168 - One Another - Part 7 - Confess to One Another, Pray for One Another [C]

Hebrews Lesson 168    August 6, 2009

^NKJ Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.

Well, the last couple of days have been kind of fun days for me. Some of you know that on Tuesday night Dan Ingram was here, pastor of The National Capital Bible Church.  I always have to get the definite article there. Dan flew in on Monday afternoon. He and I have been friends for many years, and so we always have good time together. We had a great time the last couple days. After class Tuesday night we jumped in the car, took off and drove up to San Antonio to spend some time with his uncle who is 87 and lives there in an Air Force retirement village. That's a totally different story, but just too sort of tweak your curiosity, his uncle was shot down by (unfortunately by) friendly British fire as he was returning from a foray over into France in August of 1942.  So he ended up in the English Channel. The only place he could get to was the French coast which is only two miles away. As a result he was immediately captured by the Germans and spent the remainder of the war in Luft Stalag #3 which happened to be featured on a on a National Geographic special the other night on the great escape. What they did at that Luft Stalag was the basis for that film The Great Escape. He was one of three American tunnel diggers on the tunnels. Unfortunately just before they were to escape, it was discovered the Americans were moved out to another camp, and so he didn't participate in that. We went through a day and a half of stories. 

Last night we had the great privilege of visiting our friend Jeremy Thomas up in Fredericksburg who is a pastor of Fredericksburg Bible Church.  Jeremy did a fabulous job teaching - just started. I think last week he must have started the study on Hosea, which is great study. He did a great job teaching the Word last night.

But what was even more impressive was something that both Dan and I observed what we think represents a good example, a wonderful example and a challenge to a lot of Christians today. If you look around this congregation, you will notice that we're missing something. We're missing young families with children. Now last night when we were at his Bible class, Jeremy has four children. Here he is with three of them. Of course, what's the youngest one's name Dan? Cora. Cora is just about five months old, and so she was sitting in there. Jeremy's wife Robin was taking care of her. But Ribbon and that's Caleb. His twin Joshua is the one that's missing. But those kids sat at the table through that hour of Bible class. They didn't wiggle. They didn't make noise. They weren't a distraction. They colored. They had their little things that they did during class, but they were disciplined and they were well behaved. 

Up until about the last generation, it was normal in Christian church life for families to be at Bible class in the middle of the week. It is not an excuse. You may think it is parents, those of you watching, seeing this on video. But it is not an excuse. When I was a kid and I grew up and you know my parents had their times for me to go to bed, but Bible class was a priority. If Bible class is a priority, then being in Bible class with other members of the body of Christ is a priority. That is where you teach that priority from day one to your children and that means having them there.

I remember that when I grew up going to church there was no prep school for kids to go to after about the age of three. I sat in Bible class. It was ten years before I decided I ought to stay awake and pay attention to what the pastor said. But I would color in the bulletin or fill in all the little dots in all the letters and after about five or ten minutes my head would sort of keel over onto my Dad's shoulder and I'd be asleep until church was over, but nevertheless, well-behaved and in a church. You just didn't miss. You didn't miss Sunday night. You didn't Bible class. That's just the way it was. That was a priority, and parents understood that because they were teaching their children that church (being involved with the body of Christ) was a priority. They understood their responsibility was to discipline the children so that they could be well behaved and they wouldn't be a distraction in Bible class. If they were, then the parents would deal with that immediately, swiftly and certainly. So kids did not mess up and they did not wiggle and they did not squirm. 

If you're a parent and you think that "Well, the reason I'm not coming to Bible class is my kids just can't sit still." That's your fault and you need to deal with it. You need to deal with it now because that's your job as a parent, to train those kids to be able to do that. We should have kids here. We should have parents here. Parents should be teaching their kids that priority and it's really a failure in parenting to not be able to discipline your kids to sit in Bible class and it's a failure in parenting not to bring your kids to Bible class. This was such a great example on the part of Jeremy to have those kids sitting there very well-behaved. Trust me.

Okay, this is a just a great example for everyone to see what this is like. We just don't see it and I don't know a pastor and a church around today that doesn't face this.

For some reason parents have gotten it into their heads in the last thirty years that, "Well, you know, because I've got young kids I just can't get to Bible class." That is just such a phony, phony excuse. If you want to convince yourself that it's legitimate then you've got greater problems.

