James 5:16 (WEB)
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
As quoted in the map (KJV)
James 5:16 (KJV)
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Key words
- εὔχεσθε ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλωνeuchesthe hyper allēlōn · Greek
- 'pray one for another' — Christians are commanded to intercede for each other.
- δέησις δικαίου ἐνεργουμένηdeēsis dikaiou energoumenē · Greek
- 'the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man' — the prayer of the righteous has power.
Why it matters
Scripture commands Christians to pray for one another and says the prayer of the righteous is powerful. Pitre asks why such prayers should cease in heaven (p 85; compare Revelation 5:8, where the saints' prayers rise before God). If Mary the queen is alive in heaven, asking her to pray for us is what James commands, carried to its conclusion — and the earliest recorded Christian prayers to her show the Church drew exactly that conclusion.