“Closing Counsel for Holy
Living”
James 5:12-20
Message #15 in James
Series
16
August 2020
INTRODUCTION:
All of us have watched courtroom
proceedings on television and many of us have even served on juries at one time
or another. You know that the whole shebang starts with the prosecutor standing
up and laying out the state’s case against the accused. Then again, at the end
of the trial, the prosecutor gets the last word to sum up the state’s case for
the jury. That closing statement is the end of the show, the last word before
the jury goes out to ponder the case and draw its collective conclusion about
the guilt or innocence of the accused.
TRANSITION:
Today is our 13th study
in the Book of James and we have finally run out of book. We are at the end of
the road. Over these many weeks we have heard James talk about many different
subjects, but in the text for today he wraps it all up and ties a red bow
around it.
Last week we studied James 5:7-11
where James encourages believers to be patient and hang in there even through
the tough times, always remembering that the Lord will be coming back soon to
set the crooked things straight, to judge the wicked and to reward the
righteous. To illustrate his point he gives two examples: (1) the farmer,
who waits patiently for the soil to produce a crop, all-the-while continuing to
work in faith and in hope of the coming harvest; and, (2) the prophets
of old who suffered much yet put their faith in God and endured, knowing that
the Lord would reward them for their faithfulness.
Now we come to James’ closing
argument. Throughout this letter he has been offering Christians practical
advice on holy living. He has taught us how to bear up under trials, how to
resist temptation, how to control our tongue, how to escape the snare of
worldliness, and how to avoid the pitfalls that accompany wealth and
materialism, just to name of few of the lessons. Now, here at the end of his
letter he offers a few more pieces of wise counsel.
MAIN BODY:
Verse 12: But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by
Heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes,
and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.
- My mother always told
me not to swear. In fact, she washed out my mouth with soap a couple of
times to help me remember not to cuss. However, the word “swear” here has
nothing to do with cussing. Rather, James is referring to the habit of
some people to swear by something to prove that they are telling the
truth. “I swear on my mother’s grave!” “I’d swear to it on a stack of
Bibles.” That kind of thing. The Christian life is to be founded
on honesty and integrity. Even trials and tribulations should not change
that. Hard times should in no way diminish our honesty, and honesty should
never require an oath.
- James’ point is that a
Christian’s word should always be good. In fact, this is exactly what
Jesus was saying back in Matthew 5:34-37, “But I say to you, make no oath at
all, either by Heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it
is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the City of
the Great King. 36
Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair
white or black. 37
But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” James is just agreeing with Jesus and reminding his readers that
God listens to what comes out of His children’s mouths. When he
speaks here of “judgment” he is not talking about eternal damnation but
about the chastening of the Lord. He is warning believers not to fall into
the habit of swearing to prove their honesty. For a Christian that should
never even be an issue. Christians should always tell the truth,
under every circumstance. There is no time or place for lying, not even
for those so-called, “white lies.”
Verse 13: Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone
cheerful? He is to sing praises.
- Here in verse 13 and
continuing through verse 18 James takes up the subject of prayer. He says
that we should be fervent in prayer in every situation and circumstance:
in trials, in triumph, in sickness, and even in our times of spiritual
conflict.
- “Is anyone suffering?
Then pray! Is anyone rejoicing? Then offer up to God songs of joyful
praise!” In other words, prayer is always the
appropriate response to whatever is going on in our lives—good or
bad. Paul says in Colossians 4:2 that we are to “…devote ourselves to prayer,
keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” And in
Ephesians 6:18 he says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times
in the Spirit.”
Verses 14-15: Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the
elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore
the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has
committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
- In verses 14-16 James
takes up the subject of prayer for the sick. Now just so you know,
I do believe in divine healing. I do not believe in 99% of the so-called
“divine healers” but I do believe that God still answers prayer and heals
sick people to show forth both His power and His great mercy. I believe in
praying for the sick and I also believe in anointing the person with oil
in obedience to the Scriptures, although I do not believe the oil has any
magical or mystical powers. Moreover, on several occasions I have seen God
heal people in ways that left no doubt that it was a result of His
powerful touch in response to the prayers of His people.
