The Sufferer’s Survival Guide: Part 2 - James Lesson 30

Let’s go back to the fifth chapter of James again this morning. We are in the middle of an important passage. This passage deals with our responses and resources in suffering. I have entitled this section, “The Sufferer’s Survival Guide.” Let’s read verses 13-18 as we begin.

Everyone endures suffering in some form. It is part of life in a fallen world. The suffering we have been talking about in this section, and really all the way through James is most often suffering associated with persecution and hatred from the world. Jesus told us to expect this kind of suffering. He told us we were blessed when this suffering comes our way. Jesus really defines for us the right perspective to have as we suffer for His name. We rejoice and are glad because our reward in heaven is great.

But not all suffering is of that nature. We can suffer greatly from illness, disease, or even relational struggles. We can suffer injustice or ill treatment from people who are just rude and selfish. We can be caused to suffer because our marriage partner is unfaithful, or foolish, or financially irresponsible. Suffering has many causes and comes in a vast array of manifestations. This survival guide for the sufferer is universal. It doesn’t matter what causes your suffering, these are the things you should do when you find yourself in a situation where suffering is your experience.

We covered the first two things last week. We found them both in verse 13. James asks, “Is anyone among you suffering?” James didn’t ask for informational purposes. He knew there were many suffering. He asks this question to set the stage for the instruction that follows. “Let him pray.” The tense of the verb indicates prayer as the first response, and the ongoing response.

James foregoes all the typical responses because none of them is God-honoring. Complaining, fretting, questioning God, asking why these things happen to us, trying to find the easy way out, all these are the wrong thing to do and all of them are things that those people do who are guided not by wisdom from above, but the wisdom of this world.

We pray to express our desire to acquire wisdom from God regarding His will and His purpose and His work He wants to accomplish through our suffering. We pray because we want to demonstrate our devotion to Him and our faithful dependence upon Him no matter how intense the suffering becomes. We pray because we want to come to walk in the understanding of the sufficiency of His grace. We pray first because we don’t want God, or those watching us, to think that we are trying to endure the suffering in the power of our own strength. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

All of these things we do, we do so that we not just survive the suffering, but thrive in the suffering. The second thing we do is praise. James asks, “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” I showed you last week that this word cheerful describes one who is being courageous and cheerful in the midst of very difficult circumstances. Paul challenged the men who were on the ship with him in Acts 27, who had abandoned all hope of being saved, to “be of good courage.” This is the same word James used that is translated “cheerful.”

Who is going to be cheerful in suffering? The one who has the right perspective on his life and his suffering. The right perspective is the perspective that knows that this life isn’t about my happiness and comfort. My life is about glorifying God. No matter what happens to me, I exist for His glory. I can be of good courage, I can be cheerful in the midst of suffering, because I know who is in control. I know in whom I trust. I know that nothing is going to happen to me that He has not allowed, and all He allows He has a plan to use for His glory.

This is what it takes to praise in suffering. Praise literally means to “sing psalms.” If you are suffering there isn’t a better place to spend time in the word of God than the Psalms. 

If you are suffering, and your desire is to not just survive the suffering, but thrive spiritually in the midst of your suffering, first pray, then praise. Suffering survival tactic number three, if you like this outline to remain alliterated, you can say “people.” Turn to others. Don’t isolate yourself. Don’t try to walk the path of suffering alone. God does not intend for us to live the Christian life in isolation and He certainly doesn’t want us to pull away from others in the body of Christ when things happen that produce suffering.

 You find in these verses the people to whom we ought to turn. In this passage we see that the sufferer is to call the elders. And then there is the instructions regarding confessing your sins to one another. We are to call on the elders and others in the church.

And I want you to notice the emphasis here. The one who is suffering is to call. Sometimes, when we find ourselves in situations where we are suffering, we wait for everyone to come to us. We get so focused on what is happening to us that we think everyone else in the world ought to notice what is happening to us. We expect them to know exactly what we need as if this knowledge will come to them by some divine revelation. Then our feelings are hurt if they don’t meet our expectations. We have all heard from so many people who have left a church and won’t go back because the people in the church didn’t do anything when there was a need. James says that the one who is sick is to make the call. You need to let others know that you are suffering.

