(exomologeo, – acknowledge or (by implication, of assent) agree fully: — confess, profess, promise)
James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
*A Scottish Proverbs says, “Ane open confessione is good for the soul.”
We practically eliminated this concept from the way we live out our Christian faith.
Catholics practice confession under the sacrament of penance. With that come images of beautiful, private confessional booths where one can talk to a Catholic priest. Catholics believe their priest has the authority to forgive sins. Check. Got it.
However, James tells us to confess our sins to one another. Have we abandoned this practice because we think this is only for the “professionals”? Or have we decided that this one was too weird or uncomfortable to put into practice.
Have you ever done this…confessed to a friend?
I have (believe me, not often though). I found it to be terrifying, emotional and bonding all at the same time!
A while ago while leading a men’s retreat I was speaking on King David’s life. As a small group exercise I asked the guys to pair up and confess a personal sin that really bothered them; something they felt like they could never talk about. Yeah, I know – sounds crazy!
For a couple of minutes we all just stared at each other in silence. It was VERY awkward. But then the dam broke. And men were confessing, crying, laughing and telling stories for over an hour.
It was truly amazing. Of course things were shared in complete and total confidence and trust. Though they were never talked about again there was an understanding – a knowing. Like we were saying, “I’m human, you are human. We fail. We sin. We have confessed it and now we get on with life!!!”
Call me old fashioned, but I would only do this in groups of men or women. Not in a combined male and female group setting. There’s no way I would have men confessing to women (unless it’s just a general men’s choral singing “we’re sorry”) or vice versa. 🙂
Is it hard to practice? Extremely. Who knows, someday we may get better at it.
What can I say? It’s in the Bible. It’s a command. It’s on the list. Are you up for the challenge?
Father, I can barely bring myself to confess and bring up my sin in private with just You listening. This would be a huge step of maturity and faith to talk about my sin with a close friend – even in confidence. Please help me in this – it’s not only good for my soul, its an obedient step to trust.
*[c 1641 in E. Beveridge D. Fergusson’s Scottish Proverbs (1924) no. 159]
And wrapping up the entire 23 week blog… next week is appropriately – Pray!