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
James 5:16
(KJV)
When our church first started attending the men’s retreat,
after the end of the last evening service a “testimony service” would be
held. This was a time in which men would
stand up, and not only praise God for blessings, but also confess some of their
deepest, darkest secrets that they had supposedly already asked God to forgive
them of. Not only did I personally feel
that it was a time that sapped the very positive “let’s move forward” attitude
of the retreat, but it also left me with a very bad taste in my mouth as I
would inevitably learn things about people that I never really wanted to
know. I believe that when we confess our
sins to God, those sins are not only forgiven, they are altogether gone. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Micah 7:19
says, “and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths
of the sea.” Finally,
Jeremiah 31:34 tells us, “I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” If our sins are forgiven and gone, why continue
to bring them up and confess them to other people?
Many misapply James 5:16 and believe that it is teaching
us that we must confess our sins to each other if we want to truly be forgiven
as we pray for one another. The truth of
the New Testament however not only implies, but is also adamant that the only
person we need confess to for forgiveness of sins is Jesus Christ. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
The book of Hebrews even deals with the fact that Jesus the high priest
and we are all part of the priesthood. We no longer need a human priest as a go
between, for we can now go directly to the throne of God through Jesus Christ,
and obtain grace any and every time we need it.
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Sod of God, hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15). As you can see, this is much more consistent
with the teaching of the rest of the Bible.
We need to remember that one of the reasons James has
written this letter is because of the mistreatment he has seen of Christians by
other Christians. He has addressed the
sad fact that Christians show preferential treatment (James 2:1), talk nice to
one another while talking bad about one another (James 3:10), and how
they can downright mistreat one another (James 4:1). To keep James 5:16 in the context of the
letter, and in agreement with the rest of the New Testament, the only faults we
are to confess to one another are the ones we commit against one another
(Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 18:25).
In the end, we are to forgive one another and pray for
one another rather than gossip about one another and seek revenge on one
another.
Parting thought:
Unity in a church begins
with individuals being able to admit they are wrong to those they have offended.
Those who are offended in turn need to be able to forgive and move on. Let us spend all our time praying for one
another while we spend no time talking bad about one another.