Do all sinners get sick? How about those who dont sin, do they ever get sick? Is it possible that James 5:16 is actually referring to sin as an illness? Jesus refers to sin as an illness (Matthew 9:12) and Isaiah seems to do the same thing. (Isaiah 58:8)
James 5:16 Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Well, as the passage in James suggests, the general assumption during both Old and New Testament times was that if a person was sick then it was indeed probably because he had sinned.
The general teaching here was found in Deuteronomy 28:15-22. This appears to be the same mentality James was operating under in writing James 5. His answer btw was for a righteous man (i.e. one whom God
would be listening to) to pray for that sick person's healing. This is why he said to call for the elders of the church (ie. the most righteous among them) and why he also brought up Elijah, whom God not only heard the prayers of to stop the Heavens from raining but who also once raised a boy back to life from the dead:
"Is anyone suffering hardships? Let him pray. Is anyone encouraged? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of the faith shall save the sick, the Lord shall raise him up. And if he may have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess, therefore, your sins to one another, and pray for one another that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous man has great influence, and comes to realization. Elijah was a man of sufferings similar to us, and while in prayer he prayed for it not to rain and it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout. My brothers, if any one among you goes astray from the truth and anyone brings him back, know that the one having brought a sinner back from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and cover over a multitude of sins." (James 5:13-20)
However there were exceptions to the rule, as Jesus Himself pointed out (John 9:2-3), just as there were exceptions among those who were poor yet nevertheless righteous, a seeming contradiction of Deuteronomy 28:16-19.
The answer was to not judge by appearances but judge righteous judgment.
As for the question of was James referring to sin itself as an illness here? No, that would be over-spiritualizing the passage when the Greek words used here all suggest that the sickness was literal not figurative. Neither was Jesus referring to sin as sickness in Matthew 9:12. He was merely using the analogy to teach the need for Him as the Great Physician
spiritually. Isaiah 58:8
is in fact primarily a reference to physical healing, but only as a result of correcting spiritual sin. He was not making sin out to be sickness itself.