James 5:16 KJV
[16] “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
To be right with God, we must confess our sins to Him, but we must also confess our sins to one another. We do not hear a lot of teaching and preaching on that today. We promote testimony services, but what about confession services? If we had more confession services, we would have more testimonial services. I’m not talking about airing out our dirty laundry because there are things that should never be told.
However, let’s not use that as a crutch to say we have nothing to confess publicly. The reason that we do not have these services is that it’s humiliating to the flesh. We live in a society that likes to promote our good deeds, our accomplishments, our successes, and our blessings. The truth is no one has ever had revival or drawn closer to God because of these public announcements. When we humble ourselves, confess our faults, and ask others to forgive us and pray for us, we can see the hand of God moving in our lives.
According to our verse, this man is a humble man, a confessing man, a praying man, and a man of faith. He is a true man of prayer. He keeps a short account with both God and man. He does not play the cover-up or sweep his sin under the rug and act as if it doesn’t exist. When he does wrong, he asks God to forgive him. When he has done wrong to others, he confesses, and asks the church to forgive him. He is not afraid to confess his faults to others. To have the proper balance, we should never tell people what they don’t need to know because this would only serve as a stumbling block to them. Tell them what they already know and what you already know you have done. Be honest with them and yourself before God.