When I chose this topic as the final installment of our study on the ‘one another’ verses, it was chosen as last only by virtue of where it fell in the New Testament.
The first one, “Building Up One Another” was from Romans 14, and each sermon after that has come in order of the epistles themselves; therefore, “Confessing To One Another” comes last simply because the verse of study is in James.
Something that was not a factor in my decision as to when to address this topic, and something I really did not give any conscious thought to until I began to prepare the sermon, is that it is the most difficult one of all to obey...AND...the most telling about the condition of a church.
Be honest now; doesn’t just the phrase, “...confess your sins to one another...” sort of make your insides yell “Whoa, hoss”? I mean, isn’t confessing our sins to each other usually sort of like the Roadrunner telling Wile E. Coyote that his leg hurts and he can’t run?
We feel as though if we go to a brother or sister to confess sin, within a week not only is everyone in the church going to know it; but they’re also going to hear a much juicier story than we originally told.
It shouldn’t be that way, of course
So much could be said on this subject, that in order to stay on track and not ramble I feel I should make this sermon more structured than most of my other sermons.
So I’m going to address it in two parts; each with three points.
Part I will be: WHAT KEEPS US FROM CONFESSING TO ONE ANOTHER?
and
Part II will be: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CONFESS TO ONE ANOTHER?
As I said, the answers to each of these questions will be three-fold.
First then, WHAT KEEPS US FROM CONFESSING TO ONE ANOTHER?
1. Pride
This is really the first and most difficult of our problems, you know. Pride is the very foundation of all sin.
The thing that got Lucifer expelled from Heaven, and the thing that introduced sin into the world through Adam, was pride. To amplify; it is the decision to usurp God’s authority over the life and become one’s own god.
All of our sin, all of our disobedience, all of our unbelief can be traced back finally to this attitude; “I can do it myself; I don’t need God, and there’s nothing God can do about it.”
Of course, none of us would ever say out loud, “There’s nothing God can do about it”. As Christians we kind of cringe a little at the very thought of anyone saying that, don’t we?
It is by our actions (or sometimes lack of action) that we say that. When we know what is right to do but do not do it; when we know something is wrong in God’s eyes but we do it; we are in essence saying, “I don’t believe God’s word when it says there are consequences to pay for this sin. I can do this, and the bad part won’t happen to me”.
In other words, “There’s nothing God can do about it”. That is evil unbelief.
That is pride that seeks to usurp God’s authority over the life.
Pride is especially dangerous for Christians, because once we realize that we’re saved; especially us Baptists, with our strong emphasis on eternal security; we start thinking we’re better than the people ‘in the world’. We’ve got it all together, huh?
So pride will hardly allow us to admit sin or failure to ourselves, much less go to another Christian.
If I come to you and say, “I want to talk to you about a problem I have...a strong urge that I find difficult to fight and it keeps leading to sin”, what is happening is that I’m placing you above myself.
I am basically saying, “I see you as a spiritually mature believer who is stronger than I, at least in this particular area, and I need your help”.
Pride kicks and brays and balks at the idea of humbling ourselves so hard, that we many times will come right to the brink of confession, then back off to avoid the very thing that would set us on the road to healing; humility.
2. Fear
Fear? Fear of what?
Of rejection. Of lowering someone else’s opinion of you. Fear of their initial response.
I’m reminded of an old joke I saw on a postcard once.
“They told me, ‘Cheer up! Things could be worse!’
So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.”
Fear of what might happen can paralyze us and keep us from doing the very thing that would help us.
But Clark, shouldn’t we fear? That is, shouldn’t we be very cautious about spilling our guts to someone else? We’ve all been burned before, y’know...”
Yes, I do know. I’ve seen it happen and I’ve been the victim, just like you.
Paul isn’t telling us to publish our sins in the church newsletter (although...oh, never mind...). What he is saying is that there should be a strong enough bond of love and unity in the body, that when a person finds themselves caught up in sin, or realizing they have sinned, there is someone in their local assembly with whom they feel comfortable enough to go and talk it out, pray it over, and see it through.
It’s unfortunate that fear of going to brothers or sisters in the body to confess is often well-founded fear, but it is indeed one of the things that hinders us from confessing.
