We’re told in James 5:16b “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”, or as it’s translated in another bible: “the fervent supplication of the righteous has much power.”
In this portion of James’ letter, we’re told in some of the surrounding verses about:
- Maintaining unity in the church through perseverance in righteousness.
- praying in faith for, and caring for other Christians.
- acknowledging our own sin in confession to the person we’ve sinned against, so that we’ll be living righteously.
- How the results of righteousness benefit the whole body of Christ.
In the first translation quoted, the words “effectual” and “fervent” have been used to convey the intent of one Greek word, ἐνεργέω, transliterated: energeō, which is the root verb of the English word energy.
At different times, we might pray in sadness, thankfulness, praise, compassion, or with zeal or energy!
In verses 16-20, we’re told:
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain,
and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. When you read throughout the Word about men of faith, such as Elijah, it could be hard to comprehend that they could be described has having a “nature like ours“, because what really stands out, is God’s very visual work through them by faith; but this is where the phrase ” a nature like ours” needs to be understood for what it’s representing; the nature of man, isn’t to be seen as either essentially godly characteristics, or an obstacle to a person having godly characteristics, it’s simply the human condition of a believer, in the aspects of being made in the image and likeness of God, being able to have dominion over His creation, being able to make choices of good and evil, being able to exercise intelligent spiritually moral characteristics, as compared to all God’s other earthly beings such as the animals of the land, sea and sky. So although Elijah was a basic believing child of God just like all other believers, he was a righteous believing man, and being such, He was called and equipped by God to do God’s work. And God does this for each of His children, even today. Just as we’re told in Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
We can see from this verse in Ephesians, that the reference to Elijah, wasn’t dropped in the middle of James 5 to make us feel weak, or to make us feel like failures; He wrote it to encourage us to persevere in obedience, growing in understanding of Him, and through this, growing in faith, so that we grab hold of what is really life, so that we do the good works God has prepared for each of us to accomplish, some individually and some visibly collectively, but essentially as being one in Christ, so that we would then see the results of the faith He’s given us, and praise our Father who is in heaven.
God employed Elijah as a faithful servant with faith, so that God’s providence was delivered to the people of God. He still has purpose for His children in this same way today, personally providing encouragement, counsel, teaching and daily physical needs and assistance, or a fellowship visit. And sometimes, the service is not seen by anyone at all, because it’s a service of prayer.
We’re told that Elijah prayed “earnestly”, some other translations use the words “intensely” and “fervently”.
If we honestly recognise as best we can, Who we are requesting of in prayer, our words will be composed in humility, reverence and faith. The importance of what we’re intently praying about, does at times require us to retreat from a common location, and move to a room, or an area where we can privately commit to prayer on our knees. So, just like Elijah’s earnest or (proseuchē) prayer, the words “effective, fervent” or (energeō), represent a deeper level of request, that carries with it, a more intentionally conscious respectful approach to God, which in itself is an application of us denying ourselves, because we’re intentionally stepping aside from all other thoughts and activities to focus intently on the things of God, and not of man.
Jesus taught the disciples this aspect when they asked Him why they weren’t able to cast out demons on one occasion:
…the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”
Matthew 17:20-21
And He *said to them, “Because of your little faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
[“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]
Jesus consistently led by example, and He did this no less in the matter of prayer, there are occasions recorded of Him going away by Himself to pray, including Mark 1:35:
And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus rose up, went out of the house, and went away to a desolate place, and was praying there.
Though our posture and our words might often fall short of expressing the conviction of our prayerful desire, righteousness is a priority condition for approaching God:
We’re told in Proverbs 15:29 “Yahweh is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.“, so James tells us to confess our sins to each other, so that we’ll be praying with a righteous heart. And we’re told in Mark 11:25 that when we’re gathered in the congregation of the saints, even when we stand to pray: we’re to be in the condition of obedience, which is righteousness.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone,
so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”
God hears our prayers for our own request of forgiveness before we’re forgiven, otherwise we’d have no way of Him receiving our request. John wrote:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
So also, sin should be confessed, before prayer is delivered for others. In verse 19, James wrote about our inclination to sin in various ways, he said “if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back…”, so he wrote instructive of what God requires of the saints when we do sin, and how God works in us through discipline, to re-establish fellowship with Himself, then he tells of the excellent result of this reconciliation, which comes through repentance: We grow in faith, joy, wisdom and peace, because we’re saved from a multitude of sins, and we’re in fellowship with Him, which means we’re in fellowship with the saints, as far as depends upon ourselves.
