“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven — the causal nexus between prayer and healing is explicit: the prayer of faith (proseuche tēs pisteōs) accomplishes therapeutic outcome (sōizō, make well/save/heal). The promise extends to forgiveness of sins (hamartiai), suggesting that sickness may sometimes accompany moral failure, and that healing addresses both spiritual and physical dimensions.
Church Fathers on James 5:15
For I return once more to the point from which I started: not in the way of chastising only, but also in the way of benefiting, God has bestowed a power on priests greater than that of our natural parents. The two indeed differ as much as the present and the future life. For our natural parents generate us unto this life only, but the others unto that which is to come. And the former would not be able to avert death from their offspring, or to repel the assaults of disease;…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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