Description
It’s all to easy to take James 5:16 out of context. What does he really mean?
James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins t… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
A good way to approach meditation is to say, "What do I notice about this passage?" So let’s meditate on James 5:16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
What do we notice about this passage? Does it say, as some claim, that everybody will be healed immediately, provided they’ve confessed their sins? No, I don’t think it says that.
It does say, though, that we should confess our sins to one another. And I don’t think we’re generally very good at doing that. In the Western Church, personal one to one confession is not something I see a lot of. Why is it important?
Jesus is in the process of revealing truth, revealing what is hidden. Our hidden sins are not good for us and exposing them to the air, to the sun is very effective in killing off those sins. But it’s scary, isn’t it? Nevertheless, James is saying, that’s what we should be doing. So that in itself is challenging.
And then he says, pray for one another. So he’s not saying, pray for yourself that you will be healed. He’s saying pray for other people so that they will be healed. It is outward focused to pray for your brother or sister to be healed.
And then note that the prayer for righteous person has great power as it is working. Not all prayers are going to be answered in the way we want them to, but we are righteous people.
Do you believe that? The blood of Christ makes us righteous, whether we feel it or not, whether we’ve sinned this morning a thousand times or not. And this prayer has great power as it works.
Thank you, God, for guiding us and challenging us, and thank you for answering our prayers for healing and for salvation. We love you. Amen.
