THE BOOK OF JAMES
(“The Ministry of Mutual Confession and Prayer”)
James 5:16-20 (NASU)
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16)
THE CONTEXT
(1) The first word of this morning’s text – i.e. “Therefore” (c.f. James 5:16) – marks a transition in the flow of James’ thought.1
(2) In the previous two verses (c.f. James 5:14-15), our Lord’s brother has been addressing a specific group of Christians – namely, those who have grown spiritually weak and weary on account of persecution (c.f. James 5:1-11), or some other kind of intense or prolonged suffering. Now, in this morning’s Scripture lesson – particularly verses sixteen through eighteen (c.f. James 5:16-18) – he’s addressing ALL BELIEVERS, telling us not to wait1 until we have spiraled down into the depths of spiritual depression and defeat, before doing something about our “sick” condition (c.f. James 5:14-15). Rather, we are to take preventative steps right now – by “confessing our sins to one another, and praying for one another (on a regular basis) so that we may be healed” (c.f. James 5:16) – before things get out of hand.
(3) Likewise, in the previous two verses James told STRUGGLING BELIEVERS to “call for the elders of the church” to come “pray over” them, and anoint them “with oil in the name of the Lord” (c.f. James 5:14-15). Now, in verses sixteen through eighteen he’s telling the members of Christ’s church as a whole not to wait1 until we need the elders. Instead, we ought to take preemptive steps early on – by “confessing our sins to one another, and praying for one another (on a regular basis) so that we may be healed” (c.f. James 5:16) – before our situation gets totally out of control.
(B) THE COMMANDS
(1) There are two commands in this morning’s text. And if they sound familiar to some of you, it’s because we studied them both eight years ago during a series of messages entitled, “The Ministry Of One-Anothering” – in which we looked at some forty commands scattered throughout Scripture using the phrase “one another” – as in, “love one another” (c.f. John 13:34-35), “serve one another” (c.f. Galatians 5:13), “forgive one another” (c.f. Ephesians 4:32), and “encourage one another” (c.f. Hebrews 3:13) – to mention just four.
(a) Because of their mutual2 or reciprocal nature, most of the one-anothering commands found in Scripture have to do with how we Christians are to interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Other commands address how we should relate to non-believers – from whom we are to “expect nothing in return” so far as reciprocal behavior is concerned (c.f. Luke 6:27-35). If non-believers do happen to respond to us in some positive fashion, that’s fine – but our obedience to the commands regarding non-Christians is not dependent on their responding to us in like manner.
(b) One-anothering commands are different – in this regard, that they have to do with how we are to treat the members of our Christian family, AS WELL AS how they are to treat us. Hence, the commands in this morning’s text, for example, mean we are to “confess our sins to our brothers and sisters in Christ” – and they are to confess their sins to us. Likewise, we are to “pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ” – and they are to pray for us in return.
I should add, however, that even though we have a right to expect a mutual or reciprocal response from our fellow Christians, our individual obedience to these commands is not based on whether they do or not. In other words, if they don’t pray for us, we still have an obligation before God to pray for them.
(2) The first command in our text says: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another …” (c.f. James 5:16).
(a) I think I speak for most of us when I say that, of the two commands found here in verse sixteen, this is the one I wish James had left out. I would much rather pray for you, than have to confess my sins to you. I can pray for you without too much effort or trouble – but I really don’t want to come clean with you about my sins.
What’s more, it’s one thing to generically admit I’m “a sinful man” (c.f. Luke 5:8) – because you already know that. But it’s something else entirely to tell you all the ways I’ve committed adultery with my eyes (c.f. Matthew 5:28) – or that I’ve been nursing a long-standing, deep-seated grudge towards someone in Christ’s church (c.f. Matthew 5:22) – or that I’m so mad at God I don’t want to have anything more to do with Him (c.f. Jonah 4:4) – or that the only reason I show up for worship some Sunday mornings is because I’m the pastor, and I have to be here (c.f. Hebrews 10:25).
I would much rather pray for you, then confess my specific sins to you – and I suspect I’m not alone in feeling that way.
(b) Perhaps it will help, then, to know that James is not talking about confessing all our sins in public, before the entire congregation – although there are times when church discipline may require us to confess a specific sin in a public manner (c.f. Matthew 18:17; I Corinthians 5:4-5; I Timothy 5:20). However, James is not talking about the application of church discipline – he’s talking about something that should be a normal, ongoing practice in the life of Christ’s church.
James is not talking about adding a segment to our Sunday worship services where everyone stands up and confesses all the sins they’ve committed during the past week (such a practice would probably kill attendance, and the church). Rather, James is talking about a private confession of our sins on a one-to-one basis,2 with a brother or sister in Christ whom we trust, and with whom we have a close personal relationship. It might be our pastor – or it might be one of the ruling elders or deacons. More often than not, however, it will be one of the unordained members of our church family. Whoever it is, they will be someone in the church with whom we have developed a special spiritual bond – be they a friend – or our spouse – or someone in our small group – or someone who sits in the same pew.
