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…
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