God’s right to heal

James 5:13-16

Sickness is a major problem. In our church it seems like at any one time we have people dealing with: the common cold, the flu, cancer, hearing and seeing problems, chronic pain, diabetes and usually at least one person has an ailment that I’ve never heard of.

As we progress our way through the book of James, we now come to the only passage in the NT that directly addresses healing for the church; therefore it is of paramount importance that we understand what James is trying to teach us.

(James 5:13) Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.

Right off the bat, James addresses our prayer life. Are we in time of need? Let us pray. Has God provided something for us? Let us worship. Both are needed for a Christian to be spiritually healthy.

Now this prayer life includes when we get sick; but there is a great deal of confliction about this.

We know people who were sick, we prayed and God healed.

But we also all know people who were sick, we prayed and God allowed them to come home and receive permanent healing. Why the difference?

Faith healers will tell you that they didn’t have enough faith.

We see that all through the narrative portions of the New Testament, you have miracle after miracle of people being healed. The question we want to know is, does this still happen?

James now outlines how he wants this to happen.

(Jas 5:14) 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:

Let’s notice some key points about this verse.

1. The onus is on the sick person to initiate the call to the elders. We don’t chase people down.

2. It is the local church elders (pastors) that perform the anointing. Notice that is not a TV preacher that hangs out his shingle, or someone from the flock with the gift of healing. That has passed on.

3. The main emphasis is prayer, for it is mentioned in every verse

4. Now comes the confusing part. They are to anoint him with oil. What is the purpose of this?

Perhaps two reasons. Firstly, maybe it’s medicinal. In Luke 11 the Good Samaritan used oil in a medicinal way. One Christian doctor said that the best way to cure sickness is a good dose of penicillin and prayer.

Secondly, maybe is symbolical. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Whichever it is, we can’t lose sight of the Biblical model of how to do things. Sometimes people get desperate and lose their minds. We have to stay Biblical.

The point we’re trying to make, is that ultimately it is God that heals.

(James 5:15) 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.

This is a big statement, and has caused much confusion. The word “save” is the same word used continually of deliverance from eternal damnation

Because of this, and the plain fact that some people are not healed, many think that this entire passage is only talking about spiritual renewal.

Add to this the fact that he is adding sins here and it poses a question. Is this only speaking of spiritual healing?

I don’t think so, and here are my reasons. First of all, sins are only an ‘if’. They are not always present in this situation. Because sins are not always linked to sickness; sometimes they are, such as in the example of I Cor. 11. And sometimes, if God has to chastise us, he may use physical ailing. But often people get sick simply because we live in a sin-cursed world.

So, we pray for healing, and the key is faith, And the prayer of faith shall save the sick.

But if healing does not happen, have we failed in our faith? That’s what the televangelist will tell us. And certainly it could be, but not always.

There’s a wonderful example in the Bible for us. One of the Apostle Paul and a physical ailment he was going through. In fact, he prayed three times for healing, and each time God told him ‘no’.

Did Paul fail in his faith? No, of course not.

What the prayer of faith that James talks about is faith in God, and his sovereignty. It is a faith that says that God knows best, whatever he wills and we will align ourselves with that.

It’s a faith that acknowledges that God’s way is perfect.

(Psa 18:30) As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.