A WORD TO THE SICK
James 5:14
God's people suffer many infirmities: bodily sickness and spiritual sickness, trials within and without. Our infirmities are a reminder to us that all we are in ourselves is sin (James 4:14). If any are sick let them call for the elders of the church. James is not saying that only the preacher can pray for the sick, he began by saying, "Is any afflicted? Let HIM pray." (v13) But God gives his saints pastors, and fellow brethren, to be helpers with you. It is interesting that James makes no mention of physicians. Not that we should not seek medical attention. But we have a Great Physician (Jer 8:22; Ps 103:2-5; Mt 8:16, 17). Christ bore the sins of his people in his own body, the sins that cause our sicknesses. When he healed bodily sickness in this earth it was an emblem of his power and ability to put away our sin by the satisfaction he made to God for the sin of those given him. And also, he bare our sickness, by way of sympathy, he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb 4:15, 16). Why then would we call the elders? So they can help us seek the Great Physician.