Source: https://memoirandremains.com/tag/john-macarthur/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 04:45:10+00:00

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He spoke with Joel Beeke recently: Beeke said that everywhere he has seen discouraged pastors. That is what MacArthur would like to address.
No profession in the world suffers from a more basic lack of clarity from their responsibility than pastoral work. There is widespread confusion about what it means to be a pastor. There is also failure of congregations to know what to expect.
No longer is the pastorate an intellectual discipline. Pastors give their energy to managing and administration and give uplifting content. They do not perform intellectual information. For content they broker other people’s ideas and theology. They are not working out doctrine from the text.
The whole purpose of Bible exposition is to draw doctrine from the text and then to show its implication and application. The pastor’s also have the duty to protect the truth. Pastors rather than being theologians have outsourced theology to the academy.
The pastors are not doing the work of developing and creating theology.
Pastors have abandoned their high calling and have relied upon all sorts of other things. Rarely are pastors known for their theological ability. Pastors you must become theologians … the guardians of sound theology.
The church understands theology from pastors.
Every significant pastor in church history has been a heavy weight in theology.
We need to take back theology into the church. “The academy is a very unsafe place for the Bible.” We have been working to salvage the Bible from the academy.
Doctrine is the foundation of absolutely everything (we do as pastors).
2 Cor. 5: what motivated Paul. “For the love of Christ constrains us”. It is the love of Christ for me which drives me. What is so special about that? Most people think God loves everyone the same. But Paul makes plain that God loves on their behalf. Particular redemption motivated Paul.
Does theology matter? Does it change how you view life?
The church has doctrinal anemia.
Christ is high priest. He is praying us into heaven. John 17 is the only sample we have of Christ’s present work. In Hebrews we know that he is busy with this work of interceding for us.
I submit that both the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ fall below the reality of John 17. This (his high priestly work) is the greatest ministry of Jesus Christ.
The life of Christ is much more than his death.
The entire prayer of John 17 is theology.
If you do not have theology, you cannot only not preach, you can’t even pray.
John 17 is prayed theology.
Jesus prays the theology of the Father back to the Father knowing the Father will answer this. He prays this on behalf of those who believe and will believe.
This is the most comforting chapter in Bible because the security of my salvation is the most comforting truth.
John 17 is the transition of Christ’s work — this is what he has been doing for the past 2,000 years.
He first prays that the Father will take him through the trouble before him. His desire for glory is that he will be in the place where he can be in the place where he can be interceding for us.
Salvation with the doctrine of God.
God and Allah are not the same. Allah is a solitary being who by virtue of his singleness cannot love. The God of the Bible is a Trinity who has always been a God of love.
This is the very foundation of salvation. By contrast, a single God without capacity to love has no interest in saving any one. But the Father needed many more sons to love.
Jesus is co-existent with the Father and is also self-existent (in him was life).
Salvation exists because of the Trinity and God is love.
All things that are mine are yours and yours are mine.
We could all say that mine is yours, but who could say, yours are mine!
No creature could ever say that.
Soteriology begin with the doctrine of God, specifically the doctrine of the Trinity.
The people to whom the eternal Son gives eternal life (v. 2, the Son gives life) are clearly identified. To whom does he give that eternal life?
v. 9 I do not ask on behalf of the world.
Jesus does not pray for everyone.
v. 9, v. 11 As clearly as the Father has given a name to the Son, he has given people to the Son.
He gives eternal life to whom the Father gives him.
All whom the Father gives will come (irresistible grace). No one can come unless the Father draws him.
How did the Father choose?
What does that mean? They belonged to God.
How did they become his? By his own uninfluenced choice.
The Father has identified those from before the foundation who are his. The Father gives them to the Son and the Son insures they will come to glory — and the Son uses the means of prayer.
He also had to live: I glorified you on the earth.
His death and life are imputed to us.
Salvation is to know God, to know Christ.
Why are we having a summit on inerrancy?
I remember the meeting which gave rise to the Chicago Statement in 1978 (at which I was present). Led by Jim Boice. R.C. Sproul said of Boice’s death, it was God’s judgment on America.