 There are some in the fellowship who are super sensitive to the things going on in the lives of others. If someone is suffering or struggling, they notice quickly. I love those people. I truly appreciate those people. My wife is like that to a much greater degree than myself and she is a tremendous help to me. The church needs those people, but I am not one of them. I wish I was more sensitive and aware and able to pick up on the subtle signs. If you are suffering, I want you to call me and ask me to come to your aid. I will be there. The elders will be there. If I can’t I will find someone who can. But don’t wait on me to recognize that you are suffering. Call me.

 Even though I tell you to call if you are suffering, some of you won’t listen. You will still try to endure alone. Why don’t we want to call? The short answer is that we are letting the world’s wisdom guide us rather than the wisdom from above. God’s wisdom is revealed in His word and His word has a whole bunch of “one another” commandments and instructions. He wants us doing this Christian life thing together. If we are doing it alone, we are not walking in wisdom from above.

Sometimes we don’t call on others when we have need because we don’t want others to think we are weak, or inadequate, or unable to cope with our circumstances. Our pride prevents us from calling on others in times of need. You can’t be proud and humble at the same time and without humility you shut off the greater grace God promises to give to those who are humble. 

 Sometimes we don’t want to be a burden. People are busy. They have a lot of things going on. If we were to call them, they would feel obligated to drop what they are doing and make time to help us. We don’t want to impose on them. These are excuses that prevent ministry from taking place. If you don’t call someone when you have a need for help in suffering, you are robbing others of a blessing. Don’t be a blessing thief.

 God gave us one another because He knew we would need one another. We need each other. We need others. We are put in situations where we suffer so that we can learn to call on others to come along side and help.

 “Is anyone among you sick?” This is the question James asks. Again, James isn’t asking for informational purposes. He knows there are people among the fellowship of believers who are sick. But what is the sickness he asks about? The Greek word is “astheneo.” It can mean sick with an illness or disease. This is the word Jesus used to describe His friend Lazarus. Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was sick. And we know that Lazarus died from whatever this sickness was. In John 4 the nobleman’s son was sick and death was a real concern of this man.

 If this is the use of this word that James means, then we have a tremendous interpretational challenge to deal with. There is a promise associated with this instruction. If James means this kind of sickness, and it can be a sickness that even results in death, and the sick person calls on the elders of the church and they come and pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, the promise is that the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. The implication of this is that any and all sicknesses and diseases will be healed.

 I don’t know about you, but I have a problem with that. I don’t find anywhere in Scripture that we have an ironclad promise for healing of any disease or sickness if we follow a certain formula and do all the right things. God can heal. He may choose to heal if you believe this passage is dealing with physical sickness and disease. If you are sick and you call on the elders of this church to pray for you, we will do that. We will even anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. But I will not promise you that you will be healed. God does not promise that you will be healed. I think a proper understanding of what James probably means will help us see that even James did not intend to imply that every sickness and disease would always be healed.

 This same word “astheneo” is used many times in the book of Acts and the epistles, the letters to the churches. In the vast majority of uses outside the gospels, it is speaking of a weakness of faith, or a spiritual weakness. The Greek word means “without strength, powerless, weak, and feeble.” It can also mean sick, but most of the time it is translated “weak.” We are true to the meaning of this word if we take it to mean that a person who is suffering has experienced a loss of strength. Suffering can do this to a person. Suffering zaps our strength, both physical and spiritual. Suffering can leave us powerless and weak and feeble, both physically and spiritually.

As I said, this word is used in many places where it does not refer to a physical illness. For example, in Romans 14 Paul is giving instructions on how to deal with someone who is not as mature in the faith as another and whose conscience may be easily offended by certain practices of the ones who are mature. He says in Romans 14:1, “Now accept the one who is weak in the faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.” “Weak” as in “weak in the faith” is the same Greek word James uses that is translated “sick.” You see this same word translated weak in 1 Cor. 8 three different times and every time it is referring to one who is weak in the faith. 

 I think James is referring to the one whose faith has been weakened by the suffering he or she has been going through. Whether we suffer from a disease, or other physical issues, or from persecution, many times, what comes upon us in the middle of our suffering is a weakness of our faith. Suffering can produce doubts about God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love. Suffering can cause us to ask questions like, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?” Suffering can cause us to question whether or not we are doing the will of God.