So we're talking about the church and we're trying to understand the nature of the body of Christ and the importance of people being in church, coming together and having that sort of body relationship that involves everyone.

So we're studying the Doctrine of One Another as we're coming out of our study in Hebrews 10, which actually relates to the seventeenth point in our study. Because we've spent such a good bit of time on this, I didn't labor on it much last time. But the 17^th point was by way of review to think about one another to stir them up to love and good deeds. This is brought about by that word that's translated "let us consider one another." 

The root word there in Greek means to give it thought, to meditate on it, to reflect upon it, to take conscientious actions. So we're to consider one another in order to stir up love. That means to stimulate. It is the Greek word from which we get our English word paroxysm. It means to stimulate activity, to encourage people. 

I talked about when we went over this. I talked about a couple of illustrations we could use. Dan and I were out on the road together. We were talking about this. We came up with different illustrations. But if you've got a background in any sort of competitive activity whether it's sports, whether it's military, whether it's in some sort of a team activity; you can reflect on that. When you would get together with a group of others and you're all trying to achieve something and to go through a course of action together that what you do is instead of trying to put each other down and compete against each other in that sense, you try to encourage each other and say, "Come on everybody. Let's go." You cheer each other on so that encourages and strengthens one another, coming up with ideas to help those who aren't quite as adept or quite a strong to also do that. You have gone through boot camp. You go through various kinds of challenging activities. This is a good thing to do. It's the same thing. It emphasizes that teamwork attitude that should be present in the body of Christ. 

So that scene in Hebrews 10:24:

^NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

Now that's idea of "one another". I think some people tend to look at that and say that means equally every believer. It's almost a socialist idea. We're going to handle everybody equally the same way. This has to do with the people in whose presence or whose sphere of influence you are: your friends, the other believers that you know, just to encourage and help one another. 

That brings us to the 18^th point, which is what I ended on last time just to give you a little teaser for tonight. This is an interesting verse. It's been misapplied many different ways. It's also an interesting context that we'll have to spend some time on so that we really understand the verse. Now points eighteen and nineteen come out of the same verse. In eighteen the point is that we are to confess to one another. That is, as we'll see, it's not the idea of getting up in some sort of public confession. There are some Christian groups that emphasize that. It's not necessarily confessing every sin to one another. We don't even do that with God because we don't remember all of them. There are sins that we don't know about but in the context it really has the idea of recognizing to one another certain faults, flaws, mistakes we've made that impact and affect others in the sense of apologizing to others when we've wronged them. This is not some sort of public self-flagellation, which causes others to have mental attitude sins and give to many a sense of false humility and pride. This is in James 5:16 where we're told to confess your trespasses to one another. Now that's the first part of the verse. 

^NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another,

The second part of the verse emphasizes the nineteenth point, which is to pray for one another, to pray for one another. So we have the whole verse, James 5:16.

and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Now right away you see that the purpose clause there, "that you maybe healed", somewhat narrows the sense of confession to one another and prayer for one another. But what in the world does that mean "that you maybe healed?" The problem that we have when we address this particular chapter and James 5:13-18 is because the way it's been traditionally translated into English people think this relates to physical illness and physical healing. It's not uncommon that even when people sort of have some suspicions that it's not and that it's really talking about spiritual problems; they also try to sneak in some sort of psychosomatic type of thing. But that's not what's present here, and I'll show you why as we go through this. 

James 5:16 says that we're to confess our sins to one another. We're to pray for one another for the purpose (for the result) that you may be healed. Then it ends with a statement:

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

So twice in this verse there is a specific mention of the word prayer. You could add confession as a third because when you confessed to God that's prayer.  So prayers are certainly the context of James 5:16. Then it goes on to give an illustration from Elijah, which comes from 1 Kings 17 which we're familiar with because of our study in the life of Elijah. 

So we look at this verse and we say there's something here that's just really hard to get our hands around. Not only that, but if we look at the previous verse, we look at the previous we read:

^NKJ James 5:15 And the prayer of faith

Notice prayer is mentioned again in that verse.

will save the sick,

That's not a correct translation. 

and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Now look at that. Is that a promise? "The Lord will raise him up" - the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. If he is committed sins he will be forgiven." Is this a conditional or an unconditional promise? Are there any conditions there? No, no conditions are there. It's not saying the prayer of faith will save the sick if it's the will of God; the prayer of faith will save the sick if you're really fervent in your prayer. 

