"Confess your sins (Greek: "hamartia") to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16)."
"Hamartia" is the standard term for sinning against God, not just against your fellow believer. The primary focus is on physical healing, but the context makes it clear that spiritual healing and divine forgiveness are also under consideration (see 5:15, 20). No mention is made of interpersonal reconciliation in 5:16 and James does not have in mind the specific situation of going to the believer you have wronged and confessing your error. The context implies the role of "the elders" in hearing this confession. "Elders" is a general term for church leaders who are the later called priests. So Catholics are justified in asking parishioners to confess their sins to their priest. The possibility of confessing to an ordinary layman is not precluded, but common sense makes it obvious that the confession needs to be heard by a mature Christian who has spiritual discernment and can be relied on to keep the confession confidential. In Catholic churches priests are of course the natural candidates for this role.
God's Word wants the process of confession to be interpersonal and the result of careful soul-searching. So James would not consider the often glib and hasty private evangelical confession of sin directly to God adequate. Of course, Catholics don't say that evangelicals are damned for ignoring James' instruction. But they are right to ask why evangelicals ignore the Word of God in this matter.
Of course, Catholic confession is accompanied by priestly absolution, another biblically sound practice ignored by evangelicals. So the biblical basis for Catholic absolution will be addressed in my next post.
"Hamartia" is the standard term for sinning against God, not just against your fellow believer. The primary focus is on physical healing, but the context makes it clear that spiritual healing and divine forgiveness are also under consideration (see 5:15, 20). No mention is made of interpersonal reconciliation in 5:16 and James does not have in mind the specific situation of going to the believer you have wronged and confessing your error. The context implies the role of "the elders" in hearing this confession. "Elders" is a general term for church leaders who are the later called priests. So Catholics are justified in asking parishioners to confess their sins to their priest. The possibility of confessing to an ordinary layman is not precluded, but common sense makes it obvious that the confession needs to be heard by a mature Christian who has spiritual discernment and can be relied on to keep the confession confidential. In Catholic churches priests are of course the natural candidates for this role.
God's Word wants the process of confession to be interpersonal and the result of careful soul-searching. So James would not consider the often glib and hasty private evangelical confession of sin directly to God adequate. Of course, Catholics don't say that evangelicals are damned for ignoring James' instruction. But they are right to ask why evangelicals ignore the Word of God in this matter.
Of course, Catholic confession is accompanied by priestly absolution, another biblically sound practice ignored by evangelicals. So the biblical basis for Catholic absolution will be addressed in my next post.
