James 5:15

The prayer of faith shall save, &c.— By the prayer of faith must here be understood, a prayer proceeding from a firm persuasion of mind, that God would assist them miraculously to cure the diseased person. Neither the apostles, elders, nor any other of the Christians, could work miracles, but when the Spirit saw proper, and by an impulse intimated as much to them. For that reason we find strangers were sometimes healed, while some of the Christians continued to labour under sickness, and other great bodily disorders. Philippians 2:26. 1 Timothy 5:23. 2 Timothy 4:20. But when they had the prayer of faith, they might with assurance proceed to work a miracle; and such miraculous cures, though worked uponChristians, were very likely means to convert Jews or Heathens, as well as to confirm and establish in their most holyfaith such as had already believed. The phrase shall or will save the sick, means "will prevail with God to cure the diseased person." See Genesis 21:7. The salvation here spoken of, was not eternal salvation, but a miraculous saving from, or curing of some particular bodily disorder:—and so it is explained in the next verse, Pray for one another, that ye may be healed. It is not here said that the anointing with oil, or the laying on of hands, would cure them; nor is it intimated that the elders of themselves could effect the cure: but, upon the prayer of faith, the Lord will raise him up, the miracle being carefully ascribed to the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word Καν, rendered and if, in the next clause, might be rendered more properly although; for the apostle does not speak of it as a dubious thing, whether such a person had committed sin or not, but seems evidently to go all along upon the supposition of his having committed some one or more great crimes, which had occasioned that particular disorder. See Deuteronomy 28:15; Deuteronomy 28:68. John 9:2. 1 Corinthians 11:29. 1 John 5:16. The Popish doctrine of the necessity of absolution by a priest, in order to the remission of the sins of private persons, and their obtaining eternal salvation, has no more foundation here, than their fictitious sacrament of Extreme Unction. See on 1 Corinthians 12:9.