Prayer and Healing

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: 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. James 5:14-15.

The request for an explanation of this text was accompanied by a note: "Does this passage apply today or was this a temporary ordinance for the Apostolic age?"

Before I begin an answer to this question, I ought to point our readers to two other places where information on this passage can be found. The first is in Rev. Herman Hoeksema's book, The Triple Knowledge. It is found in Vol. 3, pages 569-573, where Hoeksema discusses the question, "Healing Upon the Prayer of Faith." The second place is a series of articles I wrote on James 5:13-15 for The Protestant Reformed Theological Journal. These articles can be found in Vol. 8:1 and Vol. 9:1,2. These latter have been reprinted and are available from the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

To turn now to the point under discussion, we ought first to notice that this passage is a favorite of the Charismatics. These people use the passage to prove that healing from physical sickness is promised on the basis of a prayer of faith. It may very well be that this view of the Charismatics underlies the question which one of our readers has asked: "Does this passage apply today or was this a temporary ordinance for the Apostolic age?"

The answer to the question is, very clearly, "Yes, this passage applies today as well as throughout the entire new dispensation." There is no reason at all to limit it to the apostolic age, and there is nothing in the context which would even suggest this.

But this does not mean that the passage applies to physical healing. That is a mistaken notion. We have no promise in the Scriptures that God will heal us from our physical diseases no matter how earnestly we may pray and no matter how strong our faith may be.

To teach that God does heal on the prayer of faith is to teach grave evil. To teach this is evil because 1) It is a teaching which is nowhere suggested in Scripture. 2) It destroys the whole meaning of miracles and their purpose during the old dispensation, our Lord's ministry, and the apostolic age. 3) It slanders the faith of the people of God, for, when one with illness is not cured, the only answer of the Charismatics is that the person did not have sufficient faith. These are grave sins to promote.

The whole point of the controversy over this passage turns on the question whether the word "sick" can refer to spiritual sickness as well as physical ailments. I hold to the fact that the passage emphatically speaks of spiritual sickness. My reasons are chiefly these.

1) The word which is translated "sick" in this passage often has the connotation of spiritual sickness in Scripture. I refer to such passages as I Cor. 11:30; Rom. 6:19 (where "infirmity" is "sickness"); II Cor. 13:3-4 (where "weak" is the same word used here in James 5); Heb. 5:2; etc. In fact, although I have not counted the instances, it seems as if the references to spiritual sickness are as frequent as the references to physical illnesses.

2) The entire passage, including vs. 13, speaks of the spiritual condition of God's people.

3) The one who is sick is told to call the elders. Nowhere in Scripture are elders charged with the responsibility of healing physically sick people. People who are physically sick must go to doctors. People who are spiritually sick must call the elders. Doctors cannot cure spiritual sickness; elders cannot cure physical sickness.

4) Ordinarily, the cure for spiritual sickness is prayer (vs. 13). But sometimes one is so spiritually sick that he cannot pray. This is what James is addressing here in vs. 14. This is clear from James' description of the work of elders: "Let them pray over him" (vs. 14).

5) The healing of the sick effected by the prayer of the elders is defined as being "saved," not "healed" (vs. 15).

6) This "saving" is further defined in the same vs. in the words: "The Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

All this is spiritual language and must be interpreted as such.

Two other remarks are necessary to make.

1) This is not to deny that spiritual weakness is often the result of physical disease or suffering. This is not always true, but sometimes it is. The text allows for both possibilities (vs. 15). If a man have committed sin, it shall be forgiven him. Perhaps, though not necessarily, he has committed a sin which leads to this spiritual illness. But his spiritual illness may come also from the debilitating effects of physical illness.

2) The text also refers to the anointing with oil. Whether this was literally done or not in the apostolic church is not the point. It always in Scripture refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is so evident we need not take the time to prove it.

That anointing with oil is further evidence that spiritual healing from spiritual sickness is referred to here. The Spirit heals our spiritual weaknesses by giving us strength in Christ, the strength to fight a good fight of faith, to walk as a pilgrim and a sojourner in the world, to forsake sin, to bear our cross in joyful obedience, and to make our way through this difficult pilgrimage from here to the Celestial City.