James 5: Call for the Elders

The letter ends practically. Is anyone suffering? Pray. Cheerful? Sing. Sick? Call the elders of the church.

Note the direction of that last instruction. It is not the elders being told to find the sick; it is the sick person being told to ask.

That is harder than it sounds, and it is where many people stop. Asking means someone finds out.

The letter closes on confessing to one another and praying for one another — the same movement, outward, from a private trouble to a room that knows.