James Study - Part 13

“Closing Counsel for Holy Living”

James 5:12-20 (Message #13 in James Series)

(Preached at Sellwood Baptist Church on October 30, 2011)

INTRODUCTION:

            All of us have watched courtroom proceedings on television and many of us have actually sat 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 13^th 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 a number of 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 actually 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 possessed an amazing personal faith in God. Yet James points out that Elijah was not a super-human. He was made out of 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.