People look at this and say, "Well, I've prayed for people who are sick, who are ill or somehow injured and nothing changes so obviously God doesn't answer prayer." 

Others on the other on the other extreme will say, "Well, maybe we have we're just not doing it right. We're holding our tongue right. We're not using the right kind of oil because the previous verse 14 it says 'Let them pray over him anointing Him with oil in the name of the Lord.' So maybe we didn't use enough oil.  Maybe we did use the right kind of oil. Maybe we used Wesson oil instead of olive oil. Maybe it was a virgin olive oil and it should have been extra virgin olive oil." 

I mean people get wrapped around the axle about this kind of stuff. I'm poking a little fun at it, but I'm doing it because I want you to catch the fact that embedded in the middle of this section here (this paragraph), there is an unconditional promise. 

So also what will happen is people say, "You prayed, but you didn't have enough faith. You have to have the faith of a child." 

If that was true as Dan pointed out today, if that were true then just go get some kid. Let him pray. 

I point out in the Spiritual Warfare book that when I was a kid and I had the faith of child not the faith of an adult. I was about six or seven or eight years old.  My mother had polio. My mother had polio just before I was born. In fact for that reason I was born two months early and she was in an iron lung at the time that I was born. She did it the natural way long before that was the in thing to do. They just were pulled her out of the iron lung, pulled me out, pushed her back in and that was that. So she never walked in my lifetime. After she got passed a certain stage of polio, then it was time to go through physical therapy.  They took her to Warm Springs, which is where President Franklin Roosevelt had gone for therapy because he had had polio as well. She was there for a number of months and during that time I was sort of shunted around from an aunt to a friend to a college roommate to another friend back to an aunt. So I really didn't have any close contact. I didn't have the maternal bonding until I was almost a year old. I guess that's a good excuse. I can get away with all kinds of sins now I guess because I didn't have that kind of maternal contact. Well, all that's psychogarbage. 

But anyhow so when I got to be seven or eight years old my mother was still had these braces and would still try to walk once or twice a week. I would just pray like crazy every night for years that God would heal her and she would walk again. That never happened. But I had the faith of a child. 

So if this is an unconditional promise related to physical healing, then we've got a problem. Yeah, we do. The problem is this verse in this section doesn't have anything at all to do the physical healing or physical sickness. Now unfortunately our minds have sort of been preset to accept that because of the traditional way of translating this that really doesn't fit the context and it doesn't fit the context of the book or the context of the Scriptures.

We need to get into this because it helps us to understand in a greater way what the "confession to one another and prayer for one another" here is really all about. It's nuanced by the context. 

So we have to look at two interpretive keys to understand this. First of all, we have to do good word studies. We really have to understand the meaning of these words. But so often just the words themselves are not enough. You have to understand words, phrases and context, all these things together. The three key words we really have to understand are the words for suffering, the words for sick and the words (There's a couple of them.) used for healing. Saving the sick (sozo) is used there in verse fifteen. The Lord raising him up is used there. Forgiveness is used there and healed is used in verse 16. So what do these words connote?

Secondly we have a context. We have the immediate context of just this section, which really begins in verse 7. 5:7 begins the conclusion to this epistle to James. So you have the immediate context of just 13 through 18. You have the intermediate or a little bit broader context of the conclusion, which is verse 7 down to the end of the chapter. That's the conclusion to the epistle. Then you have the whole epistle. The entire epistle itself helps us to understand what the limits are to our interpretation of this section. 

The reason is because when we read through this entire epistle, the thrust of the epistle is on challenging believers to hang in there, to hang tough in the midst of difficulty and in the midst of difficult times. The main theme of the epistle is endurance in times of spiritual testing or to put it in everyday language. The theme of this book is that we should not give up on the application of doctrine even though the circumstances of our lives may not be what we think they should be, even if we don't have the jobs we should have, we don't have people responding to us the way we think they ought to respond to us, even though we don't have the marriages that we think we ought to have or the children we think we ought to have or the friends we think we ought to have. When things don't go right (the way we think they ought to go) and we keep saying, "Well I'm trying to apply doctrine. I'm claiming this promise. It just doesn't seem to work." Endurance means that we stick with it because it's God's Word, and God's Word is infallible. So we're going to stick with the application of doctrine even when the circumstances don't turn out the way that we think they ought to turn out. That is the major theme of this epistle. 

