Question: 

Should christians or Elders today practice putting oil on their sick (siblings or relatives) and pray over them for healing? Is this something we shouldn’t be doing or should be doing?

Answer;

You question, I assume, is a reference to James 5:14-15.  Here, James advises those who are sick to call upon the elders to lay hands and annoint with oil.  How, practically, to apply this scripture is a debatable matter.  I have heard both sides of the argument. 

Some say that annointing with oil was a common medical practice at the time and that the modern equivalent would be to have the elders (or any spiritual leader for that matter) pray for a gravely ill person, followed by using whatever modern equivalent medical practice might apply to the particular sickness.  Presumably, the modern medical practice would quite likely be more effective than annointing with oil.  Those who hold this view might go so far as to consider annointing with oil in the modern context superstitious behavior.

Another view is that those who are gravely or chronically ill ought to consider following this advice to the letter.  In other words, an elder or elders, or in their absence another spiritual leader or leaders ought to be called and the laying on of hands and the annointing with oil performed as described in James.  Those who hold to this view might say that although the application of modern medicine is a good idea, seeking healing through prayer and faithful application of this ceremony brings God into the process in a greater way, is a sign of Christian faith, and may in fact make a decisive difference in the healing process.

Personally, I lean toward the former view, although I would not go so far as to label those who literally annoint with oil "superstitious."  In fact, I would vigorously defend the right of a fellow believer to practice annointing with oil if he or she felt that was the right thing to do.  If I were an elder (I am not) I would perform the ceremony if asked by a member of my local church.

John Oakes

Should christians or Elders today practice putting oil on their sick (siblings or relatives) and pray over them for healing? Is this something we shouldn’t be doing or should be doing?