- However, I also
believe that these verses have been much misunderstood and misapplied in
many Christian circles. Some Christian groups teach that all sickness
is a result of sin in the life of the believer. That is a lie and cannot
be supported by Scripture. Other groups insist that God wants you to
walk in wellness, never to be sick. They say that sickness is an
evidence of a lack of faith because God would always be pleased to heal
His child. However, this flies in the face both of biblical teaching (e.g.
Paul’s thorn in the flesh) and of what we can observe with our own eyes. I
have personally known of some of God’s choice servants who have struggled
with physical infirmities and various diseases. These name-it-and-claim-it
“word-of-faith” groups are all wet, and when they pray and the person does
not get healed, their cowardly fallback position is to blame the victim of
harbouring secret sin or of having weak faith. In my opinion, that is
unconscionable and despicable.
- So then, what is
James saying here? Let’s unpack it phrase by phrase. “Is anyone among you sick?” He does not
specify what kind of sickness—mental, emotional, or physical—and
Christians can suffer from any or all of these, just like the rest of
humanity. He apparently leaves the door open to allow for any kind of
illness. “Then he must call for the
elders of the church and they are to pray over him.” Notice
that the sick person is the one who is to initiate this process. “He must call for the elders.” This
is an act of faith on the part of the afflicted person. The elders do not
just show up unbidden, unasked. It is the felt need of the sick person and
his faith that brings the elders to his bedside. “…and they are to pray over him.” In context
here, I believe that they are to pray and ask God to reveal His will in
this instance. In many cases it is not God’s will to bring healing. Sometimes
His answer is like that given to Paul, “NO! My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength
is made perfect in your weakness.” “…anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
What kind of oil is to be used for this anointing? And
what is the significance of the oil anyway? First, the Bible does not
specify what kind of oil to use and I do not think it makes any
difference. Traditionally olive oil has been used, because to this day,
that is the most common kind of oil used in the Middle East and probably
what James had in mind. As to its significance, I believe that it is an
aid to faith. Moreover, oil in
the Bible is often a symbol of the presence of God’s Holy Spirit
(cf. anointing priests for service, anointing a new king, etc.). The oil
used by the Early Church in these kinds of situations was not medicinal
but ceremonial, picturing the presence of God in that room with the sick
person.
- Now it is clear here
that it is not the oil that heals the sick person, but rather it is the
Lord that shall raise him up in answer to the “prayer of faith.” But this
is not to say that God always answers believing prayer. All prayer,
including prayer for healing is subject to the will of God. Also, as James
points out in the next verse, sometimes, although certainly not always,
sickness is the result of personal sin, in which case repentance and
confession are necessary for the healing to take place.
- And one more thing, there
is no indication here that calling the elders excludes the use of a
physician or of medicine. That group in Oregon City that calls itself
“Followers of Christ,” who refuse to take their children to be treated by
a doctor, have it all wrong. The Bible does not advocate such stupidity.
All healing is from God. Sometimes He does it through prayer alone. Other
times He does it through the skill of a surgeon or the use of medication. But
the praise goes to Him in every case.
Verse 16: Therefore, confess your sins to
one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much.
