James 5:15

and the prayer of faith shall save the sick The context leaves no doubt that the primary thought is, as in our Lord's words to men and women whom He healed, "Thy faith hath saved thee" "thy faith hath made thee whole" (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; Luke 8:48; Luke 17:19; Luke 18:42), that the sick man should in such a case "recover his bodily health." The "prayer of faith" was indeed not limited to that recovery in its scope, but the answer to that prayer in its higher aims, is given separately afterwards in the promise of forgiveness.

and the Lord shall raise him up Here, as in James 5:14, we have to think of St James as recognising not merely the power of God generally, but specifically that of the Lord Jesus, still working through His servants, as He worked personally on earth. So Peter said to Æneas, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole" (Acts 9:34).

if he have committed sins The Greek expresses with a subtle distinction, hard to reproduce in English, the man's being in the state produced by having committed sins. Repentance, it is obvious, is presupposed as a condition, and the love of God in Christ as the fountain of forgiveness, but the prayer of the elders of the Church is, beyond question, represented as instrumental, as helping to win for the sinner the grace both of repentance and forgiveness. It is noticeable that the remission of sins thus promised is dependent not on the utterance of the quasi-judicial formula of the Absolvo te(that, indeed, was not used at all until the 13th century) by an individual priest, but on the prayer of the elders as representing the Church. Comp. John 20:23, where also the promise is in the plural, "Whosesoever sins yeremit."