 This spiritual sickness is potentially more dangerous than a physical sickness. If you get sick and die from a physical sickness, nothing has happened to you that wasn’t going to eventually happen anyway. We all die. If you are in Christ, there are a lot of things worse than dying. But if you are spiritually weak, you are vulnerable. You are as much in need of spiritual strengthening as a cancer patient is in need of treatment.

 Why? Because, if you are spiritually sick, you are not responding to your suffering the way God wants you to respond. You are not praying and praising. If you are not praying and praising, you are probably complaining, questioning, doubting, fretting, blaming, lashing out at others, being filled with self-pity, worrying, or any number of things that are symptoms of spiritual sickness. Here is the problem. These symptoms are contagious. This sickness is easily spread to others. And, this sickness, if not dealt with properly and decisively, can damage your testimony as a follower of Christ.

 This makes a lot more sense to me. Let’s put the word “weak” or “spiritually sick” in place of sick, which is the way it is most commonly translated in the New Testament. “Is anyone among you weak or spiritually sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up…” 

 I have seen this happen. I have seen people who were suffering greatly, who humbled themselves and called for help. When the elders come and minister truth and comfort and encouragement to the hurting, the Lord raises them up. The Lord restores. The word “restore” is the Greek word, “sozo.” It means “save.” That is how it is translated in the KJV. It carries the idea of rescue. It is the same word used to describe our salvation as being “saved.”

 This is really the next component in our sufferer’s survival kit. We have seen prayer, praise, people, and now we find promises. This is a promise to the sufferer. If they are spiritually weak from the experiences of suffering, and they call upon the elders of the church, we will pray for them, and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick. The promise is that the sufferer will be saved. This doesn’t mean saved as in salvation from sin. It means saved from the devastation of failed faith. Saved from the consequences of a shipwreck of faith.

 Notice here that it doesn’t promise the elimination of suffering. God does not promise to remove the suffering. He does promise that His grace is sufficient in the suffering. He promises to sustain us and support us and encourage us through the suffering. He provides the people we are to call upon in the midst of our suffering. He gives us elders and fellow believers to come along side and help us in the suffering. But He does not promise to take away the suffering.

 We need to answer the question that is in your mind regarding this passage before we move on. The question is obvious. If the word “sick” is a reference to spiritual weakness rather than a physical sickness, then what is the point of anointing the sufferer with oil in the name of the Lord? 

The most common practice of anointing someone with oil is seen in cases where one’s head was anointed with oil, or the women who came to anoint the body of Jesus, or Mary pouring oil on the Lord’s feet. This was a means of showing love.

 The Greek word used here is “aleipho.” The word used for ceremonial or sacred anointing is “chrio.” So this is not a reference to an anointing with a sacred purpose. The word used carries the idea of rubbing someone with oil. This is best understood as rubbing with oil rather than a symbolic anointing with oil. It probably refers to the rubbing on of an ointment or oil with some medicinal value. 

 It may be that the elders were to do this as an expression of tenderness and loving encouragement to those who were suffering. John MacArthur writes, “It may well have been that the elders literally rubbed oil on believers who had suffered physical injuries to their bodies from the persecution. Medical science was certainly in a primitive state and there were few trustworthy doctors. It would have been a gracious, kind act on the part of the elders to rub oil on the wounds of those who had been beaten, or into the sore muscles of those made to work long hours under harsh treatment.”

 The point we need to grasp from this passage is straightforward. When we suffer we pray, we praise, and we call on people who can minister to us in our need. When we call on these people, like the elders, and they come and minister to us, there are promises that we can count on. We can count on the promise that if our faith is weakened by the experience of suffering, and we call on the elders, and the elders come and minister comfort, encouragement, and truth, our faith will be restored. The Lord will raise us up. He will not leave us in the depths of despair. He will not abandon us in our suffering and sorrow. He will strengthen, comfort, encourage, and restore us. He is faithful to His promises.

 There are two more resources in the sufferer’s survival guide. I think it would take us too long to try to cover them today. We will save them for next week and conclude our study of this section in James 5.

 Let’s pray.