Held Accountable

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16 NLT)

I grew up in a denomination that encouraged weekly 'confession' in a confessional with specific 'penance' being assigned based upon the thing confessed. I don't believe that is what this passage, though. The term 'confess' carries the meaning 'to agree with' or 'to admit'. When one confesses their sin, they are really saying they agree with God's perspective on their actions or behaviors. In other words, we admit we haven't lived according to his standards. We do this simply by acknowledging our wrong behavior with a penitent heart and a willingness to change. 

Sometimes our battle with a particular sin is kind of ongoing. We struggle to break free from the wrong behavior. For example, if you have been a gossip all your life, relishing all the juicy tidbits about others you can garner, then freely sharing those 'secret insights' with others, it can be hard to break that tendency to 'be in the know' about everyone's life. It has become habitual and it may be hard to break free. When we are told to confess our sins to each other, it is because we need the help of others praying for us who are spiritually mature, being positive examples to us in their maturity, and helping us find our way into a new way of behaving.

We just don't randomly confess our sins - we find trusted individuals who are spiritually mature and we seek their guidance, prayer, and scriptural support. Too many times, we try to hide our sinfulness - we call that 'secret sin' cover-up. As long as nobody knows, we think all will be well. Meanwhile, we continue to struggle with the sin, falling into it time and time again. All the while we could have had the support of others to help us break free, but we were too fearful to admit we needed help. A spiritually mature believer can help us - they aren't our deliverer, nor are they our conscience. They are intercessors, wise counselors, and accountability partners!

Jesus is the only one to actually 'absolve' us of our sin (setting us free from blame and guilt but allowing us to take responsibility for our actions). No 'priest' or 'human' can do that for us. The 'human' portion of confession is twofold: 1) We finally are honest about our sin and our need for help; and 2) We align ourselves with others who can actually help us navigate away from sinful patterns and into new patterns that will help us live free from that sin's pull. We confess to Jesus, but when we acknowledge our sin to others, we are making ourselves quite 'vulnerable', aren't we? Yet, that vulnerability is exactly what we may need to finally and completely walk free. Confession involves accountability, doesn't it? Perhaps that is why we don't do it more often! Just sayin!