what to do when you are really sick?...

so what does james say to do when you are sick?

james 5. 14 (niv), is any one of you sick?  he should call the elders of the church to pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the LORD.

you should call the elders of the church.  i peter 5, acts 20, titus 2 tells of the structure of the church.  james says you call the SPIRITual leaders of your church to pray for you.  these guys aren’t professional healers who go around holding healing meetings.  an example of that in scripture is JESUS.  if anybody had the right to hold mass meetings, HE could have.  in the new testament, healing was a private matter. 

i find it strange that people who claim to have the gift of healing always insist that the sick people come to them, rather than them going to the sick. 

and it says he should call the elders.  who’s doing the calling?  the sick person.  james is talking about a house call. if you’re so sick you can’t get out of bed, you call the spiritual leaders to come to your house and you ask them to pray for you. 

this implies support for belonging to a local church.  every CHRISTian needs to identify himself with a particular body of believers.  why?  one good reason is that when you get sick, you know who to call on.  in the new testament there was no such thing as a free-floating CHRISTian who would just float around, listen to CHRISTian radio and tv, bounce around from this church to that church.  there was no such thing in the new testament.  every person was a member of a specific local church.  because it says you are the body and each of you are members of it.  the value of it is when you’re in need there is somebody there to care for you. 

the sick person takes the initiative.  if you don’t call the elders of the church, how will they know about it?  the word “sick” is talking about a life-threatening illness. 

just a thought from the front porch…

three different kinds of sickness…

james here in chapter 5 says we should pray when we are hurting physically.  verses 14-15 (msg), are you sick? call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the master. believing-prayer will heal you, and JESUS will put you on your feet. and if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.

now the word “sick” in greek, literally means “without strength”.   you are totally wasted, fatigued, bedridden, unable to work.  not just acid indigestion or postnasal drip.  this guy has a serious illness here that is keeping him from actually working.  it’s the word most frequently used for illness.  he’s talking about a serious illness here.

when you’re beyond the help of a doctor, you pray.  the elders of the church are to come and pray over him and anoint him with oil.

the scripture teaches that there are three different kinds of sickness.

first there is the sickness for death.  it’s covered in 1 john 5.16, john 11.4.  that kind of sickness GOD allows to take us on home to be with HIM.  there will be an illness someday that you will never recover from because GOD doesn’t want you to live indefinitely.  if every sickness could be healed by faith then anybody who had a lot of faith would never die.  there is a sickness for the purpose of taking you on home. 

then there’s a sickness for discipline.  the purpose for a sickness for discipline, which is covered in 1 corinthians 11.28-32 where they were abusing the LORD’s supper.  paul said, because they were abusing the LORD’s supper was the reason some of them were sick.  the LORD is disciplining you because you’re out of the will of GOD.  when we sin it does bring sickness into our lives. 

the third kind of sickness is sickness for the glory of GOD. the sickness for the glory of GOD is a sickness that GOD has allowed in your life simply because HE wants to heal you of it and let it be a testimony to the world. 

john 11.4 a man came to JESUS who was ill and blind.  the disciples said, “LORD, who’s sinned, him or his parents?”  JESUS said, “nobody’s sinned, this is a sickness for the glory of GOD.”  then HE healed the guy and it brought glory to GOD.

there are three kinds of sickness:  sickness for death, sickness for discipline, sickness for the glory of GOD.  the last is the kind GOD wants to heal. 

just a thought from the front porch…