“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so
that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and
effective” - James 5:16 (NIV).
One of our core values here at
Covenant Presbyterian Church is Gospel Community. That means
we are committed to living out the teachings of Scripture in an
authentic community marked by sacrifice, honesty, and forgiveness. We want to be a place where it is safe to
talk about our struggles and know that we will be loved rather than shamed, we
will be prayed for rather than talked about, and cared for rather than shunned:
A community where we “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other
so that you can live together whole and healed.”[1]
Regarding
this verse, well-known Welsh minster Matthew Henry’s (1662-1714) comments, “Christians
are directed to confess their faults one to another, and so to join in their
prayers with and for one another... the confession here required is that of
Christians to one another, and not, as the papists would have it, to a priest.
Where persons have injured one another, acts of injustice must be confessed to
those against whom they have been committed. Where persons have tempted one
another to sin or have consented in the same evil actions, there they ought
mutually to blame themselves and excite each other to repentance. Where crimes
are of a public nature, and have done any public mischief, there they ought to
be more publicly confessed, so as may best reach to all who are concerned. And
sometimes it may be well to confess our faults to some prudent minister or
praying friend, that he may help us to plead with God for mercy and pardon. But
then we are not to think that James puts us upon telling everything that we are
conscious is amiss in ourselves or in one another; but so far as confession is
necessary to our reconciliation with such as are at variance with us, or for
gaining information in any point of conscience and making our own spirits quiet
and easy, so far we should be ready to confess our faults. And sometimes also
it may be of good use to Christians to disclose their peculiar weaknesses and
infirmities to one another, where there are great intimacies and friendships,
and where they may help each other by their prayers to obtain pardon of their
sins and power against them. Those who make confession of their faults one to
another should thereupon pray with and for one another.”[2]
What God is
asking us to do in in this verse is not easy to do at first, but being
vulnerable enough to confess our sins to one another not only lifts the burdens
of a heavy heart but provides the opportunity for another to remind you of God’s
grace and bring encouragement and hope through prayer. Will you make Gospel Community a value in
your personal life? Though it may feel
risky the reward is great.
[1]
Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message:
the Bible in contemporary language (Jas 5:16). Colorado Springs,
CO: NavPress.
[2]
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew
Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume
(p. 2420). Peabody: Hendrickson.
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