John MacArthur: A boring preacher is a contradiction in terms.
“Church is boring”—this is the most oft-stated reason why people stay away from church. It raises some important questions. How is it possible that an encounter with a majestic, awesome, living God could ever be considered boring by anyone? God is not dull. If worship is boring to us, it is not because God is boring. Sermons can be boring and liturgies can be boring, but God simply cannot be boring. The problem, I think, is with the setting, the style, and the content of our worship.
In that he speaks of Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. You really should read it if you at all care about Christian fellowship, as opposed to mere socializing.
“To put the matter succinctly, Christ makes community possible. Christ makes life together possible. Or as Bonhoeffer puts it himself: “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.” This is exactly what he already said back in his dissertation. But here he also has much more new to say. And here, in Life Together, he’s fresh from the experiences of Finkenwalde. Those experiences taught him a great deal about what he already knew to be true.
One of the things experience taught him had to do with our idealistic notions of church life. We can think glowingly of Christian community, as if it were some utopian commune. Such notions, Bonhoeffer argues, should be dismissed as soon as possible. The utopian story goes something like this. The utopian story goes something like this. The church is made up of Christians, who have the indwelling Spirit, have been raised to new life in Christ, have been given new hearts, and have been given grace upon grace. Consequently, everyone loves everyone else to the fullest degree. But all too quickly we realize this is not the case. And so enters disillusionment, confusion, even resentment. In such times people even go AWOL.
Bonhoeffer calls this a “wish dream,” and because of this wish dream “innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down.” He then surprises us. Writing of how “God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams,” Bonhoeffer adds, “By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.” God in his grace shatters our illusions and dreams of peace and harmony. The church is not a hippy commune or a hipster club. The sooner we come face-to-face with the disillusionment with others and the disillusionment with ourselves, Bonhoeffer adds, the better off we and the church are. There is a realism here that we should appreciate, and a realism that, once grasped, goes a long way in sustaining true and genuine community in the church.
Stephen J. Nichols. “Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World.” Crossway, 2013. iBooks.
that you may be healed (iathete).
Primary issue: Does this “sick” in verse 14 refer to “spiritual” or “physical” sickness? One’s decision on this point will affect one’s interpretation of the remainder of the passage.
MacArthur begins this argument with v. 13, kakopathei tis: “James addresses not those suffering from physical diseases, but those being persecuted, abused and treated wickedly” (275). This creates the context for understanding the remainder of the passage.
When we get to “sick” (v. 14), he notes that the word is used for both physical and spiritual weakness. In the epistles (of Paul) it always refers to a spiritual/emotional weakness. The weak person then calls for the elders of the church to come pray for him (her). This he relates to Galatians 6:1, where the stronger must strengthen the weak.
Since the oil was known to be used for treating wounds (Luke 10:34), the anointing here was “rubbing” (perhaps the most common translation of the word) oil into the wounds and bruises as an act of treatment and kindness.
He also points to use of ton kamnonta, “the one who is sick” in v. 15 which is only used one other time in the NT at Hebrews 12:3, “that you may not grow weary” – in response to mistreatment for being a Christian.
“Healed” in v. 14 is often translated “saved”, elsewhere in the NT – with a spiritual reference. The word “healed” in v. 16 is used to refer to the healing of Israel from her sin in Matthew 13:15. He thus understands “raise him up” in an emotional/spiritual manner.
The remainder of the passage speaks of sin: forgiveness and confession; coupled with prayer.
1) It is plausible – it does not require any impossible twisting of the text.