James is not talking about (what one writer called) “carnal chaos”3 – where public meetings are held for the purpose of parading sins in front of everyone, that should be treated with discretion and sensitivity, along with a minimum of fuss and publicity. What he has in mind is a restrained, private, confidential sharing between members of the church – unstructured, and yet directed by the constraints of God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.4
(c) If this practice is going on within our own church family, I’m not aware of it – nor would I necessarily be, given the private nature of the application. However, I suspect many Christians take the attitude that they will just keep the confession of their sins between themselves and God – perhaps drawing upon the example of David who wrote: “I acknowledged my sin TO YOU, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions TO THE LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin” (c.f. Psalm 32:5). Nowhere in that psalm does David ever get specific about what sins he “acknowledged”, or what sins he “confessed” (although I don’t doubt for a moment that he was very specific during the actual time of confession to which refers!).
The private confession of our sins to our Heavenly Father would seem to be the ordinary (and biblical) practice of Christians in every generation (c.f. Matthew 6:12). The question I have, however, is – how many of us actually do that? How many of us have made the confession of our sins a regular part of our private prayer life? What’s more, how many of us confess our sins specifically instead of generically. For many, the confession of their sins, even to their Heavenly Father, consists of saying: “forgive my sins” – often times without any conscious awareness as to what those sins may be.
(d) When Joshua confronted Achan, saying: 19“… tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me” – Achan replied: 20“… Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel (i.e. by breaking the ban God had put on all the spoil of Jericho), AND THIS IS WHAT I DID: (whereupon he got very specific about his sins, saying) 21when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight … I coveted them and took them …” (c.f. Joshua 7:19-21).
In the Book of Leviticus we’re told that: “it shall be when (a person) becomes guilty in one of these (i.e. one of the prohibitions God had laid out for His people to follow), that HE SHALL CONFESS THAT IN WHICH HE HAS SINNED” (c.f. Leviticus 5:5) – in other words, the person was to “confess” the SPECIFIC sins by which they had “sinned” again the Lord. None of this generic confession, which is often a sign that a person is completely unaware of what their specific sins are (or doesn’t really care about what their specific sins may be – or is unwilling to confess their specific sins, even to the Lord).
The Book of Proverbs says: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (c.f. Proverbs 28:13). If we want God to be “compassionate” to us, then it’s important we be specific when it comes to the confession of our sins. What’s more, how can we “forsake” our sins if we have no clear idea what they are? (To put it another way, generic confession never leads to the forsaking of specific sins!)
When David told Nathan the prophet: “I have sinned against the Lord” (c.f. II Samuel 12:13), there can be little doubt he had at least two very specific sins in mind – adultery and murder.
In Daniel’s great prayer of confession in the ninth chapter of his book, the prophet didn’t just pray: “we have sinned” (c.f. Daniel 9:5, 8, 11, 15) – he also prayed more specifically, saying (in part): 5“(we have) rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name …” (c.f. Daniel 9:5-6).
(e) The point is this – whether we are confessing our sins privately to the Lord, or privately to a brother or sister in Christ (and Scripture advocates both) – we need to be as specific as possible. Because until we are, we will not really have dealt with our sins in a way that’s beneficial to our spiritual growth and maturity in Christ.
(f) A question still lingers, however – namely, why is it so important for us to “confess our sins to one another” (c.f. James 5:16)? Why isn’t confessing them to our Heavenly Father enough? First I would say that it’s not a matter of doing one or the other – but of doing both (c.f. Matthew 23:23c). Nor is James suggesting we substitute “confessing our sins to one another” (c.f. James 5:16) for confessing our sins to our Heavenly Father. We should ALWAYS confess ALL our sins to our Heavenly Father – but SOMETIMES we should also confess SOME of our sins to one another. The question is, why is that last part necessary?
(g) Although we’re jumping ahead a little, James says (in our text) that the combination of mutually “confessing our sins to another and praying for one another” will result in our being “healed” (c.f. James 5:16).
The Greek word translated “healed” (“iaomai”) is frequently used in the New Testament to describe physical healing (c.f. Matthew 8:8; John 4:47; etc.) – however, not always. For example, it’s also used to symbolize the withholding of God’s forgiveness of Israel’s sins (c.f. Matthew 13:15; John 12:40) – it’s used metaphorically in the Book of Hebrews to describe spiritual restoration (c.f. Hebrews 12:12-13) – and Peter used it to describe the healing from sin Christ purchased for believers by His death on the cross (c.f. I Peter 2:24).
Here in this morning’s text, James used it to refer to God’s forgiveness of our sins when we “confess them to one another and pray for one another” – thereby making the repentant Christian spiritually whole once again.”5 We may not fully understand how or why this combination of confession and prayer works – just like we don’t always understand how or why a certain combination of medicines or medical treatment works. But, what we do know is that this is what the Great Physician (c.f. Luke 5:31) has prescribed – hence, we would be wise to do what He says.
