What is the context?
This instruction follows the call to pray in suffering and sing in cheerfulness. The sick person is to seek the elders’ care, and they are to pray and anoint with oil in the Lord’s name.
The following verses speak of the Lord raising the person up, forgiveness, confession and mutual prayer. The verse should therefore be read as part of a community caring for someone before God, rather than as an isolated technique.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The Catholic Church treats the anointing as a sacrament for the sick (Catechism, 1510–1513), administered by priests (1516).
Calvin understands it as a sign belonging to the early gift of healing, which he considers temporary. Wesley instead understands the practice as intended to remain. These readings differ over the continuing place and form of the anointing, while agreeing that the sick person should receive prayerful care.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The disciples anoint sick people with oil in Mark 6:12–13. The connection places the instruction alongside Jesus’ mission of compassion and restoration. The prayer is offered in His name; neither the oil nor the elder is presented as an independent source of healing.
What is our position?
Our study Prayer and Faith reads this passage as a call to seek spiritual restoration and renewed fellowship with God, with physical recovery remaining in His hands. It understands faithful prayer as dependence on God’s will, rather than an unconditional promise of healing produced by the strength of someone’s belief.