VER. 14. Is any sick among you?—Here is the culminating point of the question whether the language of James is to be uniformly taken in a literal sense, or whether it uniformly bears a figurative character. The literal construction involves these surprising moments: 1. The calling for the presbyters of the congregation in the Plural; 2. the general direction concerning their prayer accompaning unction with oil; 3. and especially the confident promise that the prayer of faith shall restore the sick apart from his restoration being connected with the forgiveness of his sins. Was the Apostle warranted to promise bodily recovery in every case in which a sick individual complied with his directions? This misgiving urges us to adopt the symbolical construction of the passage, which would be as follows: if any man as a Christian has been hurt or become sick in his Christianity, let him seek healing from the presbyters, the kernel of the congregation. Let these pray with and for him and anoint him with the oil of the Spirit; such a course wherever taken, will surely restore him and his transgressions will be forgiven him. This symbol, explained in the Epistles of Ignatius as containing the direction that the bishop, the centre of the congregation should be called in, may be founded on a wide-spread Jewish Christian custom of healing the wounds of the sick by prayer accompanying the application with oil.
John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, J. J. van Oosterzee and J. Isidor Mombert, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: James (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 138.
3) It can be related to the context of the text – referencing the abuse of Christians by those more powerful.
1) The spiritual view hinges upon the translation of the word “asthenei” – one who is weak/sick. Moo notes that “virtually all modern English Bibles” take the position of physical sickness. This means that most scholars understand the word to reference physical sickness. While merely counting noses does not prove the meaning of a text, it does give one significant pause and does shift the burden of proof to the one arguing “spiritual weakness”.
2) Moo also notes that the other uses of the word to reference “spiritual weakness” are made by plain by other a modifier of context.
3) Moo also notes that for James the parallel vocabulary is not Paul’s epistles but rather the text of the Gospels. In the Gospels, the word always means “physical sickness/weakness”.
4) The verb “save” in v. 15 is used in the Gospels to reference physical healing. The verb “heal” in v. 16 means “physical heal”.
5) The only place where anointing with oil is described in the NT (Mark 6:13), it refers to physical medicinal usage (MacArthur deals with this objection by tying the spiritual weakness to physical abuse).
ἀσθενοῦντας θεραπεύετε, νεκροὺς ἐγείρετε, λεπροὺς καθαρίζετε, δαιμόνια ἐκβάλλετε· δωρεὰν ἐλάβετε, δωρεὰν δότε.
γυμνὸς καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν φυλακῇ ἤμην καὶ ἤλθατε πρός με.
καὶ ὅπου ἂν εἰσεπορεύετο εἰς κώμας ἢ εἰς πόλεις ἢ εἰς ἀγροὺς ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς ἐτίθεσαν τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας, καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἵνα κἂν τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ ἅψωνται· καὶ ὅσοι ἂν ἥψαντο αὐτοῦ ἐσῴζοντο.
Δύνοντος δὲ τοῦ ἡλίου ἅπαντες ὅσοι εἶχον ἀσθενοῦντας νόσοις ποικίλαις ἤγαγον αὐτοὺς πρὸς αὐτόν· ὁ δὲ ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιτιθεὶς ἐθεράπευεν αὐτούς.
Ἦλθεν οὖν πάλιν εἰς τὴν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ὅπου ἐποίησεν τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον. καὶ ἦν τις βασιλικὸς οὗ ὁ υἱὸς ἠσθένει ἐν Καφαρναούμ.
ἐν ταύταις κατέκειτο πλῆθος τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τυφλῶν, χωλῶν, ξηρῶν.
ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ ὁ ἀσθενῶν· Κύριε, ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω ἵνα ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ βάλῃ με εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν· ἐν ᾧ δὲ ἔρχομαι ἐγὼ ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ καταβαίνει.
ἠκολούθει δὲ αὐτῷ ὄχλος πολύς, ὅτι ἐθεώρουν τὰ σημεῖα ἃ ἐποίει ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενούντων.
Ἦν δέ τις ἀσθενῶν, Λάζαρος ἀπὸ Βηθανίας ἐκ τῆς κώμης Μαρίας καὶ Μάρθας τῆς ἀδελφῆς αὐτῆς.
ἦν δὲ Μαριὰμ ἡ ἀλείψασα τὸν κύριον μύρῳ καὶ ἐκμάξασα τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ταῖς θριξὶν αὐτῆς, ἧς ὁ ἀδελφὸς Λάζαρος ἠσθένει.