The instruction in verse 16 is, “confess your faults one to another“, this instruction goes hand in hand with Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
God doesn’t engage in close fellowship with people who disobey Him; being in close fellowship with God, requires being in unity with my brothers and sisters in Christ, as far as depends on my ability to achieve this scripturally.
We’re told about this in 1 John 4:
If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother.
1 John 4:20-21
When confession of sin is made by one brother to another, regardless of how the wronged person responds, God honours this obedient act of the one confessing, by giving His peace, drawing closer in fellowship, granting understanding of His Word, hearing the confessing one’s prayers, and answering them according to His wisdom.
And when forgiveness is given by one brother to another, regardless of whether the offender confesses or not, God honours this obedient act by giving His peace, and drawing closer to them in fellowship; granting wisdom and understanding of His Word, hearing their prayers and answering them according to His wisdom.
In chapter 4 of James we’re told:
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
So, when both persons in the confession and forgiveness scenario obey God, the benefit is that Christian unity is restored and the local body of Christ moves forward as one, so that the lost can see Christ in His church through the fruit of our obedience, which is essentially righteousness.
Unity among the Saint’s is something that we’re told to strive for; we’re told of it’s outcome in Psalm 133:
A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Psalm 133:1
This Psalm is introduced as being a song of Ascents, the word Ascents metaphorically represents the unity of the saints as rising to a closer fellowship with God. There are differing perceptions of scripture between the people of God, but when time is taken, to examine these differing thoughts in humility, and to work toward unified conclusions based on God’s Word, then that unity results in Saint’s serving and fellowshipping together in the terms of it being “good and pleasant”, rather than there being minor divisions which stifle fellowship. In Song of Songs, these seemingly minor differences are likened to foxes that ruin the good vines.
Seize the foxes for us, The little foxes that are wreaking destruction on the vineyards, While our vineyards are in blossom.
Song of Songs 2:15
Unresolved differences can be a massive hindrance to the practical application of ministry in, and from a congregation of Christians. We should be working to sort these “small” issues out in love, so that the lost sheep in the world will see the love of God in the church, will repent and join with us in praising and serving God.
But Godly unity isn’t established primarily through agreement on doctrine, it’s established primarily through application of love coupled with right doctrine.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up;
it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered;
it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love.
When love is the priority, there’s ground for development of unity in agreement of the Word of God in the church, which is the pillar and support of the truth: Paul wrote to Timothy:
but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:15
So when the saints are reconciled and righteousness is restored, the next instruction is to pray for restoration of health, or salvation of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have strayed from obedience. The salvation referred to here, isn’t eternal salvation, it’s a matter of being saved from the condition of being out of fellowship with God, including the earthly/temporal discipline for the sin, which can result in sickness. Not that sickness is always a matter of discipline for personal sin, but that’s partly what’s being spoken of here.
So with unity restored among the saints, this again brings us back to the matter of prayer; and now, through obedience, it’s the prayer of the righteous man.
But although we can pray to God in righteousness, with conviction, humility, faith and passion, there’s still a factor that may keep our prayers from being answered in the way we hope:
God’s will:
- Jesus is perfectly righteous, but when He requested: “let this cup pass from me“, It wasn’t done, because it wasn’t the Fathers will, but it was the Fathers will that Jesus prayed what He prayed, we can see this through Jesus’s request and subsequent acknowledgment of the fathers will being the priority. He taught us to submit ourselves to The Fathers will regardless of what we desire in righteousness. Jesus’s request revealed that even though He was God manifest in flesh, and in this form, the depth of what He was about to suffer in separation from His Father, was so terrible, so agonising and so evil, but despite this, He still fully submitted Himself to the Fathers will. And so Jesus said to us, deny yourself daily, take up your cross and follow Me. Because it’s through denying self, that Christ is seen in the Saint’s, by the lost sheep in the world.
