James 5: 16 Commentary

Get On Your Knees And Fight Like A Man

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWIMAnyYi30&feature=related
Words and music by Bob Hartman

Out on your own with your own self reliance
You’ve got noone to watch your back
You find yourself caught with no strong alliance
You’ve been left open for attack

Over your heard the condition is graver
You’ve given ground you can’t retrieve
The cards are stacked and they’re not in your favor
But you’ve got an ace up your sleeve

(Chorus)
Get on your knees and fight like a man
You’ll pull down strongholds if you just believe you can
Your enemy will tuck his tail and flee
Get on your knees and fight like a man

Under the gun, you’ve got no place to hide out
Backed in the corner on your own
This is one storm you are destined to ride out
One way to leave the danger zone

You’ve got the backbone to fight this tide
You’ve got the will to survive
You’ve got the weapon, it’s at your side
You’ve got to learn to confide

By TIUCHE (wrote 3264 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 11/24/2011 16:07 pm

James R.

As I’ve said “According to our faith” God deals with us…whatever is not of faith it is sin (Romans 14:23)….

we cannot limit Him…God deals with us according to our faith or He may even deal with us not according to our faith…but according to His purpose!

Yeah I agree with your post too…we just have to keep the balance…dividing rightly the Word!

But if we want to have A GREAT FAITH, that made Jesus even to be astonished, let us learn from Matthew 8:10.

By TIUCHE (wrote 3264 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/15/2011 16:06 pm

TIUCHE: That is a great story. However there is nothing wrong with seeking medical attention from professionals. I don’t think. In fact it would be wrong not to.

Disturbingly, the number of children who have been injured from these verses in James is too many. If you are an adult and choose to do that then that is a different manner. However, you should not put God in a box to test him like that. This is not limiting what God can do, this is testing God.

Deut 6:16 ‘Do not test the LORD your God’

Acts 5:9 ‘How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?’

1 Cor 10:9 ‘We should not test the Lord’

TAKE CARE OF YOUR LOVED ONES

1 Tim 5:8 ‘If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’

So provide your family with what they need. Even some medicine. Nothing wrong with that. It is evil to withhold care of this kind to your family.

JAMES REVISITED
You are welcome to disagree with my assessment of the epistle of James in post #3. I believe this Epistle to be a forgery. There are good teachings in it and there are bad teachings in it.

James’s forged epistle needs to be reasessed and not have much weight put on it. I don’t believe in erasing any of the early Christian works. Even early gnostic texts should be read and assessed in this manner.

Eusebius and the rest of Constantine’s men in the 4th century were wrong to erase many early Christian works. The cannon that we call the bible is flawed and full of inconsistent teachings.

James 5:14-16 is evil and wrong.

By James Richter (wrote 536 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/15/2011 15:48 pm

JAMES R. I agree and disagree too!

Let me tell you story…every night when we sleep…i do always tell my wife to teach the children to pray…but my wife refused. When she sleeps..she sleeps w/o praying…like a pagan…but she goes to church.We quarreled on this issue.

One day while playing with my little girl…she was about 1 year and two months old…like a cute duckling she was…laughing and giggling..when suddenly she falls on her buttocks on a stone about the size of gold ball. She cried…then my wife took a towel soak with warm water and tried to soothe the pain in buttocks.

The that night my little girl had a fever…her buttocks were swollen. She was sick for a whole week…i prayed every night for her…but the fever never left her…we got worried. A neighbor took pity on us and loaned us one thousand pesos…so we went to the doctor.

The doctor told us he would perform surgery on my little girl buttocks…scared us that if we won’t permit…the swelling would grow worse reaching even toward her lower parts…how much i said…the doctor said ten thousand pesos…and we had only a thousand pesos!

I said doc…how you gonna perform surgery, is it not that a little girl could not withstand anesthesia…she might die from overdose…he said that he would let her sleep…my wife and me look at each other. We went to the chinese drug store went to buy some cheap medicine..on the way my little girl vomited on the public utility jeep we were riding. we were worried.

That night my little love was still very weak and her fever high…I cried and prayed to God with my wife beside me worried and tired too… from 8 p.m. in the night till 2 a.m. I told Him:

O LORD the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…I have called on you these many days…you are very silent…Lord if you will not heal my daughter how you gonna expect us to pray to you every time when we have problems? How we gonna call on you if you will not answer? if you would not answer me now, every time we have are sick…we will not go to you..instead we will call and go to the doctor. Please answer me…I ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

This was the tone of my prayer…for 6 hours…intermittent prayer…some words i can’t remember now…the Spirit of God helping me to pray…
And at about 2 a.m. in the night…i felt our darkened upper room like there was a light, not so bright…just illuming us…and it seems there was a heavenly singing…and before my eyes…i saw …the skin in the buttocks of my little girl…opening like an eye of a camera…and out flowed red black blood with pus…about a half glass full…my wife wipe it off…

And when we awoke that morning..everything was full of sunshne..bird chirping…my little girl was well…giggling and smiling…and my wife taught my little children to pray every night…that is my testimony.

I think the error of most Christians is that they try to limit God in what He can do…even isolating scriptures to just mean that way..when it could mean other things and other ways…As Jesus would often asked do you believe i can do this? or he would say, according to your faith it shall be done to you!

Me…I’d say, LORD SAY THE WORDS ONLY THEN IT SHALL BE DONE!

By TIUCHE (wrote 3264 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/14/2011 15:42 pm

Here is my honest answer to this question. The other in this forum will disagree with me.

A PRAYER OFFERED IN FAITH WILL MAKE THE SICK WELL (v.15)

Jas. 5:14-16 deals with praying for the physically ill. The previous verse says ‘ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well’.

Some take this passage, as it is, and believe that medical treatment is evil. As a result many children have died. How many Christians have, needlessly suffered, because of this passage? Especially in the Pentecostal movement. They misuse 2 Chron. 16:12 as well.

ONE MUST PROVIDE FOR FAMILY, EVEN MEDICINE.
1 Tim 5:8 ‘If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’

Even Luke, who was Paul’s companion and the writer of Luke and Acts was a physician. Luke was not rebuked because of his occupation. Make no mistake and use the tools that God has given to help heal a sick family member.

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES, AN HONEST LOOK

There are some good teachings in it and some bad teachings in this letter. I agree with the writer of James on a lot of issues. There are some problems here, however.

This book is traditionally ascribed to James, the apostle. According to many encyclopedias, most scholars doubt this, because of the expertise of the author in the Greek language. Therefore, they feel that it was written by an unknown Greek Christian.

Many Christians themselves have their doubts about this work. Even Martin Luther, the founder of one of the three main branches of Christianity (Protestantism), called it “an epistle of straw”. One reason why he may have said this was because of a verse in James (2:20): “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

The complete thought of this passage in question is this:

14. Is 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. 15. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Feel free to disagree.

By James Richter (wrote 536 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/14/2011 14:25 pm

Hi
I want to know more about the verse e.g who is james,why did he wrote this verse and for who?

By James 5 verse 16 (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 6/14/2011 06:39 am

Sin gains its power in secrecy.Little wonders that a sinful act cannot be done in the open.However, when sin remains too long in the dark,it enslaves the sinner.Until one is able to confess the sin, it remains an ordeal; and who else should one confess to other than a fellow christian? Confession relieves the burdened (Eccl 4:9-12) and healing comes easier thereafter. In the latter part of the verse, it establishes that effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. In essence, the state of the burdened does not hinder the prayers of his righteous friend as far as confession has taken place.

By Opeoluwa (wrote 4 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/16/2009 13:54 pm