Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 5:16 - 5:16
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Confess therefore your sins one to another (exomologeisthe oun allēlois tas hamartias). Present middle (indirect) of exomologeō. Confession of sin to God is already assumed. But public confession of certain sins to one another in the meetings is greatly helpful in many ways. This is not confessing to one man like a priest in place of the public confession. One may confess to the pastor without confessing to God or to the church, with little benefit to anybody.
Pray for one another (proseuchesthe huper allēlōn). Present middle imperative. Keep this up.
That ye may be healed (hopōs iathēte). Purpose clause with hopōs and the first aorist passive subjunctive of iaomai. Probably of bodily healing (Jam 5:14), though iaomai is used also of healing of the soul (Mat 13:15; 1Pe 2:24; Heb 12:13) as Mayor takes it here.
Availeth much (polu ischuei). “Has much force.” Present active indicative of ischuō (from ischus, strength).
In its working (energoumenē). Probably the present middle participle of energeō as Paul apparently uses it in Gal 5:6; 2Co 4:12; 2Th 2:7, meaning “when it works.” The passive is possible, as is the usual idiom elsewhere. Mayor argues strongly for the passive here, “when it is exercised” (Ropes).