ἀπέστειλαν οὖν αἱ ἀδελφαὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγουσαι· Κύριε, ἴδε ὃν φιλεῖς ἀσθενεῖ.
ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις ἀσθενήσασαν αὐτὴν ἀποθανεῖν· λούσαντες δὲ ἔθηκαν αὐτὴν ἐν ὑπερῴῳ.
ὥστε καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας ἀποφέρεσθαι ἀπὸ τοῦ χρωτὸς αὐτοῦ σουδάρια ἢ σιμικίνθια καὶ ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι ἀπʼ αὐτῶν τὰς νόσους, τά τε πνεύματα τὰ πονηρὰ ἐκπορεύεσθαι.
πάντα ὑπέδειξα ὑμῖν ὅτι οὕτως κοπιῶντας δεῖ ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν ἀσθενούντων, μνημονεύειν τε τῶν λόγων τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν Μακάριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι ἢ λαμβάνειν.
Τὸν δὲ ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβάνεσθε, μὴ εἰς διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν.
ὃς μὲν πιστεύει φαγεῖν πάντα, ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει.
ἀπόλλυται γὰρ ὁ ἀσθενῶν ἐν τῇ σῇ γνώσει, ὁ ἀδελφὸς διʼ ὃν Χριστὸς ἀπέθανεν.
οὕτως δὲ ἁμαρτάνοντες εἰς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τύπτοντες αὐτῶν τὴν συνείδησιν ἀσθενοῦσαν εἰς Χριστὸν ἁμαρτάνετε.
κατὰ ἀτιμίαν λέγω, ὡς ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἠσθενήκαμεν· ἐν ᾧ δʼ ἄν τις τολμᾷ, ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ λέγω, τολμῶ κἀγώ.
διὸ εὐδοκῶ ἐν ἀσθενείαις, ἐν ὕβρεσιν, ἐν ἀνάγκαις, ἐν διωγμοῖς καὶ στενοχωρίαις, ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ· ὅταν γὰρ ἀσθενῶ, τότε δυνατός εἰμι.
καὶ γὰρ ἐσταυρώθη ἐξ ἀσθενείας, ἀλλὰ ζῇ ἐκ δυνάμεως θεοῦ. καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἀσθενοῦμεν ἐν αὐτῷ, ἀλλὰ ζήσομεν σὺν αὐτῷ ἐκ δυνάμεως θεοῦ εἰς ὑμᾶς.
χαίρομεν γὰρ ὅταν ἡμεῖς ἀσθενῶμεν, ὑμεῖς δὲ δυνατοὶ ἦτε· τοῦτο καὶ εὐχόμεθα, τὴν ὑμῶν κατάρτισιν.
ἐπειδὴ ἐπιποθῶν ἦν πάντας ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἀδημονῶν διότι ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἠσθένησεν.
for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.
καὶ γὰρ ἠσθένησεν παραπλήσιον θανάτῳ· ἀλλὰ ὁ θεὸς ἠλέησεν αὐτόν, οὐκ αὐτὸν δὲ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐμέ, ἵνα μὴ λύπην ἐπὶ λύπην σχῶ.
Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
Ἔραστος ἔμεινεν ἐν Κορίνθῳ, Τρόφιμον δὲ ἀπέλιπον ἐν Μιλήτῳ ἀσθενοῦντα.
Notes: The default usage is for physical weakness. Paul does use the word to refer to spiritual weakness (including in Acts 20:35 – when elsewhere in Acts it is used to refer to physical weakness). Moo correctly notes that Paul indicates that the word refers to a non-physical ailment by means of modifier or context: e.g., Romans 4:19, “weaken in faith”.
When Paul uses the word without modification, it refers to physical illness: Philippians 2:26-27, 2 Timothy 4:20.
Thus, it is possible for the word to mean spiritual weakness, but something in the context must indicate such a usage. The reference to “sin” may possibly indicate such a meaning – but the connection is not necessary. In fact, the context indicates the opposite “If he has sinned ….” The connection between sin and the weakness is possible but not necessary. A spiritual weakness would likely be indicated with a more necessary connection.
