James 5:16 — Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
As we begin to draw this series to a close, we are struck by how many things we in the body of Christ are to do for one another. In a physical body, of course, the various parts are always doing things for the benefit of the whole. If the eyes weren't seeing, or the ears hearing, if the skin no longer felt pain or the heart stopped pumping blood, if the liver or kidneys or lungs were to fail, or the muscles atrophied to the point of uselessness, in all these cases and many more the body would at least be hampered and at worst would cease to function altogether. We can consider this on the macro scale, as we just did, or on the micro scale. If the mechanisms regulating cell division and replication fail, if we lack an enzyme to properly digest certain types of food, the whole body suffers. God means us to understand the church in the same way - the contributions made by the invisible parts are at least as important as those made by the more public members. We need each other - God has made His church in this way.
We haven't conducted an exhaustive survey of the "one another" verses - indeed our text today contains a "one another" that we are not going to have the opportunity to consider, that we should confess our sins to one another. Instead, we are going to look at the injunction in this verse that we should pray for one another.
It seems fitting as we get close to concluding this series on fellowship that we should come full circle to the first means of grace we considered - prayer. James reminds us that prayer for one another is to have an important place in the true fellowship of the children of God. There are many other things that must also claim a place in our prayers - rulers, the lost, the advancement of God's kingdom, the glory of His Name etc. Here, though, James tells us that we need to be praying for each other's well-being in the body. And it needs to be prayer from the heart, and not simply mouthing the words of something we know in theory that we are supposed to ask God for. The only way we can pray for each other like this is if the love of God for one another is shed abroad in our hearts.
We can certainly pray for one another at any time (and we should) - there is no need for us to meet together to do so. However, there is a special blessing at the church's prayer meetings, a special presence of the Lord where 2 or 3 have gathered in His Name. There is blessing too, in hearing the heartfelt, sympathetic, well-informed and well-considered prayers for us that are offered to the Lord by our church family. Whether it is prayer for our spiritual or physical restoration, the Lord tells us that such petitions offered in the Spirit can accomplish great things.
So prayer is a means of grace, the reading and preaching of the Word is a means of grace, and fellowship is a means of grace. God has arranged it when we meet together as a church that all these channels of grace, and others we have yet to consider, are opened to His children! How can we decide to be absent from something the Lord has specifically designed to strengthen and to bless His flock?