The epistle was set up in an easy 3-point sermon. It's all about hanging tough with doctrine no matter what happens. This specifically relates to three things.  This is what the writer James emphasizes in James 1:19. 

^NKJ James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

James 1:1-20 is the introduction to this epistle. In that introduction he starts off in verse 2 saying:

^NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

 ⁴ Perseverance must finish its work

Completing or maturing result

so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

That is the opening command. The rest of this epistle is all about how to do that and how to have that kind of a metal attitude so that you can relax and have joy and happiness in the midst of difficult or adverse circumstances. So that first section has to do with being quick to hear. 

So in verse 22, James says:

^NKJ James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

See he's talking about being quick to hear. Hearing involves doing or applying the Word. Just substitute that idea of application. Hearing is listening, studying, taking notes, gathering the information into your soul; but application means that it's not just filling your doctrinal notebooks. It means putting into practice what the Scripture says to do. 

When God says, "Do this," you do that. When God says, "Don't do this," you don't do that. It's a matter of doing what the Word of God says to do. 

He gives various applications. Then he deals with this specific instance of a prejudice in the congregation starting in the first part of chapter 2, the showing of personal favoritism. Then he comes back to parallel concepts of faith and works. Faith is comparable to hearing. You hear it; you believe it. 

But Paul says, "What good is it my brethren if someone says he has faith, but he doesn't have any works."

He doesn't have any application. Is that faith? Does that faith do anything good for him? That word saved there doesn't mean justification-salvation. It means does it have any value for his spiritual growth? No. If you're not applying doctrine, you're not growing. No matter what you say you believe no matter how much you gather into your doctrinal notebook; it's only application of doctrine under filling of the Holy Spirit that provides or builds spiritual strength and growth in one's life. 

So that whole section from 1:21 to 2:26 deals with being quick to hear. 

Slow to speak has to do with the tongue.  3:1 says:

^NKJ James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

^NKJ James 3:2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

The whole issue in chapter 3 deals with the sins of the tongue – be slow to speak. Don't get involved in the sins of the tongue. Slow to anger involves mental attitude sins. Another problem that besets the Christian life and this is the topic covered in chapter 4. There is a transition into that at the end chapter 3. From 13 to 18 there is a connection there with some of the earlier application statements in the first part. 

Now we come into 4:1.

^NKJ James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

 ^NKJ James 4:2 You lust

Mental attitude sins

and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

It's all about the impact of mental attitude sins. Judging comes up in verse 11. Arrogance and boasting come up in verse 13 through 17. Then we get down to 5:6. That's where that section ends. 

In 5:7 we come back to the main theme, which has to do with endurance. Two words are used – hupomone for endurance or hanging in there. Hupo means under. Mone comes from the Greek word to remain or to abide. The idea is to remain in a situation. In other words don't take the wrong way out just to get out from under the pressure. Stay there, applying the Word. Don't bail out through human viewpoint to get out of the situation. Stick with it with the Word. 

That also involves patience. Notice how many times (verses 7 to 12) patience or endurance is used. 

James says:

^NKJ James 5:7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits

That's related to endurance and patience.

for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

^NKJ James 5:8 You also be patient.

Third time now.

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

^NKJ James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren,

That would be a sin of the tongue.

lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

 ^NKJ James 5:10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

^NKJ James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure.

Hupomone

You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord -- that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

What's he talking about here? He's talking about enduring in times of testing. Does it make sense of all of a sudden he shifts to getting healed? You can stretch it and say, "Well healing is a kind of test." But we're in a conclusion where you're summarizing. You're dealing with generalities. You're not dealing with specifics like that. So that doesn't fit. He's talking about enduring, having endurance in times of testing. 

So what we have to do is we have to understand the words that are used here and we have to understand the context. Physical healing (if that's his topic) comes abruptly into focus in verse 13. He says a few things about it and that's it. Where did that come from? He hasn't talked about the physical problems or sickness at all through the whole book. If that's physical healing it comes to right out the leftfield and doesn't have anything to do with the context whatsoever.

So let's take a look at what's going on here. In the first couple of verses we'll deal with our key words and understand what they're focusing on. 

In verse 13 we read the first of 3 rhetorical questions the writer raises focus their attention. He says first:

^NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Second:

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

See that goes right back to "counting it all joy" in the first chapter. 

