James 5 (The Prayer of Faith)

[mattrose]

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.

I want to suggest an interpretation of this verse that Steve didn't reference on his verse-by-verse teaching on James.

The tension here is that the passage SEEMS to indicate that if we pray in faith for a sick person, they will be healed, and yet many times people pray in faith and a sick person is not healed. Steve suggested, as an alternative, that the passage could be about unbelievers converting (an unbeliever gets sick, realizes his own mortality, calls for the church to pray him into the kingdom, and subsequently will be raised up in resurrection rather than dying in his sin).

I think, though, that the weight of the evidence still favors physical healing being in mind here.

My interpretation focuses on the phrase "In Faith"

These days, we tend to carry some modernist baggage to the term faith that wasn't necessarily present in the 1st century. We see faith as a blind leap. But James, I think, viewed 'faith' as a certain future. Well, in the proposed situation, what could have made the people praying certain that their prayers would result in healing (I, myself, don't think they interpreted Isaiah to mean that healing was guaranteed)?

I suggest that James may be thinking of a situation where a prophecy of healing has been uttered over the person in question. In other words, James means the following.

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 [If and only if God has revealed His will to heal in this case] will make the sick person well [God may heal w/o revealing it through a prophet, but He CERTAINLY WILL if He has revealed it]; 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 [This interpretation would emphasized the conditionality of this word] be healed.

I know there are numerous option for interpreting this passage. But I have never heard this one and wondered what you guys think.

[Paidion]

Interesting interpretation, Matt. However, I think you may be mistaken in your interpretation of "pray for each other that you may be healed." (actually "so that you may be healed") The phrase "you may be healed" is an single verb in the subjunctive mode. A similar use in English might be a case in which a man advises his friend, "Dig a ditch here so that the water may flow out." The water flowing out is conditional, all right. It's conditional upon whether or not the man digs the ditch. But it's flowing out is certain if the man does dig the ditch. So the flow of water is the consequence of digging the ditch. Similarily, I think James is saying, that the healing of the believers is the consequence of their praying for each other. They are to pray for each other so that they may be healed. Many people today no longer use the subjunctive mode in English, and so they would say, "Dig the ditch here so that the water will flow out. When such people read the word "may", they think it means that some action being described may or may not happen.

[mattrose]

Thanks Paidion

I did think of that (since I've run across this problem with 'may' before). I think appeal to the modern usage of may is unnecessary, though, for my argument (although it 'may' have been helpful!). I'm mostly focused on the phrase 'in faith', wondering if 'in faith' implied some sort of previous revelation.

For example, I cannot pray 'in faith' that I won't die in an auto accident on my way home today. I can certainly pray for safe travels, but I have no revelation from God that i will indeed be protected from death today. To pray 'in faith' that I won't die in an auto accident would seemingly imply that I've received some sort of revelation. Maybe James is referring to situations where God has revealed Himself through some sort of revelation. In such cases, we can pray for healing 'in faith' that it will indeed take place.

I probably shouldn't have bothering appealing to the 'may'

[steve7150]

To pray 'in faith' that I won't die in an auto accident would seemingly imply that I've received some sort of revelation. Maybe James is referring to situations where God has revealed Himself through some sort of revelation. In such cases, we can pray for healing 'in faith' that it will indeed take place.






Since it does seem like James is referring to physical healing when you look at the flow of his speech and since James had alluded to many things Jesus had said , "in faith" may be an allusion to Mark 11.22 where Jesus said , "Have faith in God."

[Homer]

I think Paidion is correct; the healing James speaks of is guaranteed. But I do not think James had physical illness in mind. Look at the context. The whole context points to a different interpretation.

Chapter 5 begins with James speaking of the poor being oppressed by the rich, then he urges his readers to be patient and stand firm, with no grumbling against one another. He proceeds to speak of examples of the patience in the face of suffering and the blessedness of perseverance. Then in verse 14 he asks if anyone is astheno (translated "sick"). Astheno literally means weak, feeble, without strength, powerless.

In verse 15 James says the prayer offered in faith will make the kamno (also translated "sick") person well. Kamno literally means to grow weary. Then Paul closes with the encouragement regarding the case of one who has actually proceeded to wander away in sin, and saving him from death by returning him to the fold. So why do we think this is about physical illness? True, both astheno and kamno can and do refer to physical illness in the scripture, but about equally as often refer to spiritual matters.

Consider:

Romans 14:1
Receive one who is weak (astheno) in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.

1 Corinthians 8:9-11
9. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak (astheno). 10. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak (astheno)be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11. And because of your knowledge shall the weak (astheno) brother perish, for whom Christ died?

Hebrews 12:1-3
1. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary (kamno) and discouraged in your souls.

[mattrose]

I think what you have suggested is certainly an interpretive possibility. Thanks for laying it out as you did.

Most commentators I have seen believe strongly that physical illness is in mind. If that is true, I think the interpretation I suggested allows for it to be a guarantee and yet not apply to all prayers for the sick.

[TK]

Perhaps I am missing an essential point here, but if a prophecy guarantees my healing, where is the faith in praying for the healing? You said that James defined faith as "a certain future." That's about as far away from the idea of faith that I can imagine. In other words, if they had a prophecy that a person was certain to be healed, and they believed this was a practical guarantee, why pray for healing at all? Why not just give thanks for the soon to come healing?

TK

[mattrose]

To have faith in God is to have faith in the greatest certainty in the universe. But it still carries the connotation of risk in that the future (and God Himself) is unseen. If a prophecy is uttered about a healing, then we are to pray "in faith" for it to occur. You ask why we would pray at all if we already know the outcome. Perhaps the community praying is part of the God-ordained means toward that outcome. God sees value in people praying. We need to learn to pray. And so God has set things up so that prayer is an essential part.

I can pray for anything
But there are certain things I can pray for 'in faith' that God is faithful to His promises

That's just something I've been thinking about lately. I think too many times we pray for things that God hasn't promised and then get frustrated when He doesn't do it.

[Homer]

I suspect our tendency to view the passage in James 5 as referring to physical ills rather than spiritual is symptomatic of a general disposition among Christians (including myself) to pray a lot for physical ills and not so much for the spiritual ills. It has been my experiece that most prayers in churches, and most prayer lists at churchs have far more requests for the physical rather than the spiritual. I am curious what the impression of others is in this regard.

It is interesting that although Jesus healed a great many people, at other times He seems to have been very selective about healing. It appears that in the story of healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda He only healed the one man and then slipped away. In Acts 3 we read of Peter healing the crippled beggar that was habitually placed by the Beautful gate to beg. How often Jesus must have passed this man by without healing him.

As Paidion has pointed out, it is very difficult to see the promised healing in James 5 as anything other than guaranteed.

[mattrose]

I suspect our tendency to view the passage in James 5 as referring to physical ills rather than spiritual is symptomatic of a general disposition among Christians (including myself) to pray a lot for physical ills and not so much for the spiritual ills. It has been my experiece that most prayers in churches, and most prayer lists at churchs have far more requests for the physical rather than the spiritual. I am curious what the impression of others is in this regard.

I would agree with that.

As Paidion has pointed out, it is very difficult to see the promised healing in James 5 as anything other than guaranteed.

Actually, the interpretation I suggested also takes the passage as a guarantee of healing. If it is known to be God's will that the person be healed (though some revelation), then it is guaranteed that the prayer will be answered in the affirmative. I am simply suggesting that in most cases of physical illness we have no such guarantee.

By the way, my thoughts here aren't a strong opinion. I could see the passage being interpreted a number of different ways. The interpretation I mentioned is just a thought I had.