By Rod Benson
In the New Testament, the Letter of James instructs Christians to confess their sins to each other. This presents a moral and social challenge to most Christians. The text presents mutual confession as a normative practice of Christian communities whose members share responsibility for one another’s spiritual welfare: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” (Jas 5:16).
The exhortation follows James’s instructions concerning prayer for the sick and precedes his appeal to restore those who have wandered from the truth (5:13–20). Confession belongs to a wider pattern of pastoral care. The promise of divine forgiveness in 1 John 1:9 complements this emphasis on mutual care. Christians confess their sins before God and may also speak of them to a trusted fellow believer who can pray with them and recall God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ.
Confession and Christian formation
Speaking honestly about a particular wrong may encourage humility by making it harder to minimise what we have done or evade responsibility for its effects. A trusted listener can help us discern patterns of behaviour, pray with greater understanding and support concrete changes over time. In this sense, accountability gives practical form to repentance.
James’s association of confession with healing also leaves room for the relief that may come when a burdened conscience receives an assurance of forgiveness. Because James places this practice alongside prayer for the sick, the language of healing encompasses more than emotional relief. The passage’s appeal to prayer gives the church, or more specifically the congregation, a responsibility to accompany people in their suffering and to resist the impulse to explain their illness by attributing it to personal wrongdoing.
Where people feel obliged to present themselves as spiritually secure, failures and doubts can become sources of isolation. Mutual confession may allow people to receive care in the very circumstances in which they fear rejection. Reciprocity is a blessing. The repeated phrase “one another” places both confession and prayer within relationships in which each person may have occasion to receive care as well as offer it. Those who hear another’s confession participate in this practice through attentive listening, discretion and prayer. Their response reminds the person who confesses that God’s love and mercy remains available amid vulnerability and moral failure.
Pastoral protocols for mutual confession
Embarrassment, fear of judgement and previous breaches of trust can make disclosure difficult. In mutual confession, as James describes it, believers acknowledge wrongdoing to one another and respond with prayer and support. In corporate confession during worship, the congregation acknowledges sin together before God, commonly through a shared prayer. In traditions that practise sacramental confession, a person confesses in the presence of a priest and receives absolution in a rite of reconciliation.
For people prone to persistent self-criticism, a more immediate question may be whether what they feel guilty about calls for repentance. A wise listener can help distinguish responsibility for a specific act or omission from a pervasive sense of unworthiness. Feelings of shame can persist even where a person has done nothing wrong, particularly when they have been harmed by someone else. Pastoral care should attend to the circumstances of the person who speaks and allow them to decide when, with whom and in what setting to speak.
Congregations may encourage mutual confession by teaching its biblical basis and providing opportunities for it within relationships where trust has had time to develop. For many people, the most appropriate setting will be a conversation with a trusted friend, pastor or spiritual mentor. Small groups may also provide such a setting when participants understand that disclosure is voluntary and agree to treat what they hear with discretion.
Leaders can model appropriate openness about their own failures and show how to respond to others with patience and care. They should explain the limits of confidentiality before inviting disclosure, including any applicable safeguarding and reporting obligations. Where abuse or a risk of harm comes to light, protecting and supporting those affected takes priority.
A careful response to confession includes prayer, assurance of God’s forgiveness and, where appropriate, discussion of what repentance requires. If someone acknowledges having spoken cruelly to a colleague, for example, a listener might help them consider an apology, a change in behaviour and a later conversation about how they have followed through.
More serious harm requires particular care. The safety and wishes of those affected should guide decisions about contact, and any steps towards reconciliation require their free participation. Those who have caused harm remain responsible for addressing its consequences, regardless of whether reconciliation is possible.
Mutual confession can deepen Christian fellowship when it is practised with discretion and joined to prayer, assurance and accountability. It gives the church a way of accompanying people as they acknowledge wrongs, receive the promise of forgiveness in Christ and undertake the work of repentance. For those accustomed to concealing their failures or interpreting them as evidence of their worthlessness, the experience of being heard with care can make the church’s proclamation of grace more credible.
If a particular moral issue is weighing on you, consider speaking with a trusted fellow Christian who can pray with you and help you take a first step towards making amends. If someone confides in you, listen patiently and remind them of God’s forgiveness in Christ. As we learn to offer and receive such care, we can help one another face our failures with greater hope.
Rev Dr Rod Benson lives in Sydney and writes about a range of topics from books and local history to food, faith, philosophy, ethics, research skills, and everyday life. Away from the keyboard, he enjoys cooking for friends, walking in the Australian bush, exploring a beach, discovering new restaurants, and reading philosophy, fiction and poetry. He is married to Emma and is minister of North Rocks Community Church, a Uniting Church congregation.
Image source: TGC