^NKJ James 5:14 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.

Does he really mean sick? He doesn't. So let's just take it apart.

^NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering?

The word for suffering is a kakopatheo. It means to suffer physical pain or hardship in distress, to suffer distress, to suffer pain, suffering hardship. It is a basic word for adversity. It doesn't mean that you're just crying and whining about things. Sometimes it's just that things don't go the way you think they ought to go. You've been dealing with a physical problem or you've been dealing with anything from a medical situation or maybe you're dealing with the problem at work or maybe you're living in an environment where there are a lot of problems economically. You've lost your job. It could be any number of things where you're facing difficult life circumstances. It could be difficulty in a marriage. It could be difficulty in a job. It could be difficulty dealing with certain circumstances that you have in your life. 

So what's the solution? The solution is "let him pray." That's the focal point in this whole section. Prayer is mentioned in verses 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and then it is implied in verse 19 because that's the way someone turns someone else back from sin in their lives.

So the first question is "is anyone among you suffering?" We could paraphrase that: is anyone among you going through some kind of adversity? Solution: let him pray. 

Second: is anyone among you cheerful? Are you experiencing joy in the midst of your adversity? Then, sing psalms. That is sing praise to God. 

Now in order for you to sing praises to God when you're going through situations in your life and you're joyful, you have to know them. That means that you need to sing them rather frequently at church, which is why we have sung a number of hymns quite frequently. I'm hoping that people can learn those hymns and memorize them so that they can sing them. You can't apply a verse like this if you can't go home and sing at least fifteen or twenty hymns from memory.  You start off with the first line and then all of a sudden you know what you do. You start humming the next three lines. Then you remember the next two words and then you go on. We've all done that. But we need to learn these hymns so that we can sing them. There's a method, a strategy, to why I do what I do on Sunday mornings so we can really learn and know some hymns. 

Now the word for suffering was used just 3 verses earlier. Verse 10 as an example:

^NKJ James 5:10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

So the prophets went through this kind of suffering. When they did what the Lord said to do, they faced opposition. They faced adversity. They faced negative consequences and that is what's going to happen to us when we are faithful to the Lord in doing what He says to do. We're going to face opposition, adversity in life. Satan hates anyone who's trying to consistently apply the Word of God, and so we know that they're going to be problems that we face because that's just the way the cosmic system is. 

We have one basic problem that always gets every single one of us, and that is the problem of our own arrogance. Suffering basically for most of us is just because things don't go the way we think they ought to go. 

Now sometimes some of you have heard it said that maybe one reason a lot of you are going through some suffering in life because you just have a lot of unrealistic expectations. Now my experience is that most of us quit having unrealistic expectations when we were in our 20's. We began to get a pretty good handle on the way life was. We may have thought that we may succeed in this area or that area and we discover that well we're probably not quite going to do that. We may have a measure of success in whatever it is we do, but we're not going to be President the United States or President/ CEO of some great corporation. But we are going to have realistic expectations. 

I find that most people have realistic expectations about life. They expect to have a good happy marriage. That's a realistic expectation. They expect to have children who grow up and to be happy and to be successful and to love the Lord. That is not an unrealistic expectation. They expect to have a job and to enjoy their job and to be involved in a good local church and these are not unrealistic expectations. They are realistic expectations. 

The real contrast is that we have legitimate expectations, but in arrogance they can become illegitimate expectations because arrogance takes us from the realm of legitimacy to the realm of presumption. Presumption is arrogance. When we think: "I have a right to have a certain kind of marriage. I have a right to these children growing up a certain way and following what I have taught them. I have a right to a job. I haven't had a job in 9 months Lord. I have a right to a job. You said so. You take care of me."

Well, you're not dead yet. The Lord has been taking care of you. It's insidious; it's easy; every one of us does this. We start thinking we have a right to that.  We have poured all this time and effort into those children that they should be obedient to the Lord and obedient to us and agree with us, with our beliefs and what we've taught them. If they don't go that way, then that's a test. The Lord has a habit of bringing tests into our lives that expose when we've taken these legitimate expectations and we've made idols out of them and we have falsified them and we have become presumptuous in those expectations. 

