Appropriate Confession Is Good For Us
Confession should be a regular part of our lives. To confess is to say the same thing as God on a particular matter. Hence, to confess our sins to Him, we need to experience the mind of Christ which the Lord has given us by His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:16). Through the mind of Christ, we know what God is saying about our behavior and can agree with Him as to whether it was Spirit-directed behavior which expressed the mind of Christ, or whether it missed the mark of what God wanted and was, therefore, sin. Since we all sin in many ways (James 3:2), confession must be ongoing (1 John 1:9, Wuest). It is not that we go in and out of a state of righteousness depending on if we have confessed every sin. Rather, believers are freed from all condemnation (Romans 8:1) and declared to be fully righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). A Christian’s status as righteous doesn’t change. Confession, though, cleanses us so we may more fully enjoy fellowship with the Lord.
Just as mandated, however, is confessing our sins, weaknesses, and faults to fellow believers. The verb tense in James 5:16 clearly indicates that confessing to other believers is a practice that is commanded of us. This doesn’t mean we must share everything with all believers. However, we must confess all to at least someone mature in the community of faith that we may be healed.
Too often, we are either too lax or too scrupulous in confessing to the Lord. The result is either distant fellowship (Isaiah 59:2) or religiousness and limited ability to just enjoy the Lord. Likewise, we are often too embarrassed to confess to other believers. We pick and choose what will be shared and largely hide what has and is really going on with us. Consequently, we remain unhealed and less effective in His kingdom. If we would be close to the Lord and better healed for greater intimacy with Him and service to others, we must obey His command to practice the confession of sins, weaknesses, and every area of our life which needs healing.
When God wants a couple or family to alter course, the revelation is normally clear.