Finally, one might find himself in a third condition which was neither external suffering nor inner cheerfulness, namely, ill. It is true that ἀσθενέω may indicate weakness of any form (e.g. Rom. 4:19; 1 Cor. 8:9; 2 Cor. 11:29; cf. BAG, 114, for other meanings), but the contrast with κακοπαθεῖ, the need to call the elders to him, the use of oil, and the two terms σώσει and κάμνοντα indicate that illness is intended. Here there is no question of outward reverses through the evil in others, suffering for the faith, or similar sources of internal distress (i.e. 5:13); the person is sick, which means that the cause lies outside the human sphere: either God or evil powers must be involved.
Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982), 192.
14 ἀσθενεῖ τις ἐν ὑμῖν, “Is there one of you weak?” James lists a third circumstance that engages prayer. Not all find themselves the victims of external suffering or share the experience of inner cheerfulness. Yet it is a much more common feature of life when people fall ill (BGD, 115; Matt 25:39; John 4:46; 11:1–3, 6; Phil 2:26–27; 2 Tim 4:20). ἀσθενεῖν can include weakness of any kind (2 Cor 12:10; Rom 4:9; 14:2; 1 Cor 8:11–12; 2 Clem 17.2), but Davids (192) is probably right to conclude that the context has physical illness in mind. He points out that ἀσθενεῖν stands in conjunction with κακοπαθεῖν (5:13), that the elders are called to come to the disabled person and pray, that oil is used for anointing and that the terms σῴζειν (“to make whole”) and κάμνειν (“to be ill”) in 5:15 are all features to show that a physical malady is the topic of discussion (see below).
Ralph P. Martin, vol. 48, James, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 206.
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ ἑκατοντάρχῃ· Ὕπαγε, ὡς ἐπίστευσας γενηθήτω σοι· καὶ ἰάθη ὁ παῖς ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ.
And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν, καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν· μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν, καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς.
τότε ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Ὦ γύναι, μεγάλη σου ἡ πίστις· γενηθήτω σοι ὡς θέλεις. καὶ ἰάθη ἡ θυγάτηρ αὐτῆς ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης.
καὶ εὐθὺς ἐξηράνθη ἡ πηγὴ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτῆς, καὶ ἔγνω τῷ σώματι ὅτι ἴαται ἀπὸ τῆς μάστιγος.
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν μιᾷ τῶν ἡμερῶν καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν διδάσκων, καὶ ἦσαν καθήμενοι Φαρισαῖοι καὶ νομοδιδάσκαλοι οἳ ἦσαν ἐληλυθότες ἐκ πάσης κώμης τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ Ἰουδαίας καὶ Ἰερουσαλήμ· καὶ δύναμις κυρίου ἦν εἰς τὸ ἰᾶσθαι αὐτόν.
who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἐζήτουν ἅπτεσθαι αὐτοῦ, ὅτι δύναμις παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἐξήρχετο καὶ ἰᾶτο πάντας.
ἰδοῦσα δὲ ἡ γυνὴ ὅτι οὐκ ἔλαθεν τρέμουσα ἦλθεν καὶ προσπεσοῦσα αὐτῷ διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν ἥψατο αὐτοῦ ἀπήγγειλεν ἐνώπιον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ ὡς ἰάθη παραχρῆμα.
οἱ δὲ ὄχλοι γνόντες ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ. καὶ ἀποδεξάμενος αὐτοὺς ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς περὶ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ τοὺς χρείαν ἔχοντας θεραπείας ἰᾶτο.
ἔτι δὲ προσερχομένου αὐτοῦ ἔρρηξεν αὐτὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον καὶ συνεσπάραξεν· ἐπετίμησεν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ, καὶ ἰάσατο τὸν παῖδα καὶ ἀπέδωκεν αὐτὸν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ.
While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
οἱ δὲ ἡσύχασαν. καὶ ἐπιλαβόμενος ἰάσατο αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπέλυσεν.
ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· Ἐᾶτε ἕως τούτου· καὶ ἁψάμενος τοῦ ὠτίου ἰάσατο αὐτόν.
οὗτος ἀκούσας ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἥκει ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν ἀπῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ἠρώτα ἵνα καταβῇ καὶ ἰάσηται αὐτοῦ τὸν υἱόν, ἤμελλεν γὰρ ἀποθνῄσκειν.
ὁ δὲ ἰαθεὶς οὐκ ᾔδει τίς ἐστιν, ὁ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς ἐξένευσεν ὄχλου ὄντος ἐν τῷ τόπῳ.
Τετύφλωκεν αὐτῶν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ἐπώρωσεν αὐτῶν τὴν καρδίαν, ἵνα μὴ ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ νοήσωσιν τῇ καρδίᾳ καὶ στραφῶσιν, καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς.
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Πέτρος· Αἰνέα, ἰᾶταί σε Ἰησοῦς Χριστός· ἀνάστηθι καὶ στρῶσον σεαυτῷ· καὶ εὐθέως ἀνέστη.
ἐγένετο δὲ τὸν πατέρα τοῦ Ποπλίου πυρετοῖς καὶ δυσεντερίῳ συνεχόμενον κατακεῖσθαι, πρὸς ὃν ὁ Παῦλος εἰσελθὼν καὶ προσευξάμενος ἐπιθεὶς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῷ ἰάσατο αὐτόν.
ἐξομολογεῖσθε οὖν ἀλλήλοις τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ εὔχεσθε ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων, ὅπως ἰαθῆτε. πολὺ ἰσχύει δέησις δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη.
ὃς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον, ἵνα ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἀπογενόμενοι τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ ζήσωμεν· οὗ τῷ μώλωπι ἰάθητε.
Notes: Again, the default usage of the word is physical in orientation. The word can and is used in a broader manner, but each of these “spiritual” uses is based upon a quotation or allusion to the LXX, Isaiah 6:10 & 53:5.
The reference in 5:15 to the prayer arising from “the faith” (the subjective genitive) that “will save” (sosei) the sickly one, should be taken not in a spiritual sense but in a physical sensxe. This is illustrated by the next action, i.e., that “the Lord will raise him up,” with the addendum, “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” In other words, the order is first physical healing and then spiritual healing.
Here is the trouble: Not everyone is “saved” from physical illness; nor is everyone “raised up”.
John Calvin, James, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Jas 5:14.
The faith with which we pray is always faith I the God whose will is supreme and best; only sometimes does this faith include assurance that a particular request is in his will. This is exactly the qualification that is needed t understand Jesus’ own promise, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14). To ask “in Jesus’ name” mean not simply to utter his name, but to take into account his will. Only those requests offered “in that will” are granted. Prayer for healing offered in the confidence that God will answer that prayer does bring healing; but only when it is God’s will to heal will that faith, itself a gift of God, be present (245).
By contrast, asking in faith without doubting (1:6) is the whole hearted commitment to what the believers trusts to be God’s will…. ‘Faith means wanting and willing something with all our hearts’ …. But it is also entrusting these wholehearted wishes and desires to God.
Prayer has always been difficult, but the difficulty of prayer in the modern western world has its own specific profile. The fundamental reason why prayer has become difficult in the modern period was humanity’s modern self-image as those who, especially through technology, have gained control over the world. Rather like affluence, this assume dposition of mastery over trhe world has deluded modern people into trusting their own capacity to achieve all human ends and has promoted a sense of autonomy and self-sufficiency to which prayer is alien. Whereas petitionary prayer is recognition of the limits of human abilities, the modern age has encouraged the sense that all problems have human solutions and that all human desires may in the end be realizable by human means ….
It poses a real danger of misreading James’ claim that ‘the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective’ (5:16) in an instrumental way, as though prayer were a powerful means which qualified people can use to achieve things. That way of thinking ends by making God himself a means to human ends….
