Confess With One Another

Confess With One Another

Throughout scripture, we find the phrase "one another". This is the Bible telling us how Christians ought to behave within their church.

James was the first pastor of the first church. After Jesus was resurrected and ascended, James took responsibility for the increasing group of Jesus' followers.

In the book of James, he tells us what is important to a pastor in building the community of believers. He says:

James 5:16

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another".

Why is confession so important to James? Confession is not what most of us think it is. We picture a person kneeling in front of a priest, listing all of his or her sins and being absolved by the clergy.

But, that is not what confession is really about. To "confess" is, literally, “to speak with". Who are we speaking with? We are speaking with God. We are saying the same thing as God. We are recognizing what God says and we are agreeing with Him and speaking with Him.

By confessing our sins to each other, we are rejecting our sin, bringing it to our brothers and sisters in Christ for prayer and speaking the same thing as God. We are getting on the same page with Him. That’s what confession is all about. It’s not some magical formula for forgiveness. It’s growing together as a church before our Lord.

Do you have someone in your life that you can do this with? James thought it was pretty important for his church.

Acts 19:18

Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.