The Prayer of Faith

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? 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. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” (James 5:13-15 NKJV)

Let’s begin by stating the obvious lest any wild speculations be entertained. If this were like a prescription that once taken would cure any disease, no one would have ever died. Great abuses have been committed by well-intentioned ministers who have prayed with no favorable results, and then charged the failure to the sick person’s lack of faith.

That is not to say a lack of faith will not derail what God has promised in this passage. For it is called a prayer of faith. Not a prescribed ritual or incantation said in the right order with the proper accoutrements, but prayer offered in faith.

Now what has God promised in this passage? Again it is not a cure-all otherwise no one would ever need to die. We know this is not the case for it has been appointed for men to die once (Heb. 9:27). Instead, it is likely that this prayer is for sickness caused by the chastening hand of the Lord. This may be deduced from the phrase, “if he has committed sins.” The construction of this unusual idiom presumes he has committed sins which led to his sickness according to Robertson’s N.T. Word Pictures.

Why should James have used such an unusual idiom to state this? Think of the condition as restrictive and the overall statement as inclusive. If he is not sick because of sin, then this prayer may not be effective. It may be this man’s time to go and be with the Lord. It is inclusive in that he will be made well and be forgiven his sins i.e. this and that also.

The last part of James’ statement is conditional. A conditional clause means if the condition is met then the apodosis, or main clause of the conditional statement will take place. For example: If we come early (conditional clause), we can see the whole film (apodosis).

Now here is the conditional statement: If he has committed sin (conditional clause), he will be forgiven (result). Remember the construction assumes he has committed sin that led to his condition. Therefore, the overall statement is governed by the conditional clause because James chains the events together making them inclusive causing the overall statement to be restricted by the conditional clause. Concisely, they all happen or nothing happens.

OK, now that I have you completely confused, think about what is being said in this passage. We may be sick from time to time because of sin, and God demands our prayerful, faithful repentance. My dear friends let us rejoice that God will not leave His children to wallow in the mire. Knowing the wickedness of our hearts, if left on our own, we would all fall away. Therefore, God in His infinite mercy reaches down and blesses us with afflictions to make us dependent. You cannot keep people from praying for sickness to depart. However, how many times have you heard a prayer of confession offered in connection with sickness? Think about it!