All of a sudden what happens is when the Lord takes that away from us or when something happens, like with Job. What did his wife say? "Curse God and die." See that's when the legitimate expectation became an illegitimate expectation by virtue of arrogance. When people think they have a right to something and then God does something else, then they get angry. They get depressed. They get bitter against God. It's because they reacted wrongly to the change in those circumstances. Adversity is often self-induced simply because of our own arrogance. But adversity also comes along simply because we go through unexpected turns and circumstances in life that aren't what we would desire. We have to learn how to submit our will to God's will. 

So the passage says:

^NKJ James 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering?

That is going through adversity.

Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

That's the Greek word euthumeo, which has to do with being encouraged and hence being cheerful. This is the positive response for the believer who looks at those difficult circumstances and is able to count it joy. It's not because it's the way he wanted it to be; but because he understands God's plans and God's purposes.

Then the third question comes up in 5:14.

^NKJ James 5:14 Is anyone among you sick?

And that's how it is normally translated. But the real issue here has to do with understanding this word. Unless we understand the question, we can't really understand the answer, which has to do with calling the elders of the church.

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.

So let's first deal with the question - is anyone among you sick? The Greek word for sick is astheneo, a verb. It is formed on two words. The alpha prefix (the "a") is like our "un". It's a negative. Stenes (the noun, or steneo) is a word for strength. It literally means without strength. Now we can be without strength in any number of areas. 

There are three areas of being without strength that this word is used in terms of its application or its usage. One is to be without strength physically and that implies some sort of sickness or illness. The word is legitimately translated that way in a number of passages. In fact almost two thirds of its uses or more in the Gospels has to do with being physically sick. But the other third doesn't have to do with being physically sick. It has to do with having another way of being without strength. That is without strength spiritually, beings spiritually weak, being spiritually worn out, giving up spiritually. So the second idea is to be without strength spiritually. And the third is to be without strength financially, to be broke, to be without any money, without any financial capability. Those are the three ways in which the word is used.

Now let me give you a couple of examples. In Matthew 25: 44, which is towards the end of the Olivet discourse, the Lord gives to His disciples the parable of dealing with the sheep and the goat judgments. In the midst of that He's talking about the fact that there were those who are who are rewarded because when they saw the Lord hungry, thirsty stranger, naked sick or in prison that they took care of Him. So He has that response here, that quote there. 

They're asking Him, "Lord, when we did we see you hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick or in prison and did not take care of You?"

There the word is asthenes and has to do with being sick, physically sick. But in the very next chapter in Matthew as Jesus is speaking to His disciples and as He's in the Garden of Gethsemane He says, "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation (testing, which is a major theme in James).  The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

They say the flesh is sick. So here are the two examples: one where it's physically sick, one where it's spiritually sick. Notice that the spiritual weakness is in context talking about temptation. That's the context of James. 

A third verse that comes along that uses this word is in 1 Corinthians 11. Now the context of 1 Corinthians 11 is when Paul is talking to or rebuking the Corinthians because of their coming to Lord's Table and abusing the Lord's Table. 

And so he says, "For this reason (because they haven't been confessing their sin) many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 11:30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Guess what that word is that's translated weak there. It's the word asthenes. The word that's translated sick is the word that's on the screen arrostos. That word means ill, sick or being an invalid. That is a specific word that always has to do with being sick. So Paul is saying that some of you have become spiritually weak and weary because of unconfessed sin in your life. That's part of that divine discipline. "Some of you have become physically ill" – divine discipline, a little stronger divine discipline. Others have died the sin unto death because of their arrogance towards God, toward the Lord's Table. 

So we come to our verse and we see that it says, "Is anyone among you asthenes?" 

Well, the idea there is that this is being weary. It fits the context of James more than physical sickness does.

Now the next thing that we ought to look at, the next verse that we ought to look at to understand this a little bit is the parallel that comes up in verse 15. 

^NKJ James 5:15 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.

It's translated sick, but it's a different word in the Greek.  It's not astheneo, it's kamno - to be weary, to be exhausted.  Now this word is only used twice in Scripture, but it's use a third time in Revelation 2:3 in a variant reading in the Greek text. But even though it's not the accepted scriptural reading, it still shows us that the word was understood to mean weary as opposed to sick. 

It's used in Hebrew 12:3.

^NKJ Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

 And then Revelation 2:3 says:

^NKJ Revelation 2:3 "and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.

