Confession for a Healthy Community

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 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. 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. 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 5:13-16

James begins and ends his letter on a community note and he is a realist. He knows most people don’t sing when they are in trouble. Although we have seen Apostles and saints who do, instead he tells us to pray in bad times and sing in good times. When we are sick he admonishes us to seek the elders pray for us.

Chuck Swindoll is the most prudent teacher on healing that I have heard. In regards to this verse he points out the anointing with oil was one of the best medical practices of the day and that medical practice should run parallel to praying. The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were written by a physician. Most medications have their root in plant life and all use chemical compounds that are mixed using ingredients that are found in creation. The greatest healing manifestation in our ministry was a woman with brain cancer who was given two weeks to live. She was also HIV positive. Ten years later she is alive and well and doing terrific. The place that we prayed for her was not an altar but a sick bed in the hospital.

James however does not only focus on the physical attributes of sickness but the spiritual. He makes a clear connection between sin and sickness with one very important qualifier, the word “if” in other words not all sickness has a route in sin but some does. The solution is confession. Some churches are criticized for practicing a formal confession. The route of the practice is found in this verse. Two points that I want to make in regards to the practice. One is positive the other negative. First the positive

Confession is difficult, and churches have gossips. The idea of having a structure in which individuals can confess their sins to a trusted shepherd is wise and admirable. However, the idea of a mediator between individuals and God I believe is a dangerous one. “There is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus.” There is no New Testament necessity of an ordained priesthood. It is a best a carryover from Judaism, at worst an incorporation of paganism. All believers are priest. I priest is best understood as someone who intercedes for others to God, as opposed to a prophet who speaks to the people through the man or women of God.

It is important to point out that Matthew 18:18 gives binding and losing powers to elders in the church, but this is in the context of church discipline not individual confession. In fact church discipline is exercised in the absence of confession. The healing that confession releases is spiritual, physical and psychological. The fruit of it is righteous and powerful saints, James uses Elijah as an example, and he says of him, he “was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”

Paul’s example in 1 Corinthians 11 has great import for our discussion. In the context of communion he states that “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.” He then tells us why in verse twenty-nine, “For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep,” The sleep he is speaking about is not a siesta but death. “If we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.” He tells us, another words “confess your faults one to another that you may be healed.”

The Lord is not looking for a reason to make us sick but well. The consequences of un-repented sin are suffering and death. The power of Elijah’s prayer is not isolated to his power as a prayer but is proportional to Israel’s lack of repentance in that generation.

God is looking for powerful prayers in our generation that can bring forth revival in our time. That cannot occur outside the context of personal and corporate confession. Such confession is to be managed subtly and wisely with strong leaders how bind and loose in the context of church discipline. The consequence will be a healthy and holy church that restores its members to wholeness. James concludes his letter and I conclude this blog with the thought that we are saving lives and souls. Verses 19 & 20 read.

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”