James 5:13-18

¹³ Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

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 sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶ Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

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 land for three years and six months.

¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Like the Apostle Paul, James instructed his readers to be content in whatever state they may find themselves. If thy were suffering an affliction, they were to be content and pray. If they had a song in their heart, they were to sing psalms. True contentment is resting in the Lord, that He is in control of all things. — Sadler, page 137.

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James inquires, “Is there any sick among you?” If so, “let him call for the elders of the church.” The elders here were the older men of those local kingdom churches, as the term implies, who served as the spiritual leaders of the assembly. When called upon, these elders were to visit at the bedside of the sick and pray over them, anointing them with oil. The anointing with oil in biblical times was often done for medicinal purposes, as seen in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 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 Great commission under which he worked. It was said of those who labored under this commission, “and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 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 divine grace of healing, whereby restoring the sick believer. We must be very careful to remember that James was ministering under the kingdom program in which miraculous manifestations were quite common. What James records here does not apply to us during the administration of grace. — Sadler, pages 137-138.

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the “prayer of faith” (v.15) also looks back to the earthly ministry of Christ. The Lord promised those who proclaimed the kingdom gospel: “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). These were not empty words, but a legitimate promise as witnessed when the little flock prayed for boldness. They asked that the Lord would stretch forth His hand to heal, and that signs and wonders might be done. The place in which they had assembled literally shook in answer to their prayer (Acts 4:28-31). 

Oftentimes, salvation and physical healing went hand in hand under the kingdom gospel, as James suggests when he says, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (Acts 3:1-16). — Sadler, page 138.

raise him up (v.15) = restore to health

The sins of verse 15 and the faults of verse 16 are plainly those committed against fellow-believers and not secret sins committed only against God. Hence the command to mutual forgiveness and mutual prayer.  — Williams, page 997.

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Verses 14-15 reinforce an earlier date for the writing of this epistle. We know that the gift of healing was a sign gift in the Kingdom church (Matthew 21:22; Mark 16:17-18, 20: Acts 3:6-8; 4:30-31; 5:12-16) to whom James addressed this epistle (James 1:1). When the body of Christ began under the Apostle Paul the gift was initially present to show the Jews that God was now working a new program with the Gentiles (Romans 10:19; 11:11; 15:19; 1 Corinthians 1:22; 14:22; 2 Corinthians 12:12), but it soon passed away (1 Corinthians 13:8-10; Colossians 1:25). This verse also links sin with illness, which is a Kingdom principle (Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20; John 5:1-15). Note also that verse 15 gives unconditional statements: the prayer of faith will save the sick, shall raise him up, and his sins shall be forgiven him (not may, if he has enough faith, as is said today). Under the kingdom program, this was a sure thing (Matthew 21:22). But today, in our Dispensation of Grace, the so-called “prayer of faith” is not guaranteed to heal the sick — and it certainly does not forgive sins as it did under the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19; John 20:23). — Grace, page 2202.

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Confession played a very important role in the kingdom program. Here James makes it clear that the reason some were not being healed was because they were harboring sin in their lives. We do not believe James required these sins be confessed before the local assembly, as some teach. He is rather singling out the brother who had offended another brother, but refused to set the matter right. The brother who had been offended, on the other hand, was probably harboring bitterness in his heart due to his mistreatment. James counsels these brethren to confess their faults to one another and pray for each other, lest their prayers be hindered (cf. 1 Peter 3:7). — Sadler, page 140.

A lack of dispensational understand of this passage creates all sorts of problems. Look at how much energy the KJV Commentary puts into explaining what it doesn’t mean.

God honors unity in prayer, but the healing process here specifically involves the elders, mature spiritual leaders of the church. No inference can be found of the gift of healing. Moreover, it is the sick who must take the initiative: “let him call.” The oil carries no supernatural powers, but often was used in anointing to symbolize the out-pouring of God’s Spirit. … Also, the service is to take place in the privacy of the home, since the needy person summoned the elders to him. … Nothing about the passage requires instantaneous healing, nor is there any restriction of medical treatment. The presence of sins may be the cause for the sickness, but not necessarily. We must reserve judgment for God alone. “They shall be forgiven” assumes that the one who seeks help from the church also recognizes his personal shortcomings. — KJV Commentary, page 1725.

It goes on like that in an obvious attempt to make the passage conform to the writer’s beliefs.