So asthenes is this big broad word that can mean one of two things. But kamno was word that is narrower, and it doesn't ever mean sick in the Scriptures. It always means weary. So that more specific, tighter synonym tells us that in this context the writer is thinking of astheneo not in terms of physical sickness but in terms of being spiritually weary as they undergo the tests of faith going back to the first chapter in James. All of this ties together.

Now turn back with me (just hold your place), turn back with me to that first chapter in James. 

^NKJ James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

 ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

What's the opposite of endurance? The opposite of endurance is growing weary, wanting to give up. And so what we're dealing with here in James 5 is the one that is giving up in the midst of the adversity. 

The next thing we ought to look at is the last part of verse 14. 

^NKJ James 5:14 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.

Now there's a couple of different ways people try to handle the anointing with oil that sound good; but they're not. The word that's translated "anoint" is the verb aleipho. There are actually two words translated anoint in the New Testament. The first one is aleipho and the second one is one that I have pointed out the bottom line there. It's chrio. That's the verb that's related to the noun Christos. Christos means the anointed one, the mashiach, the anointed one. Chrio has to do with a ceremonial or spiritual anointing. That's not the word that's used here. This is used of the everyday act of anointing. 

The every day act of anointing is: some of you guys may be involved in this; probably not, but some of you may be. I know most of you ladies are. You get up and you anoint your face every morning and you anoint your face every night and you put various creams and makeup; things like that. You put sunscreen on, various lotions things like that. Some of you guys may put sunscreen on your face during the day. It's a great idea to deal with the threat of a skin cancer, something like that. That's what they did in the ancient world just as a part of the normal activities of hygiene. They would put oil on the hair. They would put oil on their skin. This was what was fairly normative. It was also done as refreshment. 

In the Gospels we have the woman who came and who anointed the Lord's feet. It was a sign of honor and respect, but she was doing it as an act of a refreshing Him. With her perfume she anointed His hair with oil, thing of that nature. This was an act of refreshment and an act of encouragement. So that was the purpose of anointing. 

The Lord was rebuking the Pharisees when it came to the way that they would fast. They would fast and pray.

They would say, "You know. Don't fast and pray in public so everybody knows that you're going through this fast and suffering. But anoint yourself. You know. Keep it quiet. Don't go around looking like you're suffering for God. Anoint yourself."

In other words, to bring it into our modern context, get up in the morning, take a shower, wash your hair, shave, put on clean clothes. Don't walk around like you're going through some sort of spiritual ascetic exercise. If you haven't shaved or taken a shower or combed your hair for 3 or 4 days then that may somehow makes you a closer to God. We may all wish you were closer to God because of the way you smell but that that doesn't make you closer to God.  That was the idea.

James is one the earliest epistles. I think it's the earliest epistle written. It's written a long time before the church takes on a Jewish-Gentile and later mostly a Gentile orientation. It's written a long time before Paul has received any revelation about the organization, order of the church, a long time before he writes 1 Timothy or 2 Timothy. I think James was written as early as 40 or 41. Some think it might have even been written in 38 or 39 AD. It's very, very early. In these early epistles like 1 Peter and James the church is viewed as – and the word here for church is really the synagogue (sunagoge).  It's not ekklesia. So we're not talking about the church. We're talking about the assembly rather. The word for elders there should be understood a technical sense of a church leader later on, but as mature believers. 

Look back to chapter 2. It says:

^NKJ James 2:2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,

Here it's talking about ekklesia in 5:14; they are not sunagoge but it still has been a non-technical sense there – not that leader that you have in 1 Timothy, but a mature person in the assembly. Ekklesia is used and non-technical and also a technical sense in the New Testament. This would be the meeting of believers, but as I pointed out earlier in James 2:2, it's sunagoge. 

So it's a Jewish context. The letter of James is written to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad. It has this Jewish orientation very early, very early in the Church Age. So the application there is that if you're really struggling spiritually in your life, then you should have mature believers who know how to get their prayers answered praying for you. That is also supported by the last verse there, the last part of verse 16.

^NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

He's not talking about an office of the church; he's talking about a mature believer. So we have to understand it that way in terms of the early part of church. 

We have a short amount of time here and I want to point out the words that are used for healing. The words that are used for healing are really four. We have sozo, which means to save, to keep from harm, to deliver, persevere or rescue. In a lot of cases in the New Testament the words saved doesn't mean justification. It means deliverance from a problem. Also we have the fact that apheimi is used here – forgiven. The problem here has to do with sin and forgiveness. It's a spiritual problem, not a physical problem. 