(h) Perhaps we can be a little more specific in answering the question of why it’s so important to mutually “confess our sins to one another” (c.f. James 5:16) – but we will have to go outside the Book of James to do so. For one thing, mutual confession helps us take our sins seriously. As long as I keep my sins to myself, I can either pretend they don’t exist – or, that they aren’t all that harmful. But when they are exposed to a brother or sister in Christ, I begin to see them in their true light (c.f. II Samuel 12:1-13) – the very act of revealing my sins to another Christian, drives home to my own heart just how serious they really are (after all, if my sins were as harmless as I often think, why am I so afraid to tell someone else about them?) God takes our sins seriously – and so should we. And the practice of mutually confessing of our sins to one another helps us do just that.
(i) At the same time, however, the mutual confession of our sins also helps us experience God’s cleansing and forgiveness. Sometimes we may feel as though we’ve blown it with our Heavenly Father – that our sins have finally exceeded His patience and forgiveness. But when a brother or sister in Christ knows what our sins are, and helps us see the seriousness of those sins without condemning us – when they remind us that we need to continually repent and turn away from those sins, while also continuing to love us even when we repeatedly stumble and fall – when they confront us every time they see we have grown lax or indifferent about our sins, in part, by reminding us God’s grace can never be used as an excuse to go on living in sin – (when they do things like these) they are exemplifying (in a small way) the love and forgiveness we have in Christ as His elect covenant people, which in turn helps us experience our Savior’s forgiveness in a visible and tangible way.
(j) We need to add in passing that since this is a mutual ministry, confessing our sins to one another also gives us a reciprocal opportunity to ministry to our brothers and sisters in Christ – in part, by helping them take their sins seriously, while also reminding them of God’s cleansing and forgiveness.
(3) Obviously much more could be said about the benefits of confessing our sins to one another – but we need to move on to the second command in our text, which says: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another …” (c.f. James 5:16). As we noted earlier, in verses fourteen and fifteen James talked about “THE ELDERS of the church” praying for those who are spiritually “sick” (c.f. James 5:14-15) – now here in verse sixteen he exhorts ALL CHRISTIANS to “pray for one another” (c.f. James 5:16).
(a) While there are numerous exhortations to pray scattered throughout Scripture, as well as examples of actual prayers, I will confine myself to those found in the New Testament. What’s more – as I pointed out in an earlier message – a majority of these exhortations and examples are for things other than physical healing or physical needs (the content of the Lord’s Prayer being a good example – c.f. Matthew 6:9-13).
Jesus told His disciples: “pray that you may not enter into temptation” (c.f. Luke 22:40) – Paul prayed that the Christians living in Corinth would “be made complete” (i.e. in Christ) (c.f. II Corinthians 13:9) – that the Philippian Christians would abound more and more “in real knowledge and discernment” (c.f. Philippians 1:9) – and that the Colossian Christians might “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (c.f. Colossians 1:9).
Elsewhere, Paul asked the Ephesian Christians to pray for him, that he might “make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (c.f. Ephesians 6:19) – he asked the Colossians Christians to pray that “God (would open up … a door for the word, so that (he might) speak forth the mystery of Christ (as clearly as possible)” (c.f. Colossians 4:3-4) – and he asked the Christians living in Rome to pray that he might “be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that (his) service for Jerusalem (might) prove acceptable to the saints” (c.f. Romans 15:30-31).
(b) As far as the present context here in James chapter five is concerned, we Christians should be praying for one another’s spiritual health – specifically that any sins we have committed would be confessed – that those sins would be forgiven – and that we would be “healed” or “restored” to spiritual health and vitality (c.f. James 5:15-16).
The question is, how often do we do that? We pray for each other’s physical health – and that’s fine. We pray for each other’s physical safety when traveling – and that’s fine, too. We pray for houses to be sold, jobs to be found, and our children to be born healthy – we pray for the outcome of presidential elections, the safety of our troops in Iraq, and the numerical growth of our church – we pray for rain, and for successful surgeries – and all of that is okay.
The point is, we should also be praying for one another’s spiritual health – we should be praying just as often and just as fervently for each other’s spiritual vitality. We should pray just as earnestly for each other’s sins – praying that each of us would confess our sins – that each of us would repent of those sins – and that each of us would experience Christ’s cleansing and forgiveness.
(c) John MacArthur writes that “maintaining open, sharing, and praying relationships with other Christians will help keep believers from bottoming out in their spiritual lives. Such relationships help give the spiritual strength that provides victory over sin. And they also provide godly pressure to confess and forsake sins before they become overwhelming to the point of total spiritual defeat.”1
We may find it frightening to think about entering into the kind of relationship with another believer where we openly confess our sins to one another, and regularly pray for each at such a deep spiritual level. But James says this ministry of mutual confession and prayer will help restore and maintain our own spiritual health, as well as that of our brother or sister in Christ – and surely that makes the risk worth it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1MacArthur: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary;
James; p. 279.
2Kistemaker: New Testament Commentary; James, Epistles
of John, Peter and Jude; p. 178.
3Blanchard: Truth For Life; p. 390.
4Keddie: The Practical Christian; p. 214.
5MacArthur: Ibid; pgs. 279-280.