“Confess your sins to each other” (James 5:16)
The Bible is clear that we should confess our moral and spiritual failures, but the subject of confession can be confusing even for long-time Christians. Does the Bible teach that it is a public or a private thing? Should we confess all or just some of our faults to others? Do we need a priest or minister in order to confess? Understanding what the Bible teaches on this topic can help us answer these and other questions we may have on the subject.
There are actually a number of different words in the Bible that are translated “confess” or “confession” in English. In the Old Testament the most important word translated “confess” is the Hebrew word yada which can mean “to praise / give glory,” or “to confess an offence.” When Joshua tells the thief Achan “give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me” (Joshua 7:19), he is using the word yada and we can see both senses of the word – to give praise or glory, and to confess – in this verse. When we confess our sins, we are acknowledging God is right and we are wrong, so we are praising or giving glory to God in addition to admitting our own faults.
In the New Testament there are also several words translated “confess,” but the most important is homologeō which is a compound word meaning “to say the same.” Just like yada in the Old Testament, this Greek word can be used in the sense of praising God (acknowledging that God is God and that he is right) or confessing that we are sinful (acknowledging that God is right in his judgment).
This dual meaning of the biblical words translated confess is the reason why Bible verses seem to use the word in two very different ways – positively, to confess our faith, and negatively, to confess our faults. Thus, when the apostle Paul wrote “And every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11) and when Matthew tells us regarding the people who went to John the Baptist “Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River” (Matthew 3:60), they are using the same Greek word – homologeō.
But how exactly should we go about the kind of confession that involves admitting our faults and sins? Some biblical verses seem to speak of private confession to God (for example, David’s psalm of repentance, Psalm 51), while others speak of public confession (for example, Acts 19:18-19 which tells us “Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly.”
A good way to understand the way in which confession should be accomplished is found in the statement that our confession should usually be as wide as our sin. This means that if we have sinned secretly, in most cases we should confess the sin to God and we need not confess it to others (more on this later). However, if we have sinned against another person, we should usually confess the sin to God and to the individual we have wronged. Finally, if we have sinned in a way that affects many people, we should confess it to God and sometimes also in public.
Notice that in explaining this principle of confession we have used the words “usually” and “sometimes.” This is because there is no hard and fast rule given in the Bible or even that we can make ourselves. We may need to act differently according to different circumstances. For example, in the case of a secret, personal sin we might wish to ask our pastor or a trusted Christian friend to pray for us in dealing with the sin we are fighting. This is the principle of accountability which can be very helpful in some cases, but it is a principle that should always be applied with wisdom and care – we should never simply “unload” our sins and faults on another person simply because they are a Christian.
When we realize that circumstances affect how confession to others is managed (in every circumstance we should confess our sins to God, of course), we can better understand the apostle James’ words with which we began this short article. In context, James tells us: “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). Here, we see that James is talking about confession to elders of the church (vs. 14) regarding sins that may have brought sickness upon us or prevented our healing (vss. 14-15). So this is not speaking of confession in all circumstances. Second, notice that James speaks of confessing our sins to “one another,” which indicates that in some circumstances confession should be mutual. Certainly, the New Testament shows us that it is Jesus Christ who is our true mediator and the one through whom we are forgiven (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”– 1 John 1:9), so our attitude is never one of looking to others for forgiveness, but simply for help in fulfilling the responsibility of repentance and growth that we all share.
In summary, the Bible teaching on the matter of confession is not one in which there is one rule for every circumstance. We should always confess our faults to God, but we should use wisdom, care, and discretion in deciding how widely the confession of certain sins should be made to others.