3. Sin
By ‘sin’, I don’t mean the sin nature specifically. I mean sins. The things we do, attitudes we refuse to change, little pet things we cling to as though we’d lose our identity if we stop doing them. Example: I’ve heard people, even some pastors, brag about their “Irish temper”, as though it’s a virtue. “That guy really got my Irish up! I almost grabbed his lapel and threw him out of my office!“ My...how...spiritual... Sins. This one is really at the root of it all. The biggest reason we don’t go to each other and confess our sins to one another and receive help and healing...
(are you ready?)
...is because we like it.
“Like what, Clark?”
THE SIN!!!
The very thought of going and confessing a sin to a brother is far, far from our mind, because to even come to the place of thinking about doing that, we must first have come to a place of wanting to turn from it!
Do you know that when a Christian sins he does it on purpose and because he likes it?
That’s right. Paul made very clear in the sixth chapter of Romans, that as believers in Christ we have died to sin (verse 2) and that sin is no longer our master (verses 5,6,14). Read the whole chapter sometime soon. If sin is no longer your master that means it no longer has a legal hold on you. You are freed from its power by virtue of your death and resurrection into newness of life in Christ.
Therefore, believer, when you sin, you don’t fall in, you don’t get tricked in, or pulled in, or pushed in...you do what the old songs says; “Walk right in,...sit right down...”
Who, in that state of mind, is going to confess to a brother? Nobody.
We must walk in a spirit of humility and repentance, searching out the exhortations toward holy living found throughout the New Testament epistles, and strive to walk by them. Then, when we recognize sin in our lives, we will be willing and even desirous, of going to a trusted brother or sister for help.
Can’t we just go to Jesus in prayer? Can’t we just confess our sins to Him and receive His forgiveness and go on?
Yes. But if the Holy Spirit inspired James to admonish us to confess our sins to one another, there must have been a reason. So let’s go to our second main point:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CONFESS TO ONE ANOTHER?
Here is where we really get into the portion of scripture that we’ve drawn our text verse from today.
The immediate answer to that question is found right there in James 5:16. It is healing.
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed...”
Now, he’s just been talking in verses 14 and 15 about physical healing. So does he also mean in verse 16, that if I confess my sins to a brother and he prays for me, I’ll be healed of my physical ailments?
Truthfully; I can’t be dogmatic about that either way. The Greek word that is translated “healed” in verse 16 can be rendered as both, physical healing and/or spiritual healing.
I offer this to you, and I hope it helps. I do believe that God heals physically. I believe that sometimes He does it instantly. I have seen it happen before my own eyes, and I have seen someone healed while I was holding his hand and praying with him. So I know that God does still heal today. I will not argue that point with anyone.
But I also know that we do not obligate God with some ‘name it, claim it’ doctrine. We do not have magic mouths. We do not extract something from God that His omniscience and wisdom deny us for our own good.
Therefore, I cannot agree that He would make a blanket statement in scripture, that if we confess our sin to a brother and he prays for us, we will automatically be healed of some physical infirmity.
Common sense tells me that there have been countless times in the history of the church where someone has gone to a brother or sister in sincere, godly repentance, and confessed a sin to them, and been prayed for, and they’ve not necessarily been healed at that moment of some ailment.
So the conclusion I have to draw is, that God may very well heal a physical ailment instantly or even gradually following this particular step of obedience to His Word; but not necessarily. However; any time brothers and sisters in Christ go to each other to confess sin and ask for prayer, there is a kind of healing that does always take place; and it is of a spiritual kind. Let’s talk about that.
1. Healing in ourselves (and with God)
In Isaiah 53:5 we read; “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”
This is the kind of healing being talked about in James 5:16. Because of the sufferings and the death and resurrection of Christ, we are healed spiritually. Our transgressions are removed from us, we are given new life, and our relationship with God is made brand new and significant and permanent.
Another way it heals us personally to go to a brother and confess, is that it lifts that load from us. That godly brother takes that load in obedience to Galatians 6:1,2 (which we studied earlier), and prays for us; and we receive healing.
I would only warn here, that the confession needs to be both sincere and complete.
There’s a story about a man who wrote the following letter to the IRS:
Gentlemen;
Enclosed you will find a check for $150.00. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping I will send you the rest. Sincerely, a tax payer.
We can’t fool God, and we usually don’t fool our brethren either. So let’s not fool ourselves. If you’re going to go to a brother or sister in Christ to confess and solicit their prayers, don’t insult them with deception.
That would have just the opposite effect from healing.
Next:
2. Healing in our relationships with each other
Do you know who is the most likely person to go to when you want to confess sin?
