the physical wounds of the man beaten by robbers by pouring oil and wine on the wounds. The writings of Josephus, Philo, and Pliny all refer to oil as a medicinal agent. Now obviously they didn’t think oil cured all diseases; but apparently it soothed particular physical injuries. So what do we take from these verses then. If someone is physically weak, not necessarily sick, but possibly ill; the elders are to pray over them and encourage the use of whatever medicine may be available for the problem. Now medical doctors were not as common as they are today; nor was medical knowledge as advanced, so common sense suggests we let doctors do the work of doctors but that doesn’t take away from the comforting aspect of rubbing oil on the wounds. The elders were to pray over the weak and do whatever else they could to comfort and soothe them. And the result is that they would be “saved” or probably better: “restored”; and the Lord would raise them up. Now we know from the rest of Scripture that the Lord will not always bring healing to those who are suffering. In fact, James just got done encouraging those who were suffering to endure; remembering that Christ would soon return. So we always have to remember the overall message of Scripture.
Now at the end of v.15 James writes:
And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
This tells us that some suffering, some sickness, some weakness is the result of sin – but not all. He writes “if” he has committed sins. This leads us to the last point: pray for those who are in sin.
PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN SIN (VV.15-16, 19-20)
James writes in vv.15-16, and vv.19-20:
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...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.
The focus moves from the elders praying for those who are weak to everyone praying for each other. And there are two sorts of people in view in these verses. The first group is those people who are true believers and involved in the fellowship of the church. That’s v.16. We are told to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed – spiritually and relationally. Then in vv.19-20 we see those who are associated with the church but have wandered from the truth and so reveal they are unbelievers. We are told that if anyone of us brings such a person back to the truth that we are saving his or her soul from death. The implication there is that we are to actively attempt to bring such people to the truth so that they do not suffer eternal death. So let’s spend a moment on the first group: fellow believers.
It is our duty to pray for those whom we know to be genuine Christians who are struggling with sin. It is our duty to confess our own sins to others so that others can pray for us as well. Now, we need to use discernment here. We do not need to go around telling everyone every last dirty detail of our lives. I would strongly advise against that. I think the emphasis here is on sins that directly affect others within the church. Only when there is confession and forgiveness can there be healing. If we keep things bottled up and hidden, the problem only worsens. Reconciliation with God and others comes with confession. Now I could go on forever trying to list all of the things we should and shouldn’t confess to one another. It is important to take things situation by situation. The whole church doesn’t need to know everything about your life; but if you’ve committed a sin against someone in the body – then confess it so there can be healing.
Now what about this second group? Those who were a part of the church but had abandoned the faith. I want us to understand this point clearly. It is common, particularly in America for people to call themselves Christians. These same people may think they are Christians because they are American. They may think they are Christians because their parents were Christians. They may think they are Christians because they prayed a prayer once; or grew up in a church. Yet they have no regard for Christ or his word and they have no desire to follow him. Beloved, I say this with as much pastoral concern as I can: Scripture never encourages such people to think they are believers on their way to heaven. John wrote this in his first epistle:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
There will be people, who for a time, are associated with the church; then leave and abandon the faith. And while we aren’t the judge of their eternal destiny, we are to treat such people as if they never truly believed and share the gospel with them so that they may be saved. That’s what James writes:
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 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.
We are to pray for such people – pray for their salvation; and pursue them hoping that God would grant them repentance.
All of these things that we have covered are serious issues aren’t they? When we insert these situations into reality and see people we know who are suffering and not just the concept of suffering; and people we know who are experiencing joy, not just the concept; and people we know who are physically weak or sick; and people we know who are struggling with sin – believers and unbelievers alike – when we get a dose of that reality: then we will understand the importance of prayer. We conclude then, with that importance. We are to pray during times of suffering and during times of joy; pray for those who are sick and those who are in sin; and lastly, we are to pray because it works.
PRAY BECAUSE IT WORKS (VV.16-18)
Look at the end of v.16 to v.18:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 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. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
All of these things James has discussed are to be bathed in prayer because prayer works. It affects people and changes situations. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, James says. Then he gives an illustration. He again reminds his readers of an Old Testament hero. Many of you know that Elijah was a prophet who lived during the years of the Divided Kingdom of Israel. Elijah accomplish many incredible things on behalf of the Lord. One of these things was announcing a drought in the land that would judge the people of Israel for turning from the Lord. This story is found in 1 Kings 17-18. And because of the prayer of Elijah, it did not rain for over 3 years. Only when he prayed again did the land receive rain. The key phrase in these verses is “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” He was just like us. He was human. And his human prayer initiated a great move of God. Our prayers have that same powerful potential to initiate a great move of God when we pray according to his will.
Now we must remember that prayer has power because of the One to whom we pray. The late Dr. Donald Barnhouse who is a greatly admired American pastor once told his congregation that “Prayer changes nothing!” You can imagine their surprise at that comment. His point was that prayer doesn’t change things, God changes things. Prayer has to have the right referent, the right object. So we pray because it works but it doesn’t work because we pray, it works because God acts and responds. Right? We experience this when we pray for something that doesn’t happen. Nothing happened because God choose not to respond in the way we wanted – the prayer on its own was no good.
CONCLUSION
So as we close and wrap up this study of James: isn’t it fitting that a letter written to identify true faith and encourage people to bear good fruit would close with a call to pray at all times? Because prayer is one of the most essential disciplines in a true believer’s life. It is impossible to fully live out the Christian life without prayer. And if you’re like me, you can always work on praying more often. Peter Marshall is said to have prayed, “Lord Jesus, forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see that without prayer, all else that we do is a waste of time.” May that be our prayer as well. Let’s go to the Lord.