If faith means wanting and willing something with all our hearts, it also requires the very unmodern renunciation of attempting total control and the wholehearted surrender of what we want and will to God.
The problem, of course, concerns those many times when the process has been followed, and there has been no healing. When such instances occur, the usual explanation is that we have failed to have faith. We assume that faith is ours to work up and that we should be able to do so at any moment. If healing does not come, it is our fault. We haven’t worked up the faith.
It comes down to this: the sick person is to call for the elders, the elders are to anoint and pray, and God will do as he pleases.
Roger Ellsworth, Opening Up James, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 161-62.
Annointing: Varner affirms Moo’s position that the anointing was so consecrate, and thus “ ‘set apart’ the sick on for concentrated prayer” (Varner, James, 191).
In Jesus’ day, people overspiritualized illness. Many assumed that all tragedy and disease were direct consequences of sin. Today, in the West, we despiritualize illness. We believe microbes and defective genes cause all illness. We deny a link between sin and illness except in obvious cases such as cirrhosis of the liver and sexually transmitted diseases.
In fact, we need to respiritualize illness, for Scripture often links sin and illness: ( Luke 5:20, Jhn 5:14, 1 Corinthians 11:30, Acts 12 (Herod), Proverbs 3:28-35, 13:13-23. Deuteronomy 28:58-63; Ezekiel 18:1-29 … Psalm 32).
To some extent, then, spiritual health engenders physical health, and spiritual troubles beget physical sorrows.
This verse is another indication of the affirmation that Wesley would have for James’s epistle. Wesley’s “bands”—small groups of believers who met regularly to share their lives with one another—practiced “confession.” In these sessions, there would be strict accountability for the sins in one’s life, not for the purpose of judgment, but for the purpose of prayerful support, encouragement and, most of all, healing forgiveness. Wesley knew that this was a key to growing deep in the Lord. He and his followers have practiced it throughout the years. It is heartening to see this kind of small group accountability becoming an ever-growing part of the spiritual exercises of many modern Christians.
The relationship between one’s physical health and spiritual well-being is becoming clearer all the time. How many sick people in our world could be healed if they knew they could be forgiven? How much of the physical pain in our world is rooted in spiritual causes? James’s admonition here to holistic spirituality in the context of real community is a key component to the practice of true religion.
One truth that easily could be overlooked here is the emphasis on the church as a healing community. James’s concern throughout this letter is to preserve the health and vitality of the Christian community—the church. Among other reasons for wanting to do so is that the health of individual Christians depends directly upon the health of the Christian community. For those of us who have grown up in the Protestant West, which emphasizes individualism, that is a difficult concept to grasp. But James’s words here about healing demonstrate that it is in community that the healing grace of God operates most effectively.
J. Michael Walters, James: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1997), 200-01.
Instead of grumbling against each other (v. 9) or taking oaths (v. 12), the believers should pray, strengthened by the corporate life that was theirs. James’s tone had become very pastoral. He asked if anyone was “in trouble” or (the better translation) “suffering” (the noun form of the same root, kakopath, is used in v. 10). He then commended private prayer20 as the antidote to falling into the temptation of grumbling against another believer. Their prayer must be for wisdom (1:5), and it should be whole-hearted (1:6), seeking a firm conviction for the perseverance needed to endure the suffering.
Kurt A. Richardson, vol. 36, James, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), 229-30.
Then James elaborated by stating that the Lord would “raise” the person up. This choice of verb (egeirō) is remarkable because it does not repeat the word meaning “save/heal,” which had just been used, but rather brings in another word with the same kind of dual meaning. “Raise up” refers to an act of God in the present, as in healing one who is bedridden, or an act of God in the eschaton, as in resurrection. Jesus’ healing of the synagogue ruler Jairus’s daughter is an example of this raising: “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” (Mark 5:41)—a restoration of life. The connection between being raised up miraculously from the bed of sickness and the resurrection is also poignantly presented in Martha’s confession at the tomb of her brother Lazarus (John 11:27).
Kurt A. Richardson, vol. 36, James, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), 234.
καὶ ἡ εὐχή τῆς πίστεως σώσει τὸν κάμνοντα καὶ ἐγερεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος, “And the request based on faith will make the sick one well; and the Lord will raise him up.” Difficulties in deciding what exactly in the preceding verse is meant by anointing should not cause us to overlook the main point of vv 13–18, which is prayer. It is prayer—not the anointing—which leads to the healing of the sick person. This prayer is described as a fervent wish or request (ἡ εὐχή) offered in faith (τῆς πίστεως). The faith mentioned here is evidently, if not exclusively, that of the elders. The results of this “request based on faith” are that the sick person (i) will be made well (σώσει, lit., “made whole”) and (ii) will be raised by the Lord. The verb σώζειν is often used in the NT to refer to the eschatological salvation of believers (see BGD, 798; this idea is close to the meaning of the same verb in 5:20), suggesting to some scholars that James is referring to deliverance from spiritual death. This argument gains support if ἀσθενεῖν (v 14) means “to be spiritually weak” (as in Rom 14:2; 1 Cor 8:11–12), as may be the case with κάμνειν (in v 15: see Heb 12:3). Moreover, ἰᾶσθαι (“to cure”) can conceivably be understood as referring to a restoration to spiritual wholeness (cf. Meinertz, “Die Krankensalbung”; Pickar, “Is Anyone Sick?”; Hayden, “Calling the Elders to Pray”). Yet these are exceptional meanings attached to the vocabulary, ἀσθενεῖν and κάμνειν are better understood to refer to cases of physical illness (cf. Wisd Sol 4:16; 15:9; Sib. Or. 3.588, where the meaning is “to be seriously”—but not necessarily terminally—“ill”). ἰᾶσθαι most naturally refers to the curing of a person who is sick (see Moo, 184). In addition, σῴζειν (Mark 5:23, 28, 34; 10:52; John 11:12) and ἐγείρειν (Mark 1:31; 2:9–12; 9:27; Matt 9:5–7; Acts 3:7; Josephus, Ant. 19.294) can be used to describe someone who is healed of a physical malady.
Ralph P. Martin, vol. 48, James, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 209.
In 2 Timothy 4:13, Paul asks Timothy to bring the scrolls & the parchments (When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books [““Scholars widely regard τὰ βιβλία — the books — as a reference to books of the Old Testament, most likely on scrolls.” (Kruger, Canon Revisited); see, e.g., Luke 4:17, “And the scroll [Βιβλιον] of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written”]. Thus, while the reference to the Old Testament Scripture is plain, what should be understood by “parchments”?
μεμβράνα is a Latin loan word for “parchment,” a writing material more expensive than papyrus, capable of being reused and more durable, made from the skins of sheep and goats. Kelly (216) argues that the word was commonly used of a codex (as opposed to a scroll). μάλιστα can mean “especially” (cf. discussion in Comment on 1 Tim 4:10), in which case the parchments are in addition to the books. It can also be an identifier, “that is, namely, to be precise,” in which case the books are more closely defined as the parchments (Skeat, JTS n.s. 30  173–77). Only Paul, Carpus, and perhaps Timothy knew what they contained.
T. C. Skeat has suggested a view of the latter phrase of v. 13 which links the scrolls and the parchments together. Considering it unlikely that Paul would carry a library with him, Skeat views the adverb “especially” (malista) as equating the “scrolls” and the “parchments” instead of differentiating between them. In his view Paul would have been saying, “Bring the books—I mean the parchment notebooks.”﻿This view still leaves us uncertain about the contents of the books, but Skeat’s explanation seems the best solution.
George W. Knight III in the New International Commentary on the Greek Text also favors Skeat.
These particular parchments may have contained copies of Paul’s own letters or may have been blank sheets on which he planned to write other letters. He had no plans to finish studying or to finish writing.
Whatever their form, Paul was asking for his books. Almost certainly, copies of the Scripture were among them, along with other works. Paul’s own notebooks and copies of his correspondence would likely have been among the scrolls, too, and it is possible that legal documents, such as proof of his Roman citizenship, were included as well.

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