The Pulpit Commentary on James 5:13

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

(1) Is any among you suffering? let him pray.

Prayer in the narrower sense of petition is rather for sufferers, who need to have their wants supplied and their sorrows removed. Praise, the highest form of prayer, is to spring up from the grateful heart of the cheerful. ψάλλειν (cf. Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:19).

James 5:14, James 5:15

Directions in ease of sickness. Let him call for the elders of the Church. Of the original creation of the presbyterate no account is given, but elders appear as already existing in Judaea in Acts 11:30; and from Acts 14:23 we find that St. Paul and St. Barnabas "appointed elders in every Church" which they had founded on their first missionary journey. Nothing, therefore, can be concluded with regard to the date of the Epistle from this notice of elders. The elders were to be summoned for a twofold purpose:

The result anticipated is also twofold:

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