Exposition of James v. 14.
James Dodson
[from The Evangelical Witness, Vol. 1, No. V., December, 1822. p. 232-234.]
This text enjoins duty on two classes of people: the sick and ruling elders. The duty of the sick, here commanded, is to “send for the elders of the church.” It is important that the question should be settled, whether it is the duty of the pastor, or elders of a congregation, to visit the sick, uninvited. Dr. Green, in his parting address to his congregation of Arch-street, Philadelphia, decides in the negative, and very judiciously. It was the result of long experience in a large congregation, composed of almost all classes of society. Our text settles the point. The sick must invite the elders. The proper signification of the word προσκαλεσάσθω, is to invite. There are many reasons for this course. The elders cannot be supposed to know who is sick, unless they are sent for—they may not be personally acquainted with the sick—and they must be ignorant of the time when it will best suit the family to receive a visit, and when it will least discompose the patient. When any person is sick and confined to bed, he disobeys a positive command, if he neglects to send for the elders of the church. We say confined to bed, for it is said in the following verse, “the prayer of faith shall raise (ἐγερεῖ) the sick.” He must, moreover, send for more than one. “If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing they shall ask, it shall be done for them, of my Father which is in heaven.”
The second class of persons are the elders, πρεσβυτέρους τῆς ἐκκλησίας—the senatores, or rulers in the church—officers well known to the apostolic congregations, as they existed in the Jewish synagogue, at least from the re-organization of the Jewish polity, after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Hence we read of “the chief ruler of synagogue.” It cannot mean in this text, the pastor, for can we suppose it to be a standing law, that every sick person, however poor, must send for two ministers of the gospel? It cannot mean simply old men, for many old men in the church are very unfit to visit the sick; and besides, the word is technical, being in the New Testament generally appropriated as a term of office, like the word senator, in English. The text presupposes a plurality of such officers in every congregation. The pastor is included, for by office he is not only a pastor and a deacon, but a ruling elder. As the moderator of the session, he comes in the room of “the chief ruler of the Jewish synagogue.”
The duties of the elders when called to visit the sick, are two. 1. “To pray for him” (ἐπʼ αὐτὸν) who is sick.” 2. “To anoint him with oil, in the name of the Lord.” The latter of those only requires exposition. The anointing with oil gives no countenance to the extreme unction of the Popish priests; for there is a promise annexed, that “the prayer of faith shall raise up the sick.” It enjoins the use of means. Oil was used in the apostolic days, as a medical prescription. Christ alludes to it in the parable of the tender-hearted Samaritan, Luke x. 34. Not that the elders are to usurp the office of the physician, but to direct the patient in making application for medical aid; and this direction is to be given in the name of the Lord. It is an authoritative act of officers ordained to bear rule in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church.
That aged, intelligent, and godly men should give such directions, is highly important, as many patients, from ignorance or avarice, neglect to make application until it is too late. When such application is made, plain and ignorant people are too apt to seek for, aid from the quack, the nostrum-vender, the half educated, the unskilful practitioner, merely because he sells his medicines, and his visits cheap. In these ways many a valuable member of the church, has been lost by a congregation, and many a widow and orphan added to the poor list. It will, no doubt, be in part by obeying the command of this text, that human misery will be diminished, and health and happiness promoted in the millennium.
Application for the assistance of able medical practitioners, being thus placed under the supervision of the wise officers of Christian congregations, will have another good affect, sensible and conscious elders will direct the sick whom they visit, to call in sober, moral, and godly physicians, when such can be found, instead of profane, profligate, intemperate infidels, and unfeeling practitioners. How unmeet it is, that such ungodly professional men, should be admitted into the chambers of affliction, to utter by the beds of those whom God has afflicted for sin, their profane jests, and impious sneers at the consolatory religion of our blessed Redeemer, let wise men judge.
Let the afflicted, and the elders of the church obey the command of our text, and then shall we see the medical faculty generally change its character, and a salutary reform introduced into this great and important department of human society, and men who depend on “the great physician of value,” to render their prescriptions effectual, ministering real relief to the afflicted.