The
practice of prayer is vital to effective Christian living. The life of our Lord,
the lives of the apostles, the lives of the early church fathers, the lives of
the great men of God of yesteryears and those of our times, could easily attest
to the importance of prayer. A praying believer himself also knows the truth of
this spiritual experience and reality. Church historians reported that the
knees of James were full of calluses like a camel’s knees, because of his
constant kneeling in prayer. Hence, it would come as no surprise that he should
spend the closing moments of his letter encouraging the believers to pray. Broadly, these last eight verses could be
categorized into four aspects of prayers.
In verse 13, James first called attention to two kinds of prayer
for two kinds of circumstances. Regardless of what kind of prayers one is
offering, they should be addressed to God appropriately. When one is hurting,
it is all right to petition God. And when one is happy, he should not forget to
praise God. In
verses 14-15, James turned to deal with faith in prayer, especially for those
who are sick. He first established that it is the responsibility of the
believer who is sick, to request for prayer from the elders of the church. It
is the responsibility of the elder to pray for the sick. Although not very
widely practiced in our days, here James advocated for oil to be used to anoint
the sick person.
In a sublime way, James also offered two factors to effective
prayers. He said it should be offered in the name of the Lord and in faith. In
other words, the praying elder must pray to the Lord and he must pray
believingly. Why? Because verse 15 tells us that it is the Lord Himself Who
would heal the sick. It is explicitly clear that the one who heals is not the
elder. Hence, a responsible elder would direct the sick to look to God and not
to himself. Notice James used the phrase, “raise him up”, in verse 15. It could
be that the condition he was referring to was a long-standing, persistent
illness. It could also be caused by a willful sin. Hence, James ended this
verse by saying, if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”
In the next three verses, James
offered a few more factors that would ensure prayer effectiveness. Perhaps he saw the unity of the
believers as a critical element in answered prayers. Hence, he reminded them to
confess their sins one to another and pray for one another. Remember that James
was conscious that they were facing hardship, where relationship could be
frayed due to misunderstanding. He wanted the fellowship to respond rightly
toward each other. He was aware that prayers offered by disgruntled and
disunited people would render the prayers ineffective. Hence, the necessity to
confess one to another so that healing could first take place in their
relationship. From the earlier verses of chapter 5, we also saw hints that they
were judging each other. Confession and forgiveness were needed to bring
reconciliation. Instead of being judgmental and critical, James’ purpose was to
bring about reconciliation.
In verse 16, James also showed the need for a person to be in
right relationship with God for prayer to be effective. The word “righteous” is
not about a person who has no wrong or flaws but who is in a right standing
with God. James turned to illustrate
this with the life of Elijah. This prophet of God was far from being flawless.
He was a person subjected to like passion as any believer. The one thing that
stood out in his life was the fact that he was in a right standing with God. Hence,
when he prayed, God heard his prayers and answered them specifically. Notice
that James also said that he prayed earnestly, it denotes the fact that Elijah
offered his prayers with deep conviction. He believed that God would hear, and
God heard and answered them specifically.
James urged his
readers to trust God and hold on to the truth. They were told to pray through
their difficult times. And as they kept at it, they should also keep helping
others to do the same. The phrase, “strays from the truth”, in verse 20,
implies that the truth James was talking about is not just a concept, it is a
lifestyle. This lifestyle is one that is patterned after the Word of
Truth. It is clear that James saw faith
in Christ as a journey based on the truth of God. And as in all journeys, one
could stray away especially during difficult and oppressive times. Hence, he
urged that effort should be made to bring the errant believers back to the
fold. He was concerned because the path of the errant ones would lead to the death
of their souls. James hoped this danger would motivate their concern to seek
ways to rescue those who had strayed, back to the way of truth. Restoring the
errant brethren would cause their sins to be covered and removed. They, then,
could once again move toward maturity. What do we do with a passage like this? The
answer is as clear as daylight – let’s be engaged in prayer!
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