John Calvin Commentary James 5:14

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:" — James 5:14 (ASV)

Is any sick among you? As the gift of healing still continued, he directs the sick to resort to that remedy. It is, indeed, certain that they were not all healed; but the Lord granted this favor as often and as far as He knew it would be beneficial. Nor is it probable that the oil was applied indiscriminately, but only when there was some hope of restoration. For, together with the power, discretion was also given to the ministers, lest they should profane the symbol by abuse. The design of James was simply to commend the grace of God which the faithful might then enjoy, so that its benefit would not be lost through contempt or neglect.

For this purpose, he ordered the presbyters to be sent for, but the use of anointing must have been confined to the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Papists boast greatly of this passage when they seek to pass off their extreme unction. But how different their corruption is from the ancient ordinance mentioned by James, I will not now undertake to show. Let readers learn this from my Institutes. I will only say this: this passage is wickedly and ignorantly perverted when extreme unction is established by it and is called a sacrament to be perpetually observed in the Church.

I do indeed allow that it was used as a sacrament by the disciples of Christ (for I cannot agree with those who think that it was medicine), but as the reality of this sign continued only for a time in the Church, the symbol also must have been only for a time.

And it is quite evident that nothing is more absurd than to call something a sacrament that is void and does not truly present to us what it signifies. That the gift of healing was temporary, all are forced to admit, and events clearly prove this; therefore, its sign ought not to be considered perpetual.

It therefore follows that those who today count anointing among the sacraments are not the true followers but the apes of the Apostles, unless they restore the effect it produced—an effect God took away from the world more than fourteen hundred years ago.

So our dispute is not whether anointing was once a sacrament, but whether it has been given to be so perpetually. We deny the latter, because it is evident that what it signified has long since ceased.

The presbyters, or elders, of the church. Here, I generally include all those who presided over the Church. For not only pastors were called presbyters or elders, but also those who were chosen from the people to be, so to speak, censors to protect discipline.

Every church had, as it were, its own senate, chosen from men of influence and proven integrity. But as it was customary to choose especially those who were endowed with more than ordinary gifts, he ordered them to send for the elders, as they were the ones in whom the power and grace of the Holy Spirit more particularly appeared.

Let them pray over him. This custom of praying over someone was intended to show that they stood, so to speak, before God. For when we come, as it were, to the very scene itself, we utter prayers with more feeling. Not only Elisha and Paul, but Christ Himself, stirred the fervor of prayer and commended the grace of God by praying over people in this way (2 Kings 4:32; Acts 20:10; John 11:41).