Iaomai is the word that's translated healing down in verse 16. 

^NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Iaomai can mean to be cured from an illness. But it also has the idea of being restored. Then the word eigeiro (The Lord will raise him up) is used literally for someone who is raised up from a sick bed. They're been lying down and they stand up. Or it can refer to someone who's just lifted up, encouraged spiritually, someone who is able now to go forward and they've resolved that problem. 

Now as we come to the conclusion of this section what we see when we come to the next verse is that the illustration doesn't have to do with physical healing.  The illustration comes from verses 17 and 18 where we have a reference to Elijah. 

^NKJ James 5:17 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 land for three years and six months.

Now where did that happen? What chapter in the Bible? 1 Kings 17. It happens in the first part of 1 Kings 17. What happens in the last part of 1 Kings 17? The widow's son dies. Elijah goes up, lies on top of him and brings him back to life. You have physical healing there, right? So if James is talking about physical healing, why does he choose an illustration from the first part of the chapter, which has to do with prayer and perseverance and testing, instead of the event in the second half of the chapter, which has to do with physical healing? See if I'm going to talk about physical healing, I'm going to choose the event at the end of the chapter because that fits the topic of physical healing. But if I'm talking about spiritual strengthening in times of adversity; then I'm going to talk about what happens in the first part of the chapter. So the illustration that comes, comes from the first part of 1 Kings 17 and not the last part, which fits the context of James dealing with perseverance in times of testing.

Now let's go back the first part of the chapter and sort of tie this together, the first for the book. James 1:2-4, the emphasis is on counting it joy when you encounter various trials because you know that the testing of your faith produces patience. It produces endurance, hupomone. 

^NKJ James 1:4 But let patience

Same word, Hupomone

have its perfect work, that

Telios

you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

What's the next thing going to say? If you lack something, that is if you lack wisdom, which is the application of the doctrine, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach it will be given to him. 

So what's the solution? If you don't have wisdom, you don't know how to apply doctrine in the test you're going through, what are you supposed to do?  You're supposed to pray. Now what happens if you doubt?

^NKJ James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

So you get the weak believer who is weary and worn out and he wonders if God even cares about him anymore. 

"He has fallen asleep. He's forgotten about me."

What's the solution? Well, you're not going to get your prayers answered because you're doubting. So who do you call? Not Ghostbusters. You call for the mature believers, for those who are righteous, the righteous man whose fervent prayer avails much.

So this is the focus. If you are the weak believer, you're doubting God. You are told:

^NKJ James 1:7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

^NKJ James 1:8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So the solution is to call on the mature believer in prayer. 

Now this also fits with the closing verses of the passage. Verse 19 says:

^NKJ James 5:19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,

The one wandering from the truth is the believer that's weary, that's falling away. Someone turns him back. How? By praying for him, by encouraging him. 

^NKJ James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways

That's not going across to somebody after church and saying, "I know that sin that you're committing."

It's praying for them in their time of testing. 

will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

What kind of death is that? It's not eternal death. It's carnal death. Here's somebody who's going to go into carnality, give up on God and just live out of fellowship on the sin nature. Here is a mature believer who's going to pray for one another and if he turns, the one who is falling away from the error of his way it will deliver a soul from carnal death, staying out of fellowship and cover a multitude of sins. So that's the context of confessing your sins to one another. The "one another" refers to those who are within this problem context of the one who is weak and struggling, giving up on God and the mature believers who are praying for him. That's who the confession is going to.

^NKJ James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another,

In that context

that you may be healed.

"That you may be restored" would be a better way to translate that. That you may be strengthened instead of being without strength, i.e. weary or weak and then the promise.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man

That is one who is experientially righteous, mature. 

avails much.

The whole context here fits together, fit with the message of the epistle. It mirrors the message of the first chapter, expands on it, tightens it up for the conclusion and makes us realize how important it is for us to be praying for others because we know of others who are struggling in their spiritual life. We know of others who were facing particular trials and difficulties. It's also good for us to have good communication with believers that are more mature than we are so that they will be praying for us as we go through various times of testing in our own lives.

Let's bow our heads in closing prayer. 

Illustrations