James 5:15

JAMES—NOTE ON James 5:15 the prayer of faith. Not the faith of the sick person, but the faith of those praying. James does not require the sick person to exercise faith. The sick person simply asks for the elders to pray. Will save perhaps carries a double meaning: (1) the sick person will be physically healed, and/or (2) the sick person may also experience spiritual salvation, or growth in the blessings of salvation (sins... forgiven). This is similar to many of Jesus’ healings in the Gospels. James is not teaching that all illnesses will be healed if people would simply call on the elders, or try to make themselves have enough faith, or pray with enough conviction. Healing, when it happens, is always a gift from God. He is sovereign over all circumstances. Some interpreters suggest that James refers to the promise of the resurrection rather than physical healing. If, in the phrase “if he has committed sins,” implies that not all sickness is connected to specific sins. James seems to expect, though, that some sickness is the result of sin (compare 1 Corinthians 11:30).