God desires that His children continually live in fellowship with Him, Just as it was originally in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve hid from God because of their sin. This will of God, is expressed even in this verse, where we’re told of the result that comes from obeying and trusting Him, so that our prayers will be effective, or as the earlier mentioned bible translation puts it; the prayer has “much worth”, it’s a prayer with power granted by God.
But “Much worth”, doesn’t necessarily mean that the prayer will be answered according to our word for word expectation. Because heavenly Father answers according to His wisdom, for His glory, and for our good, developing the saints in spiritual maturity for the good of the whole body. All of our life, both our physical and thought related experiences, are subject to God’s rule, so, we benefit through faith and peace, when we submit the outcome of our prayers, to trusting in His response to be according to what He would have us learn and be changed through.
We often only see the immediate issue, but He’s allowed the immediate issue to cause us to be changed to be more like Christ, and to see His glory as a result of Him working in the immediate issue, and more issues both before and after, that we may be totally unaware of.
Now considering the word “righteous“, it’s translated from the Greek word dikaios (δίκαιος) which is sometimes also translated as “just“, the bible scholar Thayer described it in context as:
in a wide sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God.
When we’re denying our own will and obeying God’s will and His commandments, our prayers consist of desires for things that are for His glory, and that’s where the effectiveness results, so that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The effectual fervent prayers of righteous persons are primarily for His glory in ways such as:
Request for eternal or present salvation of others, spiritual growth of self and others, request for the peace and daily earthly needs of, or healing of others, or for the maintenance of the truth, or re-establishment of the truth in the local or global church. These requests are prayed in faith with certainty accompanied by peace, in the knowledge that the judge of all will do what is right and that He cares for His children.
And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
James 5:15
We know that while we’re in this earthly body we’ll never be sinless, we’re told this in 1 John 1:8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”; so this brings further consideration: If we’re still in a corrupt body with corrupt desires, how can we be righteous so that our prayers have much worth? By denying ourselves and fulfilling our God enabled Christian responsibilities, through Him working in us to desire and do what pleases Him.
For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Phil 2:13
We’re told in 1Peter 1:16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”, God’s holiness, is one of many characteristics that we’ve been created to express as having been made in His image, and although we can’t presently be all that we will be, we can be all that He intended us to be on this earth.
Some of the responsible actions we’re told to apply that cause us to be holy/ righteous, are described by way of metaphor including:
- Make straight paths for your feet... Hebrews 12:13
- And if your eye offend you, pluck it out: it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Mar 9:47
- And he said to them all, If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me;: Luke 9:23
The corrupt part of our present selves which is earthly and won’t be with us in heaven, is commonly referred to as “the flesh” or “the old man”, it tries to govern us contrary to God’s will every day, but if we deny the desires and ways of “the flesh” by making decisions in the strength which God provides through Christ, we are in the condition of being “a just man“. But rather than facing each day with the daunting prospect of denying the desires of the flesh, the focus should be primarily on meditating on God’s word, so that we’re like trees planted by the water, bearing fruit in its season.
Psalm 17:1 Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer— it comes from lips free of deceit.
In His Word, God teaches us to stop allowing every little desire of the flesh from being practised, so that our prayers are of “much avail”, so that we shine as lights in this dark world, today, so that we are kept from the sadness of our own sin, so that we live in the fullness of the life which Jesus died to gain for all God’s children. The Israelites were given the same instruction before crossing the Jordan into the land they were promised to inherit if they obeyed.
Numbers 33:51-53,55
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places. You are to take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.”
God told them to destroy the idols and the places for worshipping these idols so that they’d be in possession of a Godly land.
Allowance of sin, is essentially allowance of reduced fellowship with God, but godliness with contentment is great gain.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,
Proverbs 14:8
But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
And so we’re told in verse 16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed.“, then you can rest in the promise of God, that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.“, because Jesus said:
I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.
John 10:10b
A.P.O 19-Oct-2026
