Often we are asked, “How much publicity ought to be given to the confession of sin? Must every sin, even those known only to God, be confessed before the congregation?” These are questions of the most vital concern and pertinent to every congregation at one time or another.
The Scriptures clearly teach that every known sin, of what ever nature, must be confessed to God in order to enjoy his approval and pardon. Any sin, every sin, all sin, unrepented of, establishes a barrier between the individual and his God, thus rendering fellowship impossible. David declared, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” (Psalm 66:18,) On the other hand, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9.) Thus God graciously forgives and receives to himself every erring child of his who has genuinely repented and has acknowledged his sin. Forgiveness, to those who transgress the law of God is dependent on, and may be obtained only by, confession. If the heart is impenitent, confession will now follow; and, without it, there is no forgiveness.
But, to what extent should sins be confessed to the brethren, and before the congregation? That some such confession is required follows very obviously from the plain unmistakable dictum of James: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.” (James 5:16.) The purpose clause of this passage is significant and revealing. Why are we to confess our faults (sins) one to another? “That ye may be healed,” i.e., be forgiven. There is another implication in the passage involving confession. It is to be done in order that we may be able “to pray one for another.” Why are we to pray one for another? That we may be forgiven. Thus, the act of confession is directly related both to the prayers of the brethren and to the forgiveness of God.
It is impossible, however, to pray for another’s spiritual condition, if we do not know what that condition is, and we can know it only if the person involved chooses to reveal it to us. As a matter of fact, we are forbidden to pray for one who has sinned on any other basis. John wrote, “If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death.” (1 John 5:16, 17.)
It follows from this passage that (1) there is a sin unto death; (2) there is a sin not unto death; (3) we may pray for a brother who sins “not unto death,” but we are forbidden to pray for a brother whose sin is “unto death.” We learn from this that (a) there is a sin the Lord will forgive; (b) there is a sin the Lord will not forgive. For those guilty of the former we may pray; but, we may not pray for those guilty of the latter. James has taught us that we are to confess our sins one to another and pray for one another, and we are promised that if thus we do we shall be forgiven. It seems obvious from these premises that the sin the Lord will forgive is the sin a brother confesses; the sin the Lord will not forgive is the sin a brother will not confess.
This may be demonstrated by a logical process as follows:
(1) the Lord will forgive every sin a brother confesses (James 5:16); but, (2) there is a sin the Lord will not forgive; (3) therefore, the sin the Lord will not forgive is a sin the brother will not confess. There is no forgiveness for an impenitent brother. Further, faithful brethren are instructed not to pray for his forgiveness until he repents. But, they can know of his penitence only by his confession; therefore, they can pray for him only when he acknowledges his sin and demonstrates his contrition of heart. If we do not know of his sin, we have no obligation in the matter; if it is a sin known only to God, third parties are not in any way involved and it should be left between him and his God.
The foregoing makes it clear that our responsibility in such matters involves only those sins which are open and public.
The verbs of James 5:16 are present imperatives, and thus signify, “keep on confessing your sins one to another, and keep on praying for one another….” James 5:16 does not deal primarily with confession to God (though this is implied in verse 15) nor to the elders or preacher (!), but to one another – the brethren generally. Sins known only to God should be confessed only to God; sins known to one or to a few, should be confessed to the one or, as the case may be, to the few; public sins should be and must be confessed before the church. It is a practical rule, clearly grounded in the premises above, that the confession, before the brethren, should be as public as the sin – but not more so.
The deplorable practice, now sometimes being done in religious meetings, of establishing a confessional, in which the purest and best and most faithful members of the church are influenced by emotional appeals to respond to an invitation because of their awareness of weaknesses, imperfections of life and shortcomings, is a travesty of God’s plan, and an abandonment of the teaching in the New Testament regarding the proper procedure of such matters. All such weaknesses (and we all have them), ought to be acknowledged to God in private prayer at home – not in the public assembly. There is no rule of reason or revelation, which requires those who are living as best they can to submit to high-pressure appeals of preachers (desirous of reporting many “responses” in their efforts) and to confess that they are mindful of their frailties (such awareness must ever be with us so long as we are in this life); all such weaknesses (none of which results from deliberate wrong-doing) are provided for by “walking in the light,” and by the continuous cleansing of the blood of Christ “from all sin.”
(1 John 1:7-9.)
James 5:16 may not properly be cited to support this hurtful and absurd practice; if it teaches that one is to confess to the preacher who makes the appeal, it teaches as clearly that the preacher must immediately confess his sins to the confessee! Sins contemplated in this passage or those of the confessors and the confessees: Confess your sins “one to another,” is the edict of James. He who truly repents will be desirous for all who knew of his lapse into sin to be informed of his penitence, but he will shrink from any effort to publicize weaknesses which would not otherwise be known and whose circulation can only reflect further on the cause he has already shamed.
–Guy N. Woods