The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-1, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

In James 5:13-18, where it told about anointing with oil, my question is kind of a four-part question:

1. Is this for the church today?

2. If so, when is it appropriate for someone to call the elders of the church?

3. What kind of sickness is this for--is it only for sin sickness?

4. How does someone at Grace Community Church call the elders of the church if a serious circumstance should come up?

Answer

I think that it is for us. I don't want to get into some kind of dispensational thing and throw out the Book of James. It says, "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Now, that last statement is the "hook" that this whole thing hangs on.

I believe this has a reference to those sicknesses which are directly related to unforgiven sin. Not unforgiven in the sense of ultimate forgiveness at the cross, but unforgiven in the sense of our immediate relationship with the Lord. In other words, all your sins are covered in Christ, and this is back to what you were saying. That's why there is no ultimate punishment. But there sins in our lives, right now that are not dealt with, and we will be chastened for those, they need to be treated too.

So, where you have a believer who has sin in his life there is the potential of sickness, and if you don't think so then you haven't read 1 Corinthians 11, because if you're sick "because of your defiling of the Lord's Table many of you are weak and sick, and some of you are dead," he says (the ones who were dead obviously weren't able to hear what he was saying, but the others did).

So yes, First John even talks about a believer who goes beyond the point of being recalled back from sickness because of his sinfulness. Yes, I really believe that the fact that this is tied into to the "sins," and it says in 5:16, "Confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed." And, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And then, "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." 

So, he's simply saying that pray on the behalf of one, prayer before God on behalf of one who is sick due to sin--God hears. When the prayer is offered and the confession is offered. So I believe that those are the circumstances. The fact that it says that the "prayer of faith shall save the sick," is such a gilt-edged promise, with no conditions, that it would have to be referring to a sickness related--to something that could be dealt with, and soon as it was dealt with the sickness would be removed.

Now, the question about, "Do we do that at Grace Church?" Yes, we do, and we have for all the years that I have ever been here. Every Sunday morning we meet over here in the Prayer Room at eight o'clock for a half an hour of prayer, and very frequently we have folks come in who want to be prayed for.

Now the one element that is kind of introduced here into the text, it's a little difficult for us to understand, is the anointing of oil. There are two possible explanations for the anointing of oil.

Explanation #1 - Is that the oil was the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and that is true in the Old Testament. 

On many occasions kings were anointed with oil, priests were anointed with oil, as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, just a way to identify it as if the Holy Spirit was touching that life--special anointing. In fact, "anointed" is a beautiful word in the Old Testament, isn't it? The priest was anointed, the king was anointed, as if God was putting a "touch" on him.

So, it is very possible that, that is a symbol of identifying the fact that we desire the Spirit of God to do a work in the heart, a work in the soul, a work in the body--of healing.

Explanation #2 - The other possibility is that it has reference to medicine.

"Oil" is a very general term and could have been used regarding medicine. So, it may be what James has in mind is--"Pray for the person and tell him to take his medicine."

Either way, I am not sure, but since we can't resolve that, we customarily, through the years, here, on Sunday mornings have anointed people with oil when they requested it, and just done as the Scripture says. Not only that, but very frequently, groups of elders go to the hospital and do this very thing--whenever someone calls us and says, "Would you come and do that?" We do that. All you have to do is call the church office, ask for any pastor and they will set it up and do it. I mean, if we can't figure out what the oil meant--we can still be obedient to it.