James 5:13-20

Notes

1. Verse 14.—"The elders." The word rendered "elders" signifies primarily "one advanced in years and experience," and as from this class the spiritual leaders of the early church were probably chosen, it came to signify that office. In the case before us, the instruction need not refer exclusively to the officers of the church; for the service of offering prayer for the sick can be properly rendered by anyone who has had years of experience in the exercise of faith, and the duties of a Christian life. That those who are elders in years and in Christian service are to be held in special honor in the church, is evident from such passages as 1 Tim. 5:1.

2. "Anointing with oil." This is done simply as an act by which to give expression to our faith, as the oil is not applied for any medicinal virtues which it may possess. As directed by James, the oil is applied to a person with a view to his healing. This has been perverted by the Roman Catholic Church to applying oil to a person with a view to his death. They call it "extreme unction," and make it one of the sacraments of the church. But for such a practice there is not the least warrant in the Scriptures.

3. Verse 15.—The promises in reference to the sick are not absolute and unconditional; if they were, none need ever die from sickness, nor even from old age, which is only a species of sickness. But all are mortal and under sentence of death, and there is a special promise for those who die in the Lord, as Christians, in the last days. Rev. 14:13. God, who sees as man cannot see, knows that sometimes it would not be best that the prayers we offer in our short-sightedness should be answered. So our prayers should be offered at all times subject to his will. Even the prayers of the apostles for the sick were not always answered; for it is not a supposable case that Paul and his brethren should not have prayed for the recovery of Trophimus; yet we are informed that he, at one time, left him at Miletum sick. 2 Tim. 4:20. Even the "signs" to follow believers (Mark 16:17, 18) are subject to conditions; for they will not be wrought to meet the challenge of skepticism, nor to gratify curiosity, nor for any idle purpose; but only when the necessities of his servants require that he interpose in their behalf, or when it will be for his glory to do so. Why, then, pray for the sick at all? James lays it down as a general rule that we do so; and such a course always has its advantages. It cultivates in us a spirit of prayer and dependence on God. It begets the habit of turning to him to whom we should turn, in calamities and affliction. It will often create conditions under which God will be pleased to interpose in our behalf, as he could not consistently do without our expressed desires and earnest petitions to this end. And we know not how many blessed answers may be obtained, till the trial is made.

4. Verse 16.—Confession of faults is directed to be made, not all to one, as all are required to confess to a priest in the Romish Church, and in some half-reformed Episcopal Churches, but it is to be made one to another; and this is to be done only so far as we have injured one another by some wrong course. Confession should be limited, as to publicity and extent, to the injury done. If an offense has been openly committed, a scandal to the church and to the community, it should be publicly confessed. If only one person is knowing to, or affected by, a wrong committed by another, confession should be made to that one, and the matter be made right with him; and that is as far as the matter need go. And if the sin is a matter between ourselves and God only, to him alone confession should be made. A homely illustration is often used to express the true position on this point, and that is, "Make the plaster no larger than the sore." The Romish Church has perverted James 5:16 to sustain auricular confession to the priest, a custom which is one of the mightiest engines of evil ever devised by Satan. The priests use it for the vilest purposes.

5. Verse 17.—The enemy would tempt us to a lack of faith by suggesting that Elijah was a person of an order superior to ourselves, and we need not think that we can prevail with God as he did; but, as if for the special purpose of warding off that temptation, the record states that he "was a man subject to like passions as we are." Our temptations and sense of imperfections need not, therefore, disarm or discourage us. We have no account of the particular occasion when he prayed for rain. When first introduced into the Scripture narrative (1 Kings 17:1), he meets King Ahab, and boldly announces to him that there should be neither dew nor rain upon the land of Israel but according to his word. James says that he prayed that it might not rain, and this was in answer to his prayer. He must have prayed and received the assurance from God that he was heard, before he made this announcement to Ahab. The king, not looking beyond Elijah, and understanding that the drought was to be according to the word of Elijah, as he had declared, accused him of being the one that was troubling Israel. 1 Kings 18:17. But Elijah told the king that he was the one who was troubling Israel, because he had forsaken the commandments of the Lord. This shows the place prayer has in the divine plans.

6. Verse 20.—God alone can convert a sinner; yet he who co-operates with God in this work, is spoken of as doing the work, and saving a soul from death, and hiding a multitude of sins, by helping to the result of having them blotted out of the books at last.