James ends his epistle with instructions to believers in various conditions of need. The suffering are instructed to pray, the joyful to sing, and the sick to call for the elders who will anoint the sick and raise him up.
The three instructions match the three offices of Christ and of believers. Priests pray, kings sing and compose in the Spirit, prophets heal and judge with prayer. It’s no accident that James includes a reference to Elijah, one of the early prophets of Israel, when encouraging prayer and anointing for the sick.
If this is right, then priestly ministry corresponds to suffering; royalty is associated with joy and merriment; prophetic ministry is linked with healing the sick, and turning sickness into “christic,” anointed suffering.
This sequence might shed some light on the puzzling verses 19-20, where James promises that those who turn sinners from sin will save their souls, an apparent allusion to the prophetic task of the watchman, as described in Ezekiel 33. As the watchman warns about coming disaster, he delivers himself. Even if no one listens to him. He has fulfilled his prophetic vocation.
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