James 5:16

This is one of many verses in the Bible where I wish the author had written a lot more! In fact, I would have been perfectly happy if James had written a book to explain exactly what he meant when he suggested Christians should confess their sins to each other. I wonder how he expected this to be done, and which sins he had in mind. I assume that he didn’t expect services of worship

to be the context within which these confessions would take place. But was he thinking about a small group, or a meeting between just two people? We just don’t know.

In the early days of Methodism, John Wesley devised a number of accountability questions which would help people to grow in holiness. People would meet together in groups of three to five of the same gender (known as bands), and ask each person the following four questions: What known sins have you committed since our last meeting? What temptations have you met with? How were you delivered? What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?

I don’t know if any groups meet in this way today, but they seem great questions to ask in a loving and trusting group.

Whatever was precisely in James’ mind, it is clear he assumed a close relationship between members of the church. There’s no way it would be possible to reveal our sins to other Christians if we only met them for a service once a week. The assumption has to be that there was a deep, trusting relationship - and that’s probably the main challenge that we need to take away from this verse.

How can we grow such strong relationships in our churches, so that it is possible to have open and vulnerable conversations about our sins and failures? This may only be possible in smaller groups, and they would need to be ones in which there is a very high level of love, confidence and trust. This is a great challenge - but the outcome is healing, says James, and surely we all want that.

QUESTION

In what context could people confess their sins in your church? Is this something that should be encouraged and, if so, how?

PRAYER

Loving God, thank you that it is always possible to confess my sins to you. Help me to be more open about my sins and failures to my Christian friends. Amen