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Feedback Question: James 5:13 & 14 Why does it change gears? Why not tell us to pray for ourselves when we are sick? What is God trying to tell us? |
I have a question about James chapter 5 verses 13 and 14. In verse 13 we are told that if we are afflicted to pray and if we are merry to sing psalms. However, in verse 14, instead of praying for ourselves when we are sick, we are told to call on the elders.
James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
One might say, "Well, which group of people claiming to have authority must I follow?" That is a good question, and the answer is plain. God expects you to be close enough to Him and submissive enough to Him that He can reveal the genuine to you and open your eyes to see the counterfeits as counterfeits. Lies set us free from God and free to commit every sin and disorder. The truth sets us free from sin and free to righteousness, which includes every order of God. God has an order for everything: Worship is in 1 Corinthians 14. The gifts of the Spirit is in 1 and 2 Timothy and 1 Corinthians 12. God has an order for the family. There is no part of life that God has not shown an order. In James 5:13, we see the order of individual responsibility to pray and to rejoice. In James 5:14 we see the individual responsibility to fit into the Body of Christ and the order of healing for elders anointing with oil and the elders responsibility to pray the prayer of faith. If they are humble, in unity, and in submission to the apostles, the elders will be able to pray the prayer of faith and see the healing hand of God.
Christians want to pick and choose what they will follow as if it were a smorgasbord. That is rebellion.
Specifically, this passage has to do with the order of elders, which was restored to the Church in the mid 20th Century. Oh, there were elders all along, but they were not functioning as the Bible describes Elders. But it's deeper than even that. This is really important. It's about what the Church is and what the purpose of the Church is. That's a pretty hard thing to hear about since the Church has gone so far from the pattern God gave us in the Scripture that most people have never seen anything that looks similar to the Church in Scripture.
John gave a similar message in John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. God is telling us that we need to abide in Him. We know what it is to have Christ abiding in us, but what about us abiding in Christ. Whatever else abiding in Him may mean, it does mean to abide in His Body. There is a body of Christ and we are to abide in it. None of us is to think of himself or herself more highly than we ought, but according to the free gift, that ministry that God has put within each of us, Christ in us the hope of glory.
John 2:18&19 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Note how serious God is about this. Division is anti-Christ.
John 2:29If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. This is, of course, that righteousness that is by faith--faith has works that God does through us when we walk by faith.
John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? John 3:7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
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