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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : Confessing Your Sins to Each Other

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 Confessing Your Sins to Each Other

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

I remember being in the presbyterian Church and the pastor stated at the end of the service as a footnote that there is an obscure reference to elders anointing with oil in the Bible so he said after that service that would happen in a back room of the church for those interested. We read in this passage from the book of James chapter 5 a reference to if anyone is sick as believers that they should "Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord" (James 5:14). The next verse implies sin can cause sickness and lastly that those sins can be forgiven by the laying of the hands of elders praying for healing. So we read in the verse we highlighted the command now is to "confess your sins" to each other and pray for each other. So it seems quite plain and clear that if there is a sickness and sin that is grave it should be prayed over by the Overseers of the Church. If it is a lesser sort of sin we should cater to the practice of confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other in the body of Christ.

When I was visiting south africa many years ago, the highlight of my trip was visiting a mission where revival occurred in the 1970's. Thousands of Zulu people came to the Lord and there was still a tangible sense of the Lord's working on the mission where hundreds lived together. I learn that a practice they still kept was that each brother and sister would have another person who they would confess their sins to and pray for each other on a daily basis. I concluded this would not be all sins but it was a way to practice this teaching of the Bible. The results were that God has such a strong sense of His Spirit working on that property amongst those people. Of course we are to confess our sins to the Lord ourself, yet we should not also forsake this command to at times confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. From the early Church, to 4th century monastic orders, to the 16th century Wesley Class meetings, this practice has been done. Many modern believers I speak to hardly practice this Scripture, may the Lord bring it back to many meetings of his people so we can see a greater purity in the Church.


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2015/4/21 22:23Profile
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 Re: Confessing Your Sins to Each Other

Quote:
sermonindex wrote:
So it seems quite plain and clear that if there is a sickness and sin that is grave it should be prayed over by the Overseers of the Church.


My pastor from years ago looked at this verse as not so grave, he said because sin can make us sick that, "If you've committed a sin, you can also call for the elders to pray the prayer of faith over you and it will be forgiven."

Kind of sneaky way to have your sin forgiven but nevertheless the Word says it works!!

God bless,
Lisa


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Lisa

 2015/4/22 8:31Profile
Sree
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 Re: Confessing Your Sins to Each Other

Forgiveness cannot be earned by confessing our sins to other Church members. Forgiveness comes only by confessing to Jesus and repenting from the sin.

Now this is how I see this word, we can confess our sins to an elder brother or sister. But my confession is at a different level to fellow believers than to God, with God all the inner motives are plain. But before men, we need diligence in what we confess. The man who hears can easily become judgmental. Why should we tempt him by our confessions? Hence diligence is needed and absolute honesty is not required.

Whenever I see any sin bothering me or preventing my spiritual progress, I always run to my wife first and pray with her so that I can overcome. With my wife I find free to discuss my struggles as well. It has always worked.


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Sreeram

 2015/4/22 9:02Profile
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 Re: Confessing Your Sins to Each Other

There is much sickness and disease in the Body of Christ because of sin. In many cases sin has opened the door to the sickness and disease. The axe needs to be laid to the root, and until the root is dealt with the fruit will remain.

God forgives all sin that is confessed to Him. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man, but in some cases God would have us to confess our sins to one another.

There is a wrong confession of sin that is driven by the devil in order to bring accusation and condemnation on the believer.

There have been many cases where a believer has had sickness and disease for many years as a result of unforgiveness. When the person confessed the sin of unforgivenss, forgiving from the heart, and made things right with the person that there was unforgiveness towards, healing would often be manifested.


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Mike

 2015/4/22 9:26Profile
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 Re:

I am still interested to know if saints believe this is a Biblical practice as its clearly stated in James.

James 5:14-16

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 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.


Last night I confessed a sin to a brother on the phone, an area of my life I am seeking victory in, he stated that he would pray for me. I confess this sin to the Lord privately myself but to share it with a brother, brings it more into the light and has another brother interceding for me in that area.

I have seen this principle at work on SermonIndex, though not laying hands by elders with oil, we have seen people confess their sin to another and the other brother or sister prayed for them and there was healing.

Of course this does not negate going to the Lord personally confessing sin but it is Biblical *at times* to confess sins, failings, faults, to other brethren for prayer.


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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2015/4/22 11:47Profile
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 Re:

As you've pointed out brother this is in fact clearly stated in scripture and I can see no reason why it wouldn't apply to us. It seems that the sins being forgiven is presented as "almost" a secondary aspect of this principle being employed. Often if a besetting sin remains in the dark (unconfessed) sickness in some form results. Personally I believe this to be of great service to the body of Christ in that while our relationship is personal it's not necessarily private as we are in fact corporately joined, therefore this act of faith has multiple benefits. Firstly as a diagnostic or audit of the overall health of the body exposing areas of weakness/vulnerability as such providing the specificity of prayer points making the prayer effectual. Hence this practice would necessarily produce a healthy environment where the shame of a besetting sin can be exposed to the healing light of having our brethren share our burden and the comfort that comes from knowing you're not alone in this but are in fact faithfully supported by the body itself which is of course growing all things up into the head which is Christ.

1 John 1:7
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
There seems to be a parallel to these two scriptures as there can be no true intimacy/fellowship without honesty and we're told here that "if" we walk in the light (confessing our sins to one another, not trying to conceal them but allow the Lord His glory in cleansing us) we have fellowship. It seems too often these days that believers are under a yolk of positive appearance and too often this is disingenuous as it masks the transgression rather than exposing it to the light of the Lords love and His work on the cross.


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Fletcher

 2015/4/22 15:29Profile





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