I can’t even begin count how many times the last sentence of James 5:16 is quoted by itself, and sometimes out of context. It seems like that may be the only part of this scripture group that most Christians remember.

This scripture group is most commonly taught to  be referencing physical sickness or infirmity, but I want you to consider that in the overall picture that these scriptures paint, it may have another meaning.

Before I get into that, let me preface by saying that I believe in God’s healing power and that as followers of Christ, we have an obligation to pray for the sick and appropriate the healing power of God that each of us has in our born-again spirits.

Looking at a word-for-word translation, the word “sick” used here in the Greek is “asthenai”.

In the Old Testament, its use would denote a “weakness” or “hinderance”. In the New Testament scholars seem to say that it means “sickness” in a literal sense, referring to sickness, disease or a weakness in the body.

I’ve heard it said that it’s similar to Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”, but the problem with that association is that Paul’s thorn in the flesh wasn’t sickness or infirmity. It was stumbling blocks, afflictions and persecutions that he endured as he went about fulfilling the will of God.

In verse 15, it says the “prayer of faith shall save the sick”. This is certainly something I believe in regard to physical healing. Often, “save” is replaced with “heal” when people quote this scripture and so these scriptures seem to indicate a plan of action by which the sick can obtain healing.

Verse 15 goes on to say that “the Lord will raise him up”. The consensus of the Greek here seems to be that it is referring to “awaken” or to raise (as from the dead).

This connects into the next statement in verse 15 that says, “and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”.

The traditional belief about this group of scriptures was that sin  could be a source of physical sickness and that through the forgiveness of sins, healing could then be obtained.

In verse 16, it talks about confessing our faults one to another. This scripture has been interpreted to mean that we are to confess our sins to one another. However, I don’t know of any circumstances where confessing our sins to someone else produced a good result.

You may have heard the saying, “confession is good for the soul”, but I do not believe that is always true. Confession here denotes “acknowledging” your needs and issues to one another not particularly confessing a sin or sins.

Keeping all of this in mind, the word “sick” in the verse 14 can refer to physical sickness but I believe in the context of sins being forgiven and being “saved”, it is referring to someone who has a hindrance in their lives, or someone who  is struggling with a weary spirit. This could be an unbeliever who needs salvation, it could be sin but it could also be attitudes, habits and beliefs that are causing a believer to fall and stumble. In that context, the forgiveness of sins and the prayer of faith “saving” the sick makes more sense. The word “save” meaning to give salvation or to make well. It can refer to being saved from spiritual death, or being delivered from demon possession. It can mean to be “made whole” or “made complete”.

You see, while these scriptures could be referring to physical healing, I believe they might more accurately apply to spiritual healing and the healing from stumbling blocks and hindrances to our faith.

Jesus saw sin as a sickness and if we look at these scriptures from the standpoint of sin or the effects of sin being the sickness, with salvation being the cure, these scriptures speak about someone coming to the elders for a healing in their spirit, not just their body.

A holistic approach to these scriptures demands that we examine them and consider how we interpret them.

Taking this into account, it means that we can go to our elders to receive prayer, not just for physical sickness, but also things in our lives that are stumbling blocks to our faith.

Who are the “elders”? It could be the leadership in your local church or it could be someone that has more experience than yourself. Elders would be people that are mature in their faith. The key idea here is that it is someone that won’t judge you or condemn you, but agree with you for what you need to receive from God.

Verse 15 says, the “prayer of faith” and the word “prayer” here means “oath” or “vow”. In context, this makes sense to me that it is about a person coming to the elders to make a prayer of faith that will bring about the saving of their soul, or bring about a deliverance from whatever stumbling block or hinderance they have, not just sickness.

The last part of verse 16 says that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

The “effectual” or effective prayer does not indicate the effects of the prayer as much as it points to the fact that prayer is effective.

“Fervent”, which means “passionate intensity” doesn’t appear in the Interlinear Bible I have but the word denotes that the person praying passionately and intensely is presenting his prayer to God fully expecting an answer in the deepest part of their spirit.

“Righteous” indicates here that the person praying is in relationship with God, not particularly that they are morally or ethically right in every way. It is also interesting that it can denote “impartiality”.

Did you know that it is difficult to be impartial in prayer sometimes? When we know our own failures, it certainly makes it hard to ask God for something. When we know the failures and shortcomings of others, it can affect how we pray for them.

As bad as it may sound, you may be praying for someone and expecting an answer to that prayer while deep inside you feel they don’t deserve it because you know of their transgressions.

Being impartial in prayer means that you’re treating all things equally with fairness and justice.

It can be difficult to be impartial depending on who or what you are praying for and under which circumstances. Yet being in relationship with God and having His Holy Spirit in you means that you have to display His impartial attitudes in prayer.

Remind yourself that He loves the most unloveable person you can imagine.  In spite of whatever they may think about Him or about you or about others, He wants to demonstrate His love and mercy to them.

Sometimes our inability to pray impartially may seem like an excuse to not pray at all, or to pick and choose who we pray for, but that attitude  only serves to make us more judgmental and callous towards others.

Jesus saw the sin in others and yet He did not withhold His life, His love or His help and healing.

While this group of scriptures is most traditionally quoted in regard to physical healing, we can be certain that God wants to heal every part of our being from the inside out.

Whether we are praying for one another’s hindrances and shortcomings, physical healings or for salvation, God faithfully answers prayer and we can trust Him to keep His Word.