James 5:14

James 5:14, in plain English

If someone in your community is sick, they should ask the church elders to pray for them and anoint them with oil, doing it in Jesus's name and authority.

Why it's here

Sickness was often seen as evidence of sin or spiritual weakness. James is saying the church's response should be prayer, anointing with oil (a sign of God's blessing and healing), and community care. The elders represent the church's spiritual authority and care.

Who's speaking

James

Where it sits in the story

Oil was used for anointing throughout the Old Testament—on kings, priests, and for healing. Jesus's disciples also anointed the sick with oil. This is the church stepping into its role as the body of Christ, carrying His healing presence.

The scholarly reading

A sick person should summon the church's elders to pray and anoint them with oil, integrating medical care, community support, and sacramental practice.

Language and setting

The instruction assumes illness as a common community concern requiring collective pastoral response. The elders (πρεσβύτερος, presbyteros—literally the elderly, but functionally the church's leadership) serve as intermediaries for prayer and ritual. Anointing with oil (ἀλείφω, aleiphō) was a standard Mediterranean medical practice—oil could have therapeutic properties—but James invests it with spiritual significance ('in the name of the Lord'). This verse does not disparage medical treatment but integrates it into a framework where prayer, community, and sacramental action converge. The practice presupposes an organized church with identified leadership, suggesting a slightly later ecclesiology than the earliest apostolic period.

Voice

James, establishing a practice that became foundational to Christian pastoral care—later formalized as the Sacrament of Unction.

Significance

This establishes a tradition continued throughout Christian history, from the patristic period onward, where anointing the sick becomes a formal ecclesiastical practice. It also reflects New Testament precedent: the disciples anointed the sick and healed them (Mark 6:13), and healing operates as sign of God's kingdom. This verse also prefigures James 5:15-16's fuller discussion of the connection between sin, faith, prayer, and healing—a complex relationship that will challenge rationalistic approaches to illness.

12Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or earth or by any other oath. Simply let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, so that you will not fall under judgment.

13Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

Read all of James 5 — The farmer waits for rain. Job endured to the end. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James closes with a call to bring back the wanderer.