James 5:13-16

     13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
    14 Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
    16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 

James is telling us here what to do with the sick in the church who do not know how to stand in their own faith yet. They are young in the Lord. I, on the other hand, do not call for the elders of the church when a symptom accuses me of being sick. I am mature in my faith and know how to stand in my authority everyday all day.  

 

The elder is one who is mature in their faith and knows how to stand in their faith. They can lay hands on the sick, anoint them with oil in the name of Jesus and the prayer of faith that the elder is praying and releasing through his own faith will save the sick one from the sickness–the Lord shall raise him up above the sickness into the promise of health.  James continues in verse 15 to say, “If the sick one has sinned, his sin will be forgiven him.”  

 

Notice in verse 16 James is now very specific of the sin he is talking about. Let’s take out the punctuation that separates verse 15 from verse 16. The original Greek was not written with any punctuation or verse separation.  

 

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven him confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 

We can see here that if the sick one has a fault with his brother–someone in the church, he must go to him and confess his fault against him, reconcile with him and pray for one another and then he will experience the promise of healing. It is then the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous that has power to perform will perform. As long as he has fault with his brother he is not in the position of righteousness, therefore his prayers will be nothing but empty words.

 

We can see here that sin, specifically the sin of having fault against someone, is a hindrance to receiving from God. 

 

Have a great week everyone and remember Jesus is coming soon!