- I can remember my dad
having a bone to pick with this verse. He always insisted that James did
not really mean to confess our sins to one another because we are
incapable of wiping away one another’s sins. Only God can do that. He
believed that the word “sins” here should be translated as “faults.” Let
me just say that I loved and respected my father, but on this point he was
mistaken. The problem with that view is that the word James uses here is
the exact same word we find in both Romans 3:23 and 6:23. “All have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God.” “For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.” It is the Greek word, hamartia, and
it means to sin by missing the mark established by God. Moreover, the word
“confess” used here in James 5:16 is the same Greek word, homologeo,
(“to say the same thing [as God], to agree [with God]”) that
we find in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
- So why are we
commanded by James to confess our sins to one another if we cannot forgive
and cleanse one another’s sins? It seems like wasted energy and an
exercise in futility. Unless… unless there is some other benefit to
confessing our sins to one another besides being forgiven! I believe that
when we admit our sins and faults to other Christians, we take away much
of the power that the sin has over us. In that process we let light and
fresh air into the dark corners of our life and allow other people not
only to pray for us but also to walk with us on our spiritual journey. There
is great power and benefit in that! I do not know if you have ever noticed
but mould, mildew, and mushrooms all like damp, dark, basements. Why is
that? But when you open wide the windows and let in the light and fresh air,
the Fungi Family packs up and moves out. That is also what happens when we
stop hiding our sins from one another but let the light and fresh air in.
James begs us: “Confess your sins to one
another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”
Verses 17-18: Elijah was a
man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain,
and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18
Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
- Elijah is my favourite
prophet of the OT. He must have been an incredible person to know, and he
was certainly a man of integrity and courage and he possessed an amazing
personal faith in God. Yet James points out that Elijah was not a
super-human. He was made from the same stuff that we are. However, I think
he just did more with what he had! I believe that James is
referring here to a story told back in 1 Kings 17-18. Briefly, Elijah was
the Lord’s prophet back during the reign of the evil king, Ahab, who was
married to Jezebel. We read in 1 Kings 17:1 that at God’s leading Elijah
declared to Ahab, “…As the LORD, the God of Israel,
lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these
years, except by my word.” Then
later, at the end of chapter 18 after Elijah had that little contest with
Jezebel’s 400+ prophets of Baal we learn that God caused the rains to
start up once again after 3½ years of drought.
- So again, what is the point here? James’ point was up in verse
16: “The
effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James is just using Elijah to prove his point. Elijah’s success
was not a result of any special quality that he had. He was just a
plain old guy with an incredibly powerful God!
- One of my favourite Bible verses is an obscure verse found in an
obscure context. In Daniel chapter 11 the prophet gives a prophecy about
the coming evil ruler that we know from the NT as the Antichrist, who will
be Satan’s pawn during the time of the Great Tribulation. In verse 32
Daniel is talking about events in that future time: “Those who do wickedly against the
covenant he [the Antichrist] shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God
shall be strong, and carry out great
exploits.” I love that! And I believe that it is
a clue to spiritual power and success in every age and in every place.
Strength and spiritual victory is tied to knowing God in an intimate way. That
was the secret of Elijah’s success. Moreover, if you and I are ever to
accomplish anything significant for the Kingdom of God it will be because
we know our God and draw our strength from Him, not because we have any
power of our own, because we do not!
Verses 19-20: My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth
and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner
from the error of his way will save his soul [i.e. his life] from death and
will cover a multitude of sins.
- This verse reminds me
of the words of that old hymn: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love.” We have all “strayed from the truth” a few
times, have we not? In these last two verses of the letter James talks
about being faithful in mending the broken lives of those who have strayed
from the truth. It is important to remember that any believer can
fall into error if he is not vigilant. And sin always has nasty consequences,
sooner or later. James here points out that sin can sometimes even lead to
a Christian’s untimely death. Paul warns of this in 1 Corinthians 11:30,
and of course, we all remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts
5. God struck them both dead, right there in the meeting, for lying both
to God and to the congregation.
CONCLUSION:
James is reminding us that, in fact, “we
are our brother’s keepers.” Paul deals with this same subject in Galatians 6:1
where he says in the NLT: “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome
by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back
onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation
yourself.”
We have a spiritual obligation toward one
another. We are commanded to pray for one another. We are told to speak the
truth to one another. We are told to restore one another after we have fallen
into sin. James says in this last verse, “…he who
turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and
will cover a multitude of sins.” The covering of sins is an OT
image for forgiveness, and forgiveness is the best gift that any of us can ever
give or receive.
I hope that this study of the Book of James
has been helpful for you and that it has given you some food for thought and
blessings for your soul.
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