Confessing Some of Your Sins to Another

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dga

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When we look at James 5:16, we see that we are commanded by God, to confess our sins, to one another.

Now, there are some Christians, who claim, that it means we should confess any of our sins, to other Christians. But does it mean, we must confess every sin we have committed, to other Christians?

What I believe that it means, is that we must confess our sins to one another, when we sin, against each other, and that is confined, only about us sinning or doing something wrong, to another Christian, or another Christian, doing something wrong, against us. That is what it means. Why?

Because, fist of all, we are accountable for all our sins, to God alone, not to other Christians. God is our Judge, and God is the one who will forgive all our sins, if we repent. We do not nee, and are not commanded or called in the Bible, to confess all our sins to another Christian. Why should we?

At the end of the day, many or our sins are nothing to do with them, but are to do with other people or things in our life, for which they do not have any idea at all, most of the time anyway. Why should we confess all or any of our sins to another Christian? We are not accountable to them for our sins, fist of all, but to God.

Jesus said in the Gospels, that if our brother sins against us, then we can go and show him his fault, and if he repents, we must forgive him. Do you see that? Jesus was talking about another Christian sinning against us, doing something wrong to us. That is the type of sins we are supposed to confess to one another, and not all and every sin!

All other sins, which we have done, and which have nothing to do with the brother who has sinned against us, are to be confessed to God, in order of us, to receive forgiveness. So, we do not need to confess all our sins, to another person, but only if we have done something wrong to that person, that is the sin we need to confess, and ask them for their forgiveness.

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Wrangler

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But does it mean, we must confess every sin we have committed, to other Christians?

Interesting question. My answer is no. I believe the point is to strengthen Christian fellowship. A modern day application is AA.

Sure, the alcoholics may commit other sins but the sin they have in common is the one they struggle with and will greatly benefit by sharing their struggles with it.