It is the person your sin has hurt the most.
That can be the most difficult thing you’ve ever had to do. If you’ve read this study from the beginning, you remember the story about Corrie Ten Boom and the ex-concentration camp guard.
We can easily see that it must have taken monumental effort for her to reach out her hand and shake the hand of the one who had so mistreated her and her beloved sister Betsie.
But think of this. What if that guard did recognize her? What if, in the middle of her address, he had suddenly recognized her face as one of those he had beaten and spit on and insulted during the war? What if he suddenly remembered a particular expression of terror or horror or disgust that he had seen on that face, and realized that he had to walk that isle, hold out his hand, and ask forgiveness?
What godly courage that would take! But whether he did remember her or not; what wonderful healing that moment brought!
Is there anyone in your life; any brother or sister in your church, or that you otherwise know as a Christian, that needs the healing that only your confession can bring?
Please don’t hold back their healing. Go to them in repentance and humility and love and ask for their forgiveness and for their prayer, and be healed.
3. Healing in the church
True, Spirit-led confession, even when done in private and the utmost secrecy, brings healing to an entire body of believers.
Remember that Christ’s body is spiritual, not physical. Therefore most of the ‘ailments’ of a church are of a spiritual nature; they then manifest themselves in the physical.
That’s why, when we see backbiting and division and unrest in a church; when we can sense a dark cloud of oppression hanging over a congregation, we have to realize that these things are not the problem. They are only the symptoms.
They are symptoms of a spiritual illness in the body. The organism.
Therefore, even if I am not aware of a rift between two believers in my church; even if I have not witnessed any signs of strife between them; even if the sin in question took part outside and away from the church building and I know nothing of it; it effects me, nonetheless. It effects the whole body of believers, just like infection in a little toe affects every part of the human body.
So, when healing comes between those two members, a certain spiritual healing takes place in the entire body.
Now use your imagination for a moment and consider this. If in a congregation of one hundred or more people, there are little pockets all over of strife between individuals, or factions...groups that are opposed to one another and fighting...and everyone is taking a stand on his or her own pride, and therefore little sins are being committed against one another on almost a daily basis in this church; then in a spiritual sense you have an organism, a body, full of bruises and abrasions a lesions and puss-filled open wounds...and it is suffering greatly...and if allowed to go untreated it will eventually die.
We must be accountable to each other, Christians. We must practice a Christ-like love for one another, looking for opportunities to walk in obedience to these ‘one another’ verses we’ve studied over these past weeks, to such a degree that we will actually learn to trust each other, and sense a family relationship to one another that will allow us to feel comfortable going to one another and saying, “Brother/Sister, I need your listening ear, and I covet your prayers” ...and be healed.
None of us is above this need. Someone wrote:
“It often helps in time of trial,
When fearful and alone,
To know that every doubt we feel
The greatest saints have known.”
The one thing we must not forget is the prayer part. Confession must be made for the purpose of prayer, because confession does not heal, and sympathy does not heal, and forgiveness from brother to brother does not heal, without the balm of prayer. Prayer is to Jesus, and Jesus is the healer.
But what a healer! Is the church suffering badly? Is it crippled and bleeding and in agony over its many wounds? Is it slowly dying?
Well just remember that in the Gospels we read of a Jesus who with a touch, and sometimes a mere word, cleansed the leper, lifted the lame, gave sight to the blind and raised the dead.
This is why it is so vitally important that we’re accountable to one another, Christians, because we belong to the Great Physician, and one of His prescriptions for healing in His church, is confession and accountability to one another, for the purpose of prayer.
The reason I said at the beginning of this sermon that obedience to this particular exhortation is very telling about the overall condition of a church, is because this kind of mutual accountability happens in a loving, spiritually mature church. If confession to one another is present it is because believers in the body feel confident of 1. God’s grace, and 2. their brethren’s love and acceptance.
It is because the other ‘one another’ verses of our study are being lived out.
Building up one another, Admonishing one another, Bearing one another’s burdens, Subjecting to one another, Forgiving one another, Encouraging one another.
When that kind of love exists in a church, confessing and being accountable to one another is not a problem. There are no insides yelling “Whoa, hoss!” There is confidence and peace. There is a sense of family. There is a witness to all who stand outside and look in, that this is a body of believers who live and relate to one another according what Christ has done for them.
They move forward as the body of Christ, in unity, working together to further the Kingdom of God, with this as their creed;
LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US.
