Daily Devotions
Confess Your Sins to One Another
Reading for October 16th: Mark 4-5
Weekly reading for October 11-17: James 1-5
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
James 5:16
I consider this to be one of the most neglected commands in the Bible. Why do we not obey this verse?
1. We think it can only be done one way. James doesn't limit this to public assemblies at the end of sermons or short Wednesday night talks. He doesn't say you must come down to the front pew and tell everything you've done in specific detail to the whole church. (Honestly, I doubt that's what James had in mind at all.)
2. We are afraid of being "exposed." I put "exposed" in quotation marks, because God already knows, and it's his approval we should be most concerned about. Why are we afraid? Maybe we have a bigger problem. Perhaps we need to confess our pride to God and then get over ourselves so we can get serious about overcoming sin.
3. We lack authentic relationships. This may be the biggest problem. To confess our sins to someone demands a high level of trust and confidence in someone. It requires that we move beyond superficial chit chat. A church family should be a place where deep, meaningful, heart to heart relationships are encouraged and developed. Unfortunately, too many of us treat church as just a place to go and socialize a few hours a week. We're content with surface level relationships, when we ought to be so focused on going to heaven (and helping others get there) that we're willing to have uncomfortable and unpleasant conversations about those areas where we're struggling.
Perhaps this is one reason why this command was given. Not only does it help us to overcome sin, but it moves us into closer, authentic "one another" relationships. Maybe it's time you called on a friend and opened up to them about what's really going on in your life.
Father, help us to be open and honest with each other so that we can help each other in our struggle with sin.
