Are You in Trouble (Afflicted)?

James 5:13-16
13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
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 make the sick person well; 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 is powerful and effective.

James spoke about the persecution of believers by the ungodly rich. He had admonished them to patiently endure this suffering. Now he is giving them practical ways to do that. If you are afflicted, pray. Don't pray against your persecutors but pray for them. Get into the presence of the Lord, and you will find fullness of joy and pleasures beyond your persecution (Ps 16:11).

If we are merry (Greek: cheerful), sing psalms. This is great instruction. And we should not just sing psalms only when we are cheerful, but we should sing psalms when we are discouraged to cheer ourselves up. A merry heart does good like a medicine (Pr 17:22).

They had doctors in James' day. Yet James didn't tell the believers to call for the doctor or those who practiced holistic medicine; he told them to call for the elders of the church and get prayer, and the prayer of faith would heal the sick. This is very contrary to the normal practice of the average church today. If believers in the typical church today asked their elders to pray for them, most elders of the church would ask them what the doctor says about their sickness or would send them to a doctor. This is not what this scripture is instructing us to do.

This is not to say that it's sin to go to a doctor. If it hadn't been for doctors, all the Christians would have died because they certainly haven't been trusting God for healing. But this is saying that the first line of defense against sickness is the prayer of faith. Believing God for our healing shouldn't be something we do as the last resort or only in combination with what the doctor can do. We ought to turn to the Lord first.

When asked, the elders of the church should anoint the sick with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over the sick person. As revealed in the next verse, if this is done in faith, the Lord will heal the sick and forgive any sin that may have occasioned the sickness.

The oil that we anoint the sick with is symbolic. It symbolized the power of the Holy Spirit. It had no healing power. The power to heal the sick is our faith in the finished work of Christ.

Prayer doesn't save the sick; it's the prayer of faith that saves the sick. Prayer without faith isn't true prayer.

The Greek word "SOZO," which was translated "save" here, is related to the same Greek word that was translated "salvation" hundreds of times in the N.T. (Mt 8:17). The fact that this verse substitutes "infirmities" and "sicknesses" for the words "sorrows" and "griefs" in Isa 53:4 makes it clear that when Isaiah said "with his stripes we are healed" (Isa 53:5), he was speaking of the physical healing of our bodies. Jesus provided for physical healing as well as forgiveness of sins. The very word "save" (Greek - "SOZO") is translated "made whole" in reference to physical healing in Mt 9:22, Mr 5:34, and Lu 8:48. Jas 5:15 says the prayer of faith shall save (Greek - "SOZO") the sick. Many scriptures mention the healing of our bodies in conjunction with the forgiveness of our sins (Ps 103:3, Isa 53:4-6, and 1Pe 2:24). Healing is a part of our salvation, just as much as the forgiveness of our sins. This shows that biblical salvation isn't limited to forgiveness of sins but includes physical healing.

The mention of forgiveness along with healing suggests that sins can be an inroad of sickness into our lives. Jesus made this same connection in ( Joh 5:14). Jesus showed that sin causes the tragedies that come into our lives. Although it isn't always our personal sins that bring these problems (Joh 9:1-3), the sin of someone is always at the root of the problem. (Example: Herod killed the infants (Mt 2:16). The infants and their parents didn't occasion this by anything that they did. It was the fear that raged in the heart of Herod that caused this mass murder.)

When it is our own personal sins that are involved, these "worse things" come upon us for two reasons. (1) It's the judgment of God upon sin (Le 26:15-16; De 28:61; Ps 66:18, 107:17-18; Isa 13:11, 59:2, 64:7; Ro 2:8, and 6:23), or (2) it is Satan and his forces freed to work in our lives because of sin (Pr 5:22; Joh 8:34, 10:10; Ro 6:16; 2Ti 2:26; 1Pe 5:8; and 2Pe 2:19). Problems, diseases, etc. are never God blessing us (De 28:1-14 contrasted with 28:15-68) or God's method of correction (Joh 15:3 and 2Ti 3:16).

As born-again, New Testament believers, we will not come under this punitive judgment of God (Na 1:2; Ro 5:9; 1Th 1:10, and 5:9). Jesus bore that judgment so we wouldn't have to (Isa 53:4-6, 11; Ro 5:8-10; 1Co 15:3; and Ga 3:13). Therefore, the reason sin is still damaging to us as New Testament believers is that it looses Satan to work in our lives (Ro 6:16).

Jas 5:15 makes a link between sin and sickness (Joh 5:14 as mentioned above). Now this verse is telling us how to disconnect that link. We confess our sins one to another. This isn't encouraging what some do when they confess to a priest. No man has any power to forgive our sins but God only (Mr 2:7 and Lu 5:21). Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:5). This is just saying we need to humble ourselves and admit our faults and turn from them. This is what true repentance is. But those who refuse to humble themselves but persist in their sins block their own healing.

Are you in trouble, are you sick? Disconnect the link, pray, humble yourself by confessing and repenting (turning from sin to righteousness in Christ), and you shall be saved (healed).