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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - James 5:15 - 5:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
prayer - He does not say the oil shall save: it is but the symbol.
save - plainly not as Rome says, “save” the soul. but heal “the sick”: as the words, “the Lord shall raise him up,” prove. So the same Greek is translated, “made (thee) whole,” Mat 9:21, Mat 9:22.
and if ... sins - for not all who are sick are so because of some special sins. Here a case is supposed of one visited with sickness for special sins.
have committed - literally, “be in a state of having committed sins,” that is, be under the consequences of sins committed.
they - rather, “it”: his having committed sins shall be forgiven him. The connection of sin and sickness is implied in Isa 33:24; Mat 9:2-5; Joh 5:14. The absolution of the sick, retained in the Church of England, refers to the sins which the sick man confesses (Jam 5:16) and repents of, whereby outward scandal has been given to the Church and the cause of religion; not to sins in their relation to God, the only Judge.