The Healing Promise, A Charismatic Response
James 5 and contemporary healing
I personally found this to be the most disappointing chapter in the book. If one is questioning the existence of a “healing promise” surely James 5:14-15 is the place to start. Yet, it is clear that by the time we reach this chapter Mayhue has already made up his mind. I will briefly quote Mayhue’s understanding of this passage, demonstrate why it is not satisfactory and then offer an alternative reading:
A believer has wandered off into sin and has remained in sin. God has chastised him by bringing sickness into his life to bring him back to Himself. When the believer recognizes that God has brought an untimely and severe illness to incapacitate him, he is to call for the elders of the church. The elders are then to come. He is to confess his sin, and they are to anoint him with oil and pray over him. If sin is the cause of the sickness, then God will raise him up.47
This may seem like a natural reading of the text, but Mayhue has actually added a number of significant thoughts into what is a straightforward healing promise. My main complaint is with his use of the word “if.” He implies that God will only heal the sick person if sin is the cause. He is so sure that this is the correct meaning of the text, that he characterises this believer as one who has “wandered off into sin and has remained in sin.”48 When I read the text it simply speaks of “sin;” any idea of a pattern of besetting sin has to be read into the passage. Mayhue makes the passage conditional on the presence of sin. If the believer has sinned, God will forgive him. If he has not, the passage does not even apply to him. Yet, when I read the passage, the conditional element is not the healing, but the presence of sin in the first place. The passage clearly states, he will be healed. And if he has sinned, he will be forgiven also.
I would like to suggest a more natural reading and then demonstrate why I find it preferable. A believer is too sick to approach the elders, so he calls them to his home. The elders will ensure that the believer has followed any necessary medical procedures. Then, if they have received a word from the Lord they will pray for him and he will be healed. If sin was the cause of this sickness, that also will be dealt with.49
That this is not any ordinary sickness is clear from the fact that the believer has to summons the elders to his house. The Greek words used for sick in v. 14 (astheneia) and v. 15 (kamno) do not refer to any kind of sickness, but to severely debilitating, possibly life-threatening illnesses.50 I also believe that the oil used to anoint is not merely symbolic because the normal word for ceremonial anointing, chrio, is not used, while the word that is used, aleipho, is normally to speak of anointing with oil for medicinal purposes51. It is important to note the order of events in this passage, something that can be lost in some English translations. Literally, v. 14b reads, “let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil, in the name of the Lord.”
I also believe that Mayhue misses something significant about the kind of prayer offered by the Elders. I believe that the prayer of faith that James writes of is another description of praying in the name of the Lord. When I consider how this phrase is used elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g. John 14:13-14; 15:16) and what it means to act in someone else’s name—i.e. as an authorised representative – I believe that it refers to prayer initiated by the Spirit of God in response to a specific word from the Lord. I believe that 1 John 5:14 refers to the same type of prayer.
Category: Spirit, Winter 2005
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