The prayers of a righteous person.

James 5.16-18.

When Christians teach on prayer (like I’m doing right now), many of us like to quote this passage:

James 5.16-18 KWL

16So confess your sins to one another

and pray for one another so you can be cured.

The petition of one who works rightly is very strong.

17Elijah was the very same sort of human as we are.

He prayed a prayer for it to not rain,

and it didn’t rain upon the land for 3 years, 6 months.

18He prayed again and the sky gave rain,

and the land produced its fruit.

The two points we zero in on are, as the KJV puts it, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” Jm 5.16 KJV and “Elijah was a human like us.” Jm 5.17 NRSVue And usually what we teach about this, is how we oughta be a good man like Elijah—and you see what Elijah’s prayers actually achieve. Dude stopped the weather. Just like Jesus! But for years—he triggered a drought, and wrecked the economy of his country for half a great tribulation.

The rather obvious problem with this interpretation of this passage, though: It ties whether we get what we pray for, to our goodness. To our good karma. To whether we deserve to get our prayers answered, ’cause we’ve been good boys and girls, and we’re not on the naughty list. Conversely, the reason we don’t get what we ask for, is ’cause we are on the naughty list, and God is withdrawing any blessings till we shape up. Stop sinning or you might never get cured of cancer.

Yeah, that’s the wrong interpretation. Everybody remember what it is that makes us Christians righteous? Faith. Righteousness comes by faith. We trust Jesus, so we’re considered righteous. Exactly the same as when Abraham believed God, and God considered him righteous. Ro 4.3, Ga 3.6, Jm 2.23

So what does δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη/dikéu energuméni, “one who works rightly,” describe? One who does faith-works. The sort of person James writes about in chapter 2—those Christians whose faith actually changes their behavior, gets ’em to do stuff, because they trust Jesus just that much.

And no, I’m not talking about “the Christian faith” changing our behavior. I don’t mean orthodox Christian theology; I don’t mean religion. Neither does James. I mean we obey Jesus’s teachings. We follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. We hear from him in prayer and act accordingly. We behave like we actually believe what Jesus tells us.

The prayers of an active Jesus-follower is very strong.

Don’t confuse this with goodness!

Even though I just explained righteousness isn’t the same thing as goodness, I know certain Christians are gonna say, “Well, an active Jesus-follower is gonna be good, right?” and still think of righteousness and goodness as technically the same thing.

It’s not really. Goodness is an effect of righteousness. It’s one of the Spirit’s fruit; if you’re actively trying to follow Jesus you’re gonna wind up doing the right thing, behaving yourself, and not being one of those fleshly Christians who are barely any different than pagans.

Thing is, I’ve known fleshly Christians who somehow manage to get their prayer requests met. So… what’s going on there?

James uses Elijah as an example of a human like us. I’d use Samson. That dude was a piece of work. Yes, he was a judge of Israel; yes he was supernaturally empowered to sow chaos among the Philistines oppressing his tribe. But he kept breaking the Law. Kept losing his temper. Couldn’t keep it in his pants. Arguably the only devout thing about him was the fact he was Nazirite and never cut his hair. Jg 16.17 Otherwise he’s a lousy example of a devout man.

And yet, with the exception of that one time, Jg 16.19-20 God kept answering his prayers. The Holy Spirit kept coming through for him, time and again, giving him the strength to singlehandedly fight armies, rip down city gates, and generally be a pest. He really wasn’t a good man. Despite all that, Samson thoroughly trusted God—and that, such as his trust was, counts as righteous.

I am absolutely not saying we can get away with being as awful as Samson. God wants us to stop sinning; the apostles tell us to make peace with our neighbors; Jesus tells us to love everyone; the Holy Spirit wants to produce good fruit in us. Don’t be a dick!

But like I said, being a good person is an effect of being a righteous person. Trusting God means we’re gonna trust what Jesus and his apostles and prophets teach. Trusting God means we’re gonna listen to the Spirit, and do the loving, patient, kind, gentle, self-controlled thing, even though we’re regularly tempted not to. And okay, sometimes we’re gonna fail at resisting temptation. Does that immediately disqualify us from receiving God’s blessings, from getting our prayer requests answered? Absolutely not. God answered Samson’s prayers! He’ll answer yours.

Elijah was a human like us.

But if you want a better example to follow, try Elijah. Who wasn’t perfect either; in fact his faith got mighty shaky there when Jezebel sent him a death threat. 1Ki 19.2-4 Even so, that stopping-the-rain thingy was mighty impressive.

And it happened because God went along with it. The scriptures never say stopping the rain was God’s idea. It was because Elijah said so. 1Ki 17.1 It’s mighty extreme, but it is based on what the LORD said would be a consequence of Israel ignoring their relationship with him. Dt 11.17 So the LORD turned off the rain—and used it to trigger a national revival. 1Ki 18.39

You gotta be really in sync with the Holy Spirit to make bold statements like Elijah did. You gotta be developing a lifestyle of the kind of faith-works James meant. But it’s just like James’s brother Jesus taught us about prayer: Gotta have faith. Even if it’s as small as a mustard seed, major prayer requests will get fulfilled, Mt 17.20, Lk 17.6 and everything Jesus did, we can do. Jn 14.12

So